There is no better time than the week of Thanksgiving to spotlight how one Midwest nonprofit is working hard to help ensure families in their region have access to food that so many others take for granted.
Today’s Hero: Feeding South Dakota is a Sioux Falls-based organization whose mission is to end the hunger crisis in their state. By utilizing Midco’s broadband service, Feeding South Dakota connects those in need to mobile food centers that operate across the state, with each family receiving approximately 75 pounds of fresh and frozen produce, dairy, meat, breads and other nonperishable food items.
Local Challenges:
- One in nine residents faces food insecurity, including one in six children in South Dakota.
- 13.7% of the state’s population lives below the poverty line.
- The rural nature of South Dakota creates barriers to traditional solutions for addressing food insecurity.
It Takes a Village: To help ensure food security, Feeding South Dakota (a subsidiary of the national group Feeding America) operates a year-round food distribution network in the state. In fact, last year, Feeding South Dakota distributed 14.8 million meals to individuals across the state.
But the organization wouldn’t be able to operate its three food distribution centers, or organize those meals, without the help of Midco’s broadband service.
“The more we talk about broadband access it makes me realize that our mission to end hunger in the state of South Dakota, people truly need broadband access to connect to our services and the services that they are going to need to thrive.” Lori Dykstra, CEO Feeding South Dakota
Smart Solutions to an Age-Old Problem: Given the complicated logistics required to distribute food to rural communities across a large area, Feeding South Dakota relies heavily on Midco’s broadband solutions to manage their inventory and distribution networks.
- Residents go to the Feeding South Dakota website, type in their zip code, and find out where they can get food near them soon.
- At an operational level, Feeding South Dakota gets connected to food through several streams:
- One is via an online marketplace where food distributors can share when excess food is available.
- Another is with help from other Feeding America state partners to trade food (for example, Florida might have six truckloads of oranges, but only can distribute one, so there are five surplus available).
- One is via an online marketplace where food distributors can share when excess food is available.
- Broadband allows the group to be able to facilitate donor relations, volunteer coordination, and other vital operational activities.
- Just like any business, Feeding South Dakota needs to conduct operations virtually, especially given the large area the group covers.
Being A Good Neighbor: With all the pieces in place to make the best use of sparse resources like volunteer time and supplies, broadband helps lift the heavy load to help reduce food insecurity and hunger in a state that faces unique challenges to looking after its own.
Midco’s partnership with Feeding South Dakota is just one example of how cable providers work with community organizations and nonprofits nationwide to solve societal issues and to give a hand to those who need it most.