This story is one of several in Sioux Falls Simplified's annual 'A Little Help' give-back campaign. Our goal is to raise $5,000 to support Bread Break. You can donate here, and, if you wanna support two cool things in one, we're donating a portion of new subscriber revenue as well.

Simplified: Bread Break's mission is simple: help address hunger in Sioux Falls while also keeping food out of the landfill. This year alone, the organization's goal is to rescue 500,000 pounds of food. Here's how they make it happen.

Why it matters

• The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that between 30 and 40% of food in the United States is wasted each year. That's hundreds of billions of dollars wasted, and meanwhile, nationally about 1 in every 8 people faces food insecurity.
• Much of that waste is simply because it's difficult to know what to do with surplus food. Bread Break bridges that gap between the food donors, or "providing partners" and the food distributors, or "receiving partners." It's like food matchmaking, Executive Director Pam Cole said.
• The nonprofit relies on volunteers to drive over 100 different routes each week to bring food from the folks who have too much to the folks who have too little. Bread Break partners with about 50 providing partners and 45 receiving partners.

"This organization serves a unique function of simply saving food that is at great risk of just being thrown away and not doing what food is supposed to do," Cole said. "It’s filling in those blanks and the gaps of what organizations are not able to do."

Tell me more

Bread Break operates with the help of an app called Food Rescue US, which allows volunteers to easily identify available routes and sign up to pick up and deliver food.

• For example, a driver might go to Little Caesar's on a Monday morning to pick up surplus pizza that didn't sell the night before and then deliver it to Midwest Street Medicine to hand out to folks they encounter on their rounds.

The nonprofit works with a number of restaurants – both local and national – as well as grocery stores and farmers markets to help rescue excess food from going into the garbage.

Food is then picked up and transported to one of dozens of receiving partners including Active Generations, St. Francis House, Union Gospel Mission, The Banquet and more.

How far Bread Break has come

Bread Break was originally started in 2011 by Mike and Jean Bauman, who started a group of volunteers at their church.

• It wasn't until a decade later, in 2021, that Bread Break formally became a 501(c)3 federal nonprofit with a board and, a few years later, a full-time executive director.

Since then, Bread Break is growing rapidly. In the last few years, the nonprofit has gone from rescuing 200,000 pounds of food annually to more than 400,000. This year, they're looking to top out around 500,000 pounds of food rescued from the landfill.

The nonprofit also saw a dramatic increase in volunteers – going from about 20 or 30 to having more than 80 volunteers today.

What happens next?

Bread Break recently hired a volunteer and program coordinator – the nonprofit's second full-time employee – to help keep up with the fast-growing organization.

Looking ahead, Bread Break is hoping to invest in a garage space to protect its three delivery vans – and space to add a fourth vehicle.

They're also looking to expand into rescuing food surplus from catered events, which will be possible in part because of a donation of fridge and freezer space.

All of that only happens if they're able to raise the funds needed to accomplish those goals, Cole said.

"We only get to do what we do if those (donated) funds come in," Cole said. "We only get to expand if we go above and beyond that."