North Dakota · Nonprofit
Great Plains Food Bank
Great Plains Food Bank (North Dakota) receives grants from 102 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,938,946 to it, the largest being Feeding America ($5,043,760). 61 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2025
- $41M
- Funders on record
- 102
- Grants received
- $13M
- Net assets
- $20M
What Great Plains Food Bank does
Mission
End hunger together.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990.
Programs
STATEWIDE FOOD RECOVERY AND DISTRIBUTION: The Great Plains Food Bank (GPFB) is the only food bank serving the state of North Dakota and Clay County, Minn. Our mission is Ending Hunger Together. During FY25, the Great Plains Food Bank provided food for 12.7 million meals to 160,348 people struggling with hunger; 37% were children and 15% were seniors. The GPFB partners with hundreds of FOOD DONORS (grocers, manufacturers, growers, retailers, and community food drive partners) who donate food for a variety of reasons (overproduction, packaging mistakes, nearing a freshness date, or grown to donate). This food makes its way to neighbors living with hunger either through GPFB's DIRECT SERVICE PROGRAMS or diverse network of PARTNER AGENCIES. The GPFB serves 196 partner agencies (food pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, and other charitable feeding programs) operating in 101 communities who are on the front lines providing food to our neighbors in need. Our direct service programs allow the GPFB to fill gaps in service and bring food to people in need through a variety of targeted programs. VOLUNTEERS are the backbone of our operation. Their service enables us to distribute food…
$24,995,950 spentof which $18,800,130 as grants$840,805 earned by the program72% of program spendingUSDA COMMODITY DISTRIBUTION PROGRAMS: The GPFB operates two USDA Commodity Programs for the state of North Dakota. These programs include The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP), and the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP - Senior Food Pack Program). TEFAP provides commodity products (fresh fruits and vegetables, canned fruit, vegetables and juices, dry and shelf-stable milk, cheese, canned meats, peanut butter or dried beans, cereal, rice, or pasta) to qualified emergency feeding programs such as soup kitchens, emergency shelters, and food pantries across the state. In FY25, the Great Plains Food Bank distributed 269,572 meals of TEFAP product to low-income individuals through our partner network of feeding programs.The Great Plains Food Bank Senior Food Pack Program is a commodity-based program that provides nutritionally balanced, shelf-stable food packages to low-income seniors. Seniors aged 60+ with incomes of less than 150 percent of the federal poverty line are eligible for enrollment in the program. The senior food pack program served 47 communities throughout the state of North Dakota.
$7,403,184 spentof which $6,628,142 as grants21% of program spendingCHILD HUNGER PROGRAMS: The GPFB operates a trio of programs aimed at eradicating childhood hunger. These programs include the backpack, youth summer meals and school pantry programs.The Great Plains Food Bank BackPack Program is the cornerstone of the GPFB's suite of programs directly targeting childhood hunger. Each year, more than 33,000 kids qualify for and greatly rely on the free and reduced cost school lunch program. But on the weekends when the school lunch program is not available, many of those children struggle with inadequate food supplies. The backpack program provides a bag full of kid-friendly food to children for the weekend, ensuring children return to school Monday morning healthy and ready to learn. During FY25, the GPFB partnered with 134 schools to provide a total of 137,380 backpacks to 5,596 children. The Great Plains Food Bank School Pantry Program is simply a food pantry located in a school, ensuring families and youth in need of assistance have easy access to food and other necessities. In FY25, the GPFB partnered with 105 schools in 61 communities to provide food for 185,003 meals to students and their families. The Great Plains Food Bank Youth Summer…
$840,619 spent2% of program spendingMOBILE FOOD PANTRY: The GPFB semi-trucks also serve as a food-pantry-on-wheels reaching food insecure individuals living in or near underserved communities. Truckloads of highly nutritious fresh produce along with boxes of shelf-stable food products are brought into communities and are met by volunteers who unload the food directly into client's cars. In FY25, the Great Plains Food Bank Mobile Food Pantry distributed food for 765,274 meals to families across North Dakota and Clay County, Minnesota.
ENDING HUNGER 2.0: In 2016 GPFB took the next bold step in ending hunger with a new initiative called Ending Hunger 2.0 (EH2.0). Focused on addressing the root causes of hunger through new solutions, EH2.0 goes beyond food to look holistically at the issue of hunger. It allows the GPFB to continue our core work of feeding people today through our partner network and direct service programs, while simultaneously working upstream to decrease the need and improve food security. EH2.0 works to bring sustainable, long-term solutions to hunger through advocacy, research, and community-based solutions. In 2017, we launched the Great Plains Food Bank Healthcare Initiative, putting healthy food into clinics. There is a growing trend within the healthcare realm to see food/nutrition as medicine and as treatment for many chronic diseases. In FY25, we worked with 9 healthcare partners at 36 sites and distributed food for 84,263 meals.In 2023, we launched Kitchen Coalition, which provides freshly prepared meals to neighbors. We know that not everyone facing hunger has the home, health, or ability to use the groceries our food bank offers. We work with a network of restaurants and caterers who…
SNAP Outreach: In partnership with the state of North Dakota, the GPFB offers outreach to individuals who may be eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps. The GPFB employs 1 full-time SNAP Manager and 2 full-time SNAP Outreach Coordinators who screen individuals for benefits and offer application assistance. In FY25, 773 SNAP applications were submitted which is attributed to 369,385 meals.
$1,474,072 spent$50,514 earned by the program4% of program spending
The 6 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $34,713,825.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2020 to 2021, from $11M to $16M (+45%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 12% · 2018 8% · 2019 17% · 2020 25% · 2021 43% · 2022 21% · 2023 18% · 2024 27% · 2025 26%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
97% of Great Plains Food Bank’s revenue is contributions — more donation-reliant than the typical peer (96% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Chief executive
Melissa Sobolik
CEO
Board chair
Jasper Schneider
Chair
As listed on its FY2025 Form 990.
The chief executive listed changed between the FY2021 and FY2022 filings.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 16 funders to 45 funders, grant income rose $321k → $1.9M.
23 of 102 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 23% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of Great Plains Food Bank’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 102 funders by total. Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
Great Plains Food Bank has a broad base — no single funder exceeds 39% of grant income, and it takes 3 funders to reach half.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 3 funders to its left
75% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund Great Plains Food Bank.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 28% · 2018 30% · 2019 28% · 2020 14% · 2021 46% · 2022 55% · 2023 49% — growing more concentrated.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
57% of Great Plains Food Bank's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 60% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
Great Plains Food Bank draws 77% of its grant income from funders outside North Dakota, across 20 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $2.9M arriving through sponsors registered in 15 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
Great Plains Food Bank runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 201 food & nutrition nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 201 food & nutrition nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2025
Organizations like Great Plains Food Bank
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In North Dakota
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
95% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
86%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for Great Plains Food Bank: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds Great Plains Food Bank?
- Great Plains Food Bank (North Dakota) receives grants from 102 organizations whose IRS filings report $12,938,946 to it, the largest being Feeding America ($5,043,760). 61 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does Great Plains Food Bank have?
- IRS filings report 102 organizations giving $12,938,946 in grants to Great Plains Food Bank, 61 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of Great Plains Food Bank?
- Feeding America is the largest funder on record, with $5,043,760 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like Great Plains Food Bank find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in North Dakota. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 102 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing