Food Giveaway to be Held in Milbank on Wednesday, July 10 

The third of five food giveaways for 2024, sponsored by the Grant County Christian Service Council and Feeding South Dakota, will be held on Wednesday, July 10, from 4-5 p.m. in the Living Word Church parking lot on the north end of Milbank on Hwy. 15.

The event will be similar to the one held last month. Former guests, but new to this year’s giveaways, will notice several changes. The changes are because Feeding South Dakota now receives a large percentage of their food from The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP). TEFAP is a federal program designed to supplement the diets of low-income Americans by providing free emergency food assistance. The products and funds to operate the program are provided by the USDA.

Because of the involvement of the federal government, specific requirements and rules that must be followed:  

1. Unlike the giveaways in the past, federal commodity rules require Feeding South Dakota to serve only South Dakota residents, so recipients at the Milbank distribution can only be residents of South Dakota. 
   
2. Recipients must now meet federal income guidelines. These guidelines will be posted at the event, in this article, and at the Milbank ICAP Office.  Households will not be asked to verify their income but will self-report and indicate whether they meet the income eligibility guidelines.  At registration, households receiving food will be required to provide their name, number in the household, address, and signature of the family member receiving the food.  If you attended the Milbank giveaway last month, you will already be on the TEFAP List and need only to verify the information is correct. Guests, who didn’t attend a giveaway in May or June, will be asked to fill out a small form to verify family information.
    
3.  Because participants must now meet federal income guidelines, it changes the way guests can pick up food for another family.  As in the past, you may pick up food for ONE other family, however with the new regulations, this family must also be residing in South Dakota, and must also meet the federal income guidelines. 
4. If you wish to pick up food for a second family, the second family must fill out the TEFAP Proxy form. Even if you are picking up food for the same family you picked up for last month, you need to have a complete proxy form filled out for them again this time. The proxy form is essentially “their ticket” to receive food.

The forms will be available before the giveaway at the Milbank ICAP office or they can also be printed from the Feeding South Dakota website at: https://www.feedingsouthdakota.org/general-uploads/TEFAP-Proxy-Effective-7-1-2023-through-6-30-2024.pdf

As in the past, because of the event’s proximity to Highway 15, coordinators are asking that recipients arrive no earlier than 2:30 p.m. as volunteers will not be available to park vehicles until then. Brenda Maas, coordinator of the event, says. “No one wants to create traffic hazards on the highway. Please do not park in the church parking lot until volunteers arrive at 2:30 p.m. to give parking instructions.” If you pick up food for your family, you will enter the lot as directed and wait there for traffic flow directions.

Simply open your trunk or the back liftgate of your vehicle once it is in line, and volunteers will place the boxes inside.  Please have a space ready for the food so the traffic flow will not be disrupted. The church will be open during the giveaway. so restrooms will be available!

Would you like to volunteer for next month’s event? Need more information about receiving food? Feel free to text Brenda Maass, program coordinator, at 605.880.7176. Email her at brendajmaass@gmail.com.