Food Rescue 605 - Sioux Falls Thrive

In the United States, it is estimated that 30-40% of the food supply goes to waste.
At the same time, 47.4 million people are estimated to live in food-insecure households, including 7.2 million children.
In Sioux Falls, as many as 17% of children in Minnehaha County are food insecure.

How Can We Connect People with Food?

Sioux Falls Thrive’s Community Food Security Network, a collaborative group of people and organizations passionate about combatting food insecurity, is working together to develop Food Rescue 605. This system will link food producers, distributors, processors, and consumers in order to salvage food that would otherwise to go waste, and make sure it gets to the members of our community who need it most.

Food Rescue 605: A Community Working Together

Food Rescue 605 started as a pilot project of Sioux Falls Thrive’s Community Food Security Network. The idea was to rescue unused produce from neighborhood gardens to process into healthy food items. In the fall of 2024, a team of volunteers and chefs collected more than 200 pounds of vegetables from donors and created salsa, marinara sauce, vegetable soup, and ratatouille. The salsa was donated to local food pantries, while the soup, marinara, and ratatouille were given away in the Eat Well Sioux Falls Mobile Market with the purchase of an accompanying low-cost food item. After this successful pilot, more partners were invited, including Bread Break and St. Francis House, to broaden the scope of the project, which has evolved to become Food Rescue 605, an initiative that the group plans to grow to involve more chefs, more volunteers, and even more rescued food.

Are You Interested in Food Rescue?

Food Rescue 605 is looking for people, businesses, and organizations in the Sioux Falls area who are passionate about rescuing food and fighting food insecurity in their community. There are a variety of ways to contribute, including organizing events, rescuing and delivering food, maintaining gardens, donating produce, processing gleaned produce, offering your business/organization’s commercial kitchen as a collection/production site, and donating money or needed items. Learn more about the ways you can contribute and then sign up below to indicate your interest.

Ways You Can Help

Click on the items below to learn more about some of the ways you can help rescue food and fight food insecurity in Sioux Falls.

Organize events

Food Rescue 605 will be hosting two Production Days: one on Aug. 13, and one in September. Prior to and on these days, we will need help with contacting produce donors, organizing pickups of donated produce, arranging meals for participants, purchasing needed spices, and more.

Help rescue food

On Production Days, we will need volunteers to pick up donations of produce and bring them to the production sites (to be determined at a later date). To prepare for Production Days, please sign up on Bread Break’s volunteer site here. (Be sure to put in the comment section that you’d like to pick up donated produce for Food Rescue 605).

Maintain gardens

More information will be coming on how you can help with maintaining gardens. We will contact you when these details are worked out.

Donate produce

If you would like to donate produce for an upcoming Production Day, let us know what types of produce you think you will be able to donate, and quantities. Guesstimates are fine.

If you have produce that is available before the scheduled production dates, these are some of the organizations that will welcome your donations:

Large donations: Bread Break
Large and small donations: St. Francis House, Union Gospel Mission, Bishop Dudley Hospitality House, Active Generations, The Banquet.
Your local church or favorite service organization may also be accepting produce donations. Please contact them separately.

Process gleaned produce in the fall

On our Production Days, we will need volunteers to sort, wash, chop, bake, cook, and can or bag the donated produce.

Offer your business/organization's commercial kitchen as a collection/production site

Please let us know what site you are offering for use. Note: Kitchen must meet food service guidelines and have passed a current city health department inspection.

Sponsor a Row/Production Day/Garden Champion

If you would like to donate to Food Rescue 605, please visit Thrive’sdonation page and type “Food Rescue 605” in the “In honor of” field. If you would like to donate via a check, please make payable to Sioux Falls Thrive and mail to: Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation, 200 N. Cherapa Place, Sioux Falls, SD 57103. Please write Food Rescue 605 on the memo line.