Senate Appropriations Government Operations Division opened a hearing on House Bill 1143, with Representative Brandy Pyle and leaders of the Great Plains Food Bank asking the Legislature to provide a one‑time appropriation to match private funds for a new statewide distribution center.

Representative Brandy Pyle told the committee the measure is an infrastructure bill and “an infrastructure investment that will serve as the backbone to every county in our state.” She asked the committee to restore the original $10,000,000 appropriation and offered an amendment to increase the current request back to that amount.

The Great Plains Food Bank’s CEO, Melissa Sobolek, told senators the nonprofit is the state’s only food bank and described rising demand: “Last year, more than 156,000 North Dakotans visited a food pantry or a soup kitchen. That’s 1 in 5 adults and 1 in 3 children.” She said the food bank distributed nearly 16,000,000 pounds of food in 2024 and currently operates a 45,000‑square‑foot warehouse in Fargo that the organization says has reached capacity and faces multiple code and mechanical failures.

Sobolek outlined the nonprofit’s plan for a new, roughly 71,000‑square‑foot Greenfield facility at 3315 West Track Drive in Fargo, estimated at $30,500,000. She said the organization has raised $1,200,000 so far, received $2,000,000 in a CDBG‑CV grant for land purchase, contributed $900,000 from board reserves and expects about $2,500,000 from the sale of the current site; eligibility for New Markets Tax Credits is projected to add about $4,500,000. The group seeks a dollar‑for‑dollar state match to leverage private fundraising.

State officials and agricultural groups testified in support. A state official reported that prior distribution programs supported by state and federal funds reached more than 145,000 people and sourced product from dozens of local vendors. Farmers and farm groups urged the committee to restore funding to $10,000,000 to speed construction and expand statewide distribution capacity.

Committee members pressed staff about verification of the food bank’s client counts, current funding streams and how a smaller appropriation would change the timeline. Sobolek said client counts are reported as unduplicated individuals for food‑bank records and that the organization would continue fundraising if the Legislature approved less than the requested amount.

The hearing closed with the chair saying the committee would take action on the bill later this week and notifying witnesses of next steps.