EDUCATION

A 40-pound block of cheese changed how a nonprofit fights hunger in South Dakota

Shelly Conlon
Argus Leader
Feeding South Dakota spokeswoman Jennifer Stensaas shows parts of a 40-pound block of cheese from Valley Queen Cheese individually wrapped for distribution on March 28, 2019.

In South Dakota, 1 in 9 people is considered food insecure. 

In Sioux Falls, nearly half of those served by Feeding South Dakota are children and infants. 

But a 40-pound block of cheese from Valley Queen Cheese in Milbank, and a new endeavor to package bulk produce by the state's largest nonprofit focused on ending hunger could soon start shifting those numbers, Feeding South Dakota officials said. 

By June, the nonprofit will have its first cleanroom, thanks to a $25,000 grant from Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and $12,500 matched by Wells Fargo and a few other entities, spokeswoman Jennifer Stensaas said. 

The cleanroom will give the organization a way to streamline how it individually packages inexpensive bulk foods, both dry and frozen without the risk or fear of cross-contamination, Stensaas said. 

Beforehand, bringing in bulk items wasn't really an option, she said. It wasn't in the budget, and nonprofit officials didn't know enough about having such a room to put one in sooner, she said.

"You have to be able to sanitize and do proper disinfecting procedures in between products," Seansaas said. "We just didn't have that ability."

How a cleanroom changes the operation

But the nonprofit was still trying to find better, more efficient and safe ways to get more food to more people, she said. 

"The biggest thing we talk about is there (are) lots of other products out there we currently can't have because we can't serve it in bulk loads," Stensaas said. 

Feeding South Dakota partnered with Valley Queen Cheese five years ago after the nonprofit discovered how much in funding it could save and how many people it could help if the company donated its excess cheese, said Joan Behr, Valley Queen Cheese's corporate communications director.

The company committed to donating 8,000 to 10,000 pounds a year, Behr said. 

A worker paints the walls of Feeding South Dakota's new cleanroom on March 28, 2019. The room will allow the nonprofit to buy and repackage bulk products for individual consumption without the fear of cross-contamination.

"It’s really a great source of lots of nutrients, calcium and protein and contributes to the health and well-being to people who probably can’t afford or who don’t have access to good quality food," Behr said. 

Yet, Feeding South Dakota had no way to have the 40-pound blocks of cheese cut and repackaged into family size portions on its own property, and had to outsource to the Meat Lodge in Sioux Falls. 

Without the cleanroom, the nonprofit pays $1.59 per pound to a third-party business to have it repackaged. If the group processed 1,000 blocks of cheese onsite in its cleanroom, it could save $63,600, Stensaas said. 

"It’s a definite change in operation, and it allows them to save some dollars," Behr said.

Feeding South Dakota can now magnify its effort

Still, the need for repackaging bulk items is possibly greater than ever, Stensaas said. 

In the last year, Feeding South Dakota saw a 7 percent increase in the number of people using its food pantries in Rapid City and Sioux Falls, which serves 112,000 between the two locations, according to the grant application for the cleanroom. 

The cleanroom will allow Feeding South Dakota to magnify its efforts by allowing the nonprofit to shift its focus more toward gathering monetary donations, Stensaas said. More monetary donations would allow the nonprofit to focus more on buying in bulk rather than struggling to fill shelves, Stensaas said. 

Contractors work on measuring the walls of Feeding South Dakota's new cleanroom on March 28, 2019. The room will allow the nonprofit to buy and repackage bulk products for individual consumption without the fear of cross-contamination.

"Take cereal. Cereal is probably one of our most needed items," Stensaas said. "We're constantly saying if you're doing a food drive, we'd love for you to do cereal. But if we could get bulk cereal at low cost, we could always have a supply instead of waiting for it to come in."

Buying in bulk will also give Feeding South Dakota the chance to have more of a direct effect on the three food deserts —  the Hayward area, the Froehlich Addition and Norton Tracks neighborhoods, and the Empire Mall area — in Sioux Falls and elsewhere through various distribution methods, she said. 

"We have so many opportunities to reach more people with more food," Stensaas said. "This is another type of food to buy. We constantly try to educate the public that you can give us a box of Cheerios, but I can take your dollar and bring in this many times more."

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