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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The future of a grocery store on wheels is in danger.
The Eat Well Sioux Falls Mobile Market makes stops in the city five days a week. The stops include a senior living community and schools.
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But now the nonprofit operating the pilot project is trying to figure out what’s next after the news about a federal grant.
The Eat Well Sioux Falls Mobile Market is grappling with a tough question right now.
“Right now we’re in that phase of ‘What the heck are we going to do?'” Sioux Falls Thrive President Michelle Erpenbach said.
Last year, Sioux Falls Thrive was awarded a USDA Business Builder Grant for $50,000. The money would be used to pay one salary of the mobile market’s two-person staff.
“It was coming in three payments, and we have used the first payment which was $20,000,” Erpenbach said.
Recently, Erpenbach got some unexpected news from an organization that assists with the USDA grant, alerting Thrive of a funding freeze.
“I got an email from a contractor is Minnesota saying don’t spend anymore money,” Erpenbach said.
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The news puts the mobile market in a tricky situation.
“This project is in danger,” Erpenbach said.
The mobile market opened in 2023. The goal was to make food more accessible and affordable.
Erpenbach says today about 60 percent of the shoppers are returning customers.
“People are really figuring out that this is something that works for them,” Erpenbach said.
Sioux Falls Thrive took on the mobile market as a pilot project with the hopes the grocery store would change hands someday.
“The greatest ending to this story would be someone to raise their hand and say, ‘You know what? We’ll support this and make it happen.’ We’ve been working toward that for three years on this project that it would go on to either be its own nonprofit or supported by another nonprofit. So far that hasn’t happened,’ Erpenbach said.
In a recent Facebook post, Fruit of the Coop in Brandon announced its USDA Business Builder grant had been frozen.
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