South Dakota: Local Impact

Hunger Statistics in South Dakota:

Hunger affects communities across South Dakota, touching people of all ages, backgrounds, and zip codes. 

According to this latest data, 12.4% of South Dakotans—about one in eight people—experienced food insecurity, while 18.3% of children lacked reliable access to enough food. (Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap 2025, based on 2023 estimates.)

That child food insecurity rate represents an estimated 46,040 South Dakota kids (18.3% of the 2023 child population)—enough to fill the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls (12,000 seats) nearly four times.

About 113,750 people across South Dakota face hunger. This challenge exists in every county, affecting urban, suburban, and rural communities alike.

Partner Stories

Feeding South Dakota

Through our grant to Feeding South Dakota, we are helping ensure that children across the state have reliable access to nutritious food beyond the school day. For many kids, weekends are a time of uncertainty, when school meals—their primary source of nutrition—are no longer available. By supporting the BackPack Program, our funding helps provide children with healthy food to take home, easing the burden on families and allowing kids to return to school nourished, healthy, and ready to learn.

This investment supports the full backbone of the program—from purchasing nutritious food and assembling BackPacks to sustaining the volunteers who make weekly distribution possible. With one in six children in South Dakota facing food insecurity, this grant helps close a critical gap, ensuring children don’t have to worry about hunger during time away from school and giving them the resources they need to thrive.