February and March were exciting months for our Food Service Department!  We had the opportunity to open two, new retail food ventures.

On February 17^th, we opened an employee café in Midland National Life Insurance’s newly constructed facility near 57^th & Solberg Avenue in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

This venture has been a huge success! Not only do we have the opportunity to provide Midland employees with some delicious food, but it has also provided people we support with new jobs. The café is run by two staff members and two people we support.  It continues to increase in both sales and catering opportunities, a mainstay of Food Services revenue.

Accompanying the Midland opening, we completely remodeled our own our café located in the cafeteria of our Main Agency. Its location remained the same; however its name did not. On March 10^th, the ‘Eclectic Café’ opened.

The Eclectic Café serves a varied menu patterned after Midland’s offerings. It provides the Agency staff a delicious, cost-effective, alternative to local fast food restaurants. With new equipment and a fresh look, the Café also provides a person we support with the opportunity to develop some food service skills.

The hope and vision for both of the new facilities is to increase net revenue for the Agency, create job opportunities for the people we support, and fulfill South Dakota Achieve’s core values and its mission “to find innovative ways for people with disabilities to achieve their dreams.”