Simplified: Sioux Falls first and only mobile grocery store set out to make healthy, affordable food accessible to people living in food deserts – and it worked. But as of Tuesday, the market is closed because of a lack of financial support, something local experts say is indicative of how economic uncertainty is impacting nonprofits.
Why it matters
- Sioux Falls Thrive launched the Eat Well Mobile Market in 2023 with the help of a grant from the city to find a way to make food more accessible to people in food deserts, i.e. neighborhoods that don't have a grocery store within walking distance.
- Since then, the market served more than 1,100 people, and 80% of customers said the Mobile Market helped their family eat healthier. But, the biggest challenge, Sioux Falls Thrive President Michelle Erpenbach said, was funding the market operations – including diesel fuel and staff.
- The Mobile Market is far from the only nonprofit facing challenges and financial uncertainty. Sioux Falls Simplified last month reported that local nonprofits are facing shortfalls of more than $9 million.
"To talk bigger picture, I’m telling people that this is the tip of the spear," Erpenbach said. "These are the first dominoes to go down. This is not going to be the only nonprofit you see close in this community over the next several months."
Tell me more
Sioux Falls is seeing an uptick in nonprofits looking for more financial support amid economic uncertainty, said Patrick Gale, vice president of community investment at the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation.
- Part of the challenge is inflation and just overall costs of operation increasing.
- Another challenge is that donors tend to hold on a little tighter to their assets when there's uncertainty in the market, Gale said.
- Additionally, most nonprofits work within pretty tight margins to start with, which means changes and challenges can be harder to weather.
Gale said he hasn't felt a sense of imminent closure from other local nonprofits, but, "there's reason for concern."
That makes it all the more important to give where you can to causes you care about.
"Think about those things that are important to you in our community," Gale said. "They need you now."
What's next for the Mobile Market?
Whatever happens moving forward, though, the need for some type of outside funding mechanism remains, Erpenbach said.
"If you look at any mobile market running the same sort of business model, they all have some sort of subsidy," she added.
The market has been taken over by its own nonprofit separate from Sioux Falls Thrive, Erpenbach said, and the next steps are to figure out how to transfer assets to that new organization, led by folks who've been supporting the market from day one.
- Then, they're planning to sell the truck and see if they can find a slightly different version of the market that they can get up and running.
"I don't know what it will be, and I don't know when it will be," Erpenbach said of the revised market. "But I know there’s a group of committed people that are taking it from Thrive, and they’re going to try."
