South Dakota
Feeding South Dakota distribution on display in Redfield
REDFIELD, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – The non-profit Feeding South Dakota is a massive social service organization that serves each of the state’s 66 counties once a month.
Weather permitting, every South Dakota county gets a visit. The story, by the numbers, was provided by Stacey Andernacht of the Feeding South Dakota organization.
Stacey said, “In South Dakota, nearly 73,000 people are food insecure, and that means that they are unable to have access to the food that they need to have a nutritious lifestyle. Our mobile food distribution is hosted right now in 119 communities across the state, every single month.”
Funding is a big issue with these social service programs.
Stacey continued, “Feeding South Dakota is funded through private donations, along with some grant and foundation opportunities that we apply for. Other than the food items that we receive through the USDA commodity programs, we don’t receive any funding from the state.”
Thursday was the distribution event for Redfield in Spink County. Penny Ihnen is the Co-director of the Tri-County Food Pantry, and she talked about the impact of the program.
Penny related, “We’ve had people say that they couldn’t make it from month to month if it wasn’t for this mobile food truck that comes. It’s a blessing to them.”
Both Ihnen and Andernacht say that the Feeding South Dakota program wouldn’t exist without the incredible volunteers. Leonard Deibert, one of those volunteers, explained how he got started.
Leonard said, “The wife and I were walking down by the Armory one time when the Feeding South Dakota truck come there and they were helping the people and we walked over and asked them, ‘What’s going on?’ And they explained the program to us and we asked, ‘Well, do you need any help?’ and he said, ‘Sure, we can use help,’ and we’ve been going back and helping them probably three or four years now. We enjoy it, it’s a good program, and the people enjoy it.”
Occasionally, the weather gets in the way of this distribution but, for the most part, every county in South Dakota has one of the 119 stops on the Feeding South Dakota route.
Copyright 2024 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.
South Dakota
Republican businessman Toby Doeden advances to primary runoff in South Dakota governor’s race
Republican businessman Toby Doeden has advanced to a runoff in South Dakota governor’s race, NBC News projects.
Gov. Larry Rhoden, who replaced Kristi Noem last year when President Donald Trump nominated her to lead the Department of Homeland Security, was battling with Rep. Dusty Johnson and former state House Speaker Jon Hansen for a second spot in the July 28 runoff. The primary will go to a runoff because no candidate eclipsed 35% of the vote.
Trump did not issue an endorsement in the race. Doeden branded himself on his campaign website as “a total political outsider who’s tired of the government’s failure to deliver on its promises” and one of Trump’s “fiercest supporters.”
Rhoden, a former lieutenant governor, agriculture secretary and lawmaker, campaigned on property tax cuts and lowering crime in his bid for a four-year term.
Johnson is the state’s lone representative in the House, where he previously was chair of the Republican Main Street Caucus. Hansen, who was elected to the South Dakota House in 2010, held several leadership positions before he became speaker.
The Republican nominee will be the favorite to win the general election in the solidly red state this fall. A Democrat has not served as governor in South Dakota since the 1970s, and Trump carried the state by 29 points in 2024.
News
Agronomist: eastern South Dakota crops hit and miss
An agronomist in eastern South Dakota says corn and soybeans are hit and miss as the growing season begins.
Steven Zemlicka with AgTegra Cooperative tells Brownfield, “We’ve got corn anywhere from V1 all the way up to V4. Biggest stuff’s maybe touching V5. Corn’s coming right along, looks pretty good. A little bit of hail here too, but I don’t think it’s going to be much of an issue. Stands for the most part are pretty good, pretty solid.”
Zemlicka says soybean emergence has been slow due to the wet, cool conditions, and there are a few fields that still need planted.
“People were still working on planting soybeans when we got the recent rain.”
He says recent rain totals ranged from a half inch to as much as four inches in the northeast part of South Dakota; the southern part of the state has been drier.
South Dakota’s corn is rated 61 percent good to excellent, with soybean conditions rated 57 percent good to excellent, according to USDA’s first condition ratings of the season.
RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – The South Dakota Community Foundation is encouraging nonprofits to apply for funding this June.
Beth Massa and Ginger Niemann joined us live with what you need to know before applying.
Watch the full interview above.
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Copyright 2026 KOTA. All rights reserved.
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