BISMARCK, ND ( KXNET ) — Food insecurity has become an issue for many lower-income families living in North Dakota, and one local nonprofit organization has made it their mission to help provide meals to those struggling to make ends meet.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a little over 11% of North Dakotans fall below the poverty line, and many of them are faced with the rising costs of putting meals on the table. For the past two and half years, the Dream Center in Bismarck has been serving free meals to hundreds of lower-income people registered in their program to help combat this problem.

Sam Basic, has made Bismarck his home since leaving Bosnia in 1996. Like many North Dakotans, he has personally faced the challenges of paying for rising living costs. Although he has a place to call home, he says he’s seen many who are not as fortunate — and that the Dream Center provides a good service for those who would otherwise not be able to afford the basic necessities in life.

“A lot of people are on the street with no food and no money,” he explains. “They provide very good meals with nutritious and fresh food.”

Each day, the Dream Center’s Banquet Meal Ministry serves free dinners to local lower-income people and people who have no place to call home. They also serve a hot breakfast on weekdays, and provide sack lunches to those who come in and pick one up.

“Food rescue is where we get a lot of our food,” explains the Dream Center’s Executive Director Jim Barnhardt.” Our volunteer truck drivers stop at area grocery stores doing pick-ups in collaboration with the Great Plains Food Bank. We do have other people that drop off donations here.”

Barnhardt says under this program, groceries that would otherwise end up in the dumpster will instead go to people who can’t afford to buy them from the local grocery store.”

“We get a lot of food that is called short-date product,” he continues.
It’s either right at the expiration date or just before. In some cases, it’s surplus food as well.”

In the past year alone, the Dream Center has served over 700,000 meals to people in need — and they are getting close to surpassing last year’s record of meals served. This category includes the free groceries they provide at their Food Pantry for families in need.

“We are going to be distributing over a million pounds of food,” Barnhardt explains, “whether it’s in the form of meals or groceries passed out in 2024.” The biggest program that we’re doing is our Adopt-a-Block Grocery Distribution . In an average evening, we’re running through 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of grocery product.”

Barnhardt adds that volunteers are the backbone of the organization.

“We rely so much on volunteer labor around here,” he states. “We only have the six paid staff, and we have it down to the point where it costs us roughly a dollar to put together a meal.

As the center comes close to serving its millionth meal for the year, Barnhardt says he’s grateful for the outpouring of support from the community that has helped those most in need.

“We owe a huge thank you to the community for their support,” he concludes, “as well as to all those volunteers that are in it.”

Barnhardt concludes by saying that anyone can help volunteer their time at the Dream Center to help serve meals, pick up food, or even donate to their efforts to help those in need.

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