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JODE BEUCHENE

Before the COVID-19 pandemic sent the region and country into a tailspin, Jode and Roger Beuchene were living comfortably. Jode was working part-time running a karaoke business in the Fargo-Moorhead area and Roger was retired after working for more than 30 years in the dining centers at North Dakota State University.

Even after Roger suffered a series of strokes in 2018 that forced Jode to cut back her work to part-time to become Roger’s caregiver, the means were still there to put food on the table and money was in the bank. The couple was happy in their lives.

Then earlier this spring COVID-19 hit the region.

“It kind of tossed us like a salad,” Jode explains.

When Minnesota Governor Tim Walz ordered the shutdown of bars and restaurants throughout the state, Jode lost all income from her karaoke business in Minnesota and her work in North Dakota took a hit as well.

The couple quickly struggled keeping food on the table.

“Pre-COVID we were doing fine. Everything was fine,” Jode said. “I remember the first weekend of COVID I was supposed to work that whole weekend then everything was shut down. Things can change just like that.”

The couple said they have applied twice to receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, but were denied due to the combination of income from Roger’s Social Security benefits and pension being too high.

Jode wishes there would be more assistance available for those in her situation.

“I think the income guidelines need to go up for those that fall through the cracks like we do,” she said. “It’s not only us. It’s a lot of people out there in our situation.”

Without the possibility of assistance from SNAP, the couple needed to find alternatives to meet their nutritional needs and recently attended a Great Plains Food Bank distribution of the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box Program in Fargo where they were able to acquire high-quality fresh produce items.

That food assistance has become crucial to helping the couple during this unprecedented time.

“We have been doing ok,” Jodee said with a sigh. “But with Roger’s health, we are living day-to-day. We don’t know when we will be back to normal.”

About the Great Plains Food Bank
Opening in March of 1983, the Great Plains Food Bank is currently celebrating its 40th year as an organization. Serving as North Dakota’s only food bank, the Great Plains Food Bank partners with nearly 200 food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens and other charitable feeding programs operating in 100 communities across N.D. and Clay County, Minn. Through its array of innovative direct service programs and partner network, the Great Plains Food Bank has distributed more than 200 million meals to children, seniors, and families in need since 1983. The Great Plains Food Bank is a member of Feeding America, the nation’s food bank network, and was named the Not-for-Profit of the Year in 2018 by the Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo Chamber of Commerce.

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Privacy Policy

TERMS & CONDITIONS

Made with ♥ by TEAM ABOVO | Fargo North Dakota

PRIVACY POLICY

This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for Great Plains Food Bank regarding websites located at www.greatplainsfoodbank.org and give.greatplainsfoodbank.org. Great Plains Food Bank reserves the right, at any time and without notice, to change this Privacy Policy simply by posting such changes on our site. Any such change will be effective immediately upon posting. Great Plains Food Bank (“us”, “we”, “our”). Website visitor, guest, and/or donor (“you”, “user”).

Information Collection

  • Personal Information You Choose to Provide In the process of general correspondence, making a gift, or participating in online surveys you may be asked to supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other information. If you correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages, your email address, and our responses. 
  • Website Use Information Similar to most websites, our site may utilize “cookies” and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered may include the date and time of visits, pages viewed, time spent on our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis; none of this information is associated with you as an individual.

How Do We Use Information 

  • That You Provide to Us? We use personal information for purposes of administering our not-for-profit business activities, providing service and support, and making available other information and services to our website visitors, guests, agency partners, advocates, contracted consultants, and approved vendors. We may use the information provided to notify you about important changes to our website, new services, or new information that supports your interest in hunger-relief. 
  • Collected From Cookies? We use cookies and web server logs to gather information about our website users’ browsing activities. This information assists us in designing and continually improving our web pages in the most user-friendly manner. We do not use these technologies to capture any personally identifying information.

Security

  • How Do We Protect Your Information?
    • We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. 
    • Our operations and business practices are periodically reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information. 
    • Our organization values ethical standards, policies and practices and is committed to the protection of user information. Our not-for-profit business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limits the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  • How Do We Secure Information Transmissions? All information transmitted through our website, giving pages, and forms are sent via secure, encrypted server. Other emails you send to us may not be secure; for that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
  • Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties? We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information. We may provide aggregate information about our website visitors or website traffic patterns to our contracted affiliates or third parties; this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy. Personal information such as email and address may be shared with a contracted third party for the use of email dissemination and direct mail marketing; all third party vendors are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
  • Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information? We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.

Permission to Use of Materials 

  • The right to download and store or output the materials on our website is granted for personal use only, and materials may not be reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance, display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic without our express written permission is strictly prohibited. Users wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing on this site may contact us directly.

Your Access to and Control of Information 

  • You may request access to all of your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our donor constituent database, DonorPerfect. 
  • You may request removal from any communication including but not limited to emails, direct mail pieces, text and phone calls.
  • Because we do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information; opting out of such practices is optional and not required.

Contact Great Plains Food Bank/Opt-out

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, need to opt-out of future communications, or wish to exercise any other privacy right you may have by law, please contact us in any of the ways shown below.

Great Plains Food Bank
attn. Development Associate
1720 3rd Ave N
Fargo, ND 58102

Phone: 701-476-9120

Email: info@greatplainsfoodbank.org

All opt-out requests will be honored, but please be patient with us as it may take up to twelve (12) weeks for opt-out changes to be fully implemented. We may also occasionally initiate contact with opt-out supporters in order to update their contact preferences, and we will promptly accommodate their updated preferences, if any.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

DONATION REFUND POLICY

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

AUTOMATED RECURRING DONATION CANCELLATION

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.