Children, adults face increasingly difficult access to food in Sioux Falls

A report released this week indicates that local children are hungry, and more adults are facing food insecurity, particularly in northwest Sioux Falls.

Tamara Leisinger-Jerke sees the truth of that every day The Banquet West is open at its North Marion Road location.

“Prior to May, we served 100 meals an evening at the west-side location. Now, it’s anywhere from 190 to over 200,” The Banquet executive director said. “The percentage of children we’re serving is much higher. We’re serving working families that are having struggles to pay rent or to put gas in their car or to feed their children.”

Sioux Falls Thrive released a new study Tuesday that said 17 percent of Minnehaha County’s children are food insecure. That means these children have inconsistent access to the food needed for a healthy, active life, as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture.

That number is up from 14 percent in a study conducted in 2018.

The Banquet’s downtown location also is seeing more children, Jerke-Liesinger said. In the past, 20 children came to the downtown location each meal. Now, that number has more than doubled, with 40 to 50 children per meal.

Adults also are facing food insecurity. The Banquet serves 350 to 400 people in total at each meal, the executive director said.

That also fits with the study’s report. Using a 1-mile criterion for low access, the report states “a significant portion of the northwest area of Sioux Falls is a low-income, low-access area, i.e. a ‘food desert.’”

The study placed the number of Sioux Falls residents who live in food deserts at more than 24,500. Nearly all these residents live a mile or more from the nearest supermarket.

The study was conducted by the Augustana Research Institute on behalf of the Sioux Falls Thrive Food Security Action Team. Sioux Falls Thrive is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that all children succeed. Interactive maps can be found here.

To conduct the study this spring, surveyors visited retail food stores. That included supermarkets, grocery stores, dollar stores, convenience stores and gas stations. Data was collected from 151 of the 160 stores identified for the survey. Two stores were closed during posted open hours, and seven others declined to let surveyors do the survey.

Fair Market on 10th Street east of Sycamore Avenue took part in the survey. Founder Kristin Johnson said she has seen a recent increase in customers who have found themselves facing food insecurity for the first time.

“They’re on the edge,” she said. “They have a lot of questions because we’re different than the standard store.”

Fair Market is a salvage grocery that offers deep discounts on shelf-stable groceries. Items change daily and availability is based on what other grocery stores make available. Johnson recently has had difficulty finding items because of issues in supply chain deliveries.

What does make its way to her store’s shelves doesn’t stay long.

“We’re moving product at a speed I couldn’t imagine a year ago,” Johnson said. She opened Fair Market in 2021. “We were in the right place at the right time, and I’m glad we can fill a space needed in Sioux Falls at a time like this.”

Johnson’s customers tell her that a rise in gas prices means they have begun limiting their trips to pick up necessary groceries. The closure of a Hy-Vee store at 10th Street and Kiwanis Avenue and the temporary loss of a grocery store at 18th Street and Cleveland Avenue have made trips to destinations farther away an issue.

“I hear that from people wanting to come here—‘Wow, I hope I make it in before you run out of’ whatever product they need,” Johnson said. “They can only come once a week, and they’re from the west side of town. They’re watching their trips closer, along with being able to own a vehicle.”

The grocery store at 18th and Cleveland plans to reopen later this year and become part of a chain of Mexican grocery stores owned by a Worthington, Minnesota, retailer.

The study’s conclusions said people unfamiliar with the offerings found at ethnic grocery stores may overlook those businesses when shopping.

“Smaller ethnic grocery stores have a variety of food items available, but not always the types commonly found in U.S. supermarkets (e.g., injera instead of sandwich bread),” the study said. “For people seeking these items, they may have to travel to a smaller grocery store that carries those items; for people unfamiliar with these items, they might overlook smaller grocery stores nearby that could provide food.”

Fair Market is continuing its efforts to bring food to people. Along with the Multi-Cultural Center, it will host a pop-up shop from noon to 5:30 p.m. July 20. This is its second pop-up offered. The first one took place in April.

“I will be curious to see if anything has changed,” Johnson said.

Multiple factors led to the decision to conduct a second look at food insecurity, said Michelle Erpenbach, president of Sioux Falls Thrive.

“With everything that is going on in the world right now — the COVID-19 pandemic, armed conflict in Ukraine, bird flu, recalls of infant formula, closing of two grocery retailers in Sioux Falls — it was clear to Thrive’s Food Security Action Team that we needed to look again at the issues of food insecurity right here at home,” she said in the news release announcing the results.

The study showed that people of color are most affected by the food deserts in Sioux Falls. Native Americans in Sioux Falls, like other people of color, are disproportionately represented among food desert residents, the study said. That also is true of the Hispanic/Latino population.

Black residents in Sioux Falls make up a larger share of the population in northern and northeastern neighborhoods. The northeast enjoys abundant access to supermarkets, but northwest neighborhoods with a higher share of Black residents are located within food desert areas.

The study also looked at the availability of food pantries and mobile and stationary meals. The Banquet relies on volunteers to serve breakfast and supper Monday through Friday and lunch Saturday downtown and evening meals weekdays on Marion Road.

Those too sometimes are in short supply, Jerke-Liesinger said.

“Our volunteers have been amazing; there’s never been a situation when we have not been able to pull off a meal,” she said. “But it’s a struggle every summer, and again coming out of pandemic, the number isn’t as strong as we would want it to be. We would like 15 to 20, but we’ve made it work some nights with five.”

The study concluded that shoppers in food deserts do not necessarily pay much higher prices for groceries.

“The price index varied more by store type than food desert area,” the study stated, with the highest index among gas stations, convenience stores and smaller grocery stores.

“Overall, prices in food desert areas were slightly but not markedly higher than in other areas of the city,” the study stated.

A group announced in January that it was looking into forming a nonprofit to open a grocery store in the northwestern food desert. The Rev. Rich Merkouris, senior pastor of Kingdom of Glory Church and, as of May, a city councilor, said then that it would be open to the public, but shoppers who needed help affording the food could receive assistance. At that time, the group was raising the capital to allow it to launch.

Merkouris said Empower Sioux Falls is “working on a project that’s going to make a difference.” He said more information will be released soon. Empower Sioux Falls describes itself on its website as a nonprofit working to bring local Christian churches together “to significantly increase the impact of the Church in bringing hope to those in poverty.”

Johnson would like to see that happen.

“Clearly the northwest corner of Sioux Falls is still a big problem. There’s still a big empty hole there,” she said.