Dream Center Bismarck

Jim’s story of creating a Dream Center in the city of Bismarck starts on May 29, 2016 when he woke with a vision for a meal ministry and services to help those in need firmly planted in his mind. This was the start of Jim’s drive to bring a Dream Center to the city of Bismarck.
For the next year Jim and his wife Cindy met with many people in the community, including several pastors, church leaders, city officials and the mayor. Jim finally ended up at The Banquet where first became involved as Banquet Board Member and now serves as Banquet Board Chairman.
In March of 2019, Jim, his wife Cindy and 2 others made a trip to the Dream Center in Los Angeles to confirm Jim’s Dream Center application sent several months earlier. By May, Dream Center Bismarck was officially sanctioned.
Today, Dream Center Bismarck is a newly formed non-profit organization whose main goal is to "Find a Need & Fill It". Internationally there are about 85 Dream Centers, each working in their own community to find unmet community needs and fill them. June 19 of 2019, the Dream Center Adopt-a-Block program was brought to Bismarck. The Bismarck Adopt-a-Block program was started as a food distribution program going to Jeannette Myhre Elementary and South Central High School in Bismarck and distributing free groceries to those in need. In April of 2020, with the start of COVID-19 and all the hardships it has brought to our community, especially to our low-income citizens, the program was expanded to 6 days each week. With the help of Bismarck and Mandan Public School staff, locations were strategically chosen to serve the most households. To obtain a supply of food, Adopt-a-Block Food Distribution makes stops at area grocery stores picking up food that is either surplus or close to the expiration date, as well as working with Great Plains Food Bank. Today, The Adopt-a-Block Food Distribution truck is distributing about 100,000 pounds or over $160,000 worth of food to low income households each month. Adopt-a-Block is serving as many as 700 households every week.
With construction of the Dream Center Bismarck facility a reality, we are working with others in the community to find those unmet needs and fill them.

The new Dream Center Bismarck facility will house the Adopt-a-Block Food Distribution program and other community-based programs. The facility will also be home to The Banquet, our sister nonprofit organization, as well as offer free services or referrals to free services to address areas of nutrition, employment, health & dental, and address areas of poverty, addiction, abuse, and generational dysfunction. Dream Center Bismarck serves as a resource center focused on working together with others in the community to find creative solutions through community outreach programs. "Find a Need & Fill It!"
Dream Center Bismarck Founder Jim Barnhardt believes money low-income families save on groceries can be applied towards rent, utilities, medical bills, education expenses and other essential needs! In 2 years, Adopt-a-Block Food Distribution has impacted over 5,000 households containing more than 10,000 children, adults, and seniors. That’s also a lot of volunteers donating their time helping others!
Jim’s vision is to not only provide food and meals for many people in need but also, with collaboration between entities, make inroads into ending generational dysfunction in the city we serve.

Based on almost 5 years of community feedback, development of community partnerships and the success of our sister ministry, The Banquet, we have started construction of our new facility of 1805 Park Avenue, Bismarck.

Dream Center Adopt-a-Block has now served over 5,000 low-income households with our mobile grocery distribution and is distributing on average over 100,000 pounds of groceries each month. We have located a suitable lot in the lowest demographic area of Bismarck on which to construct the Dream Center Bismarck facility. The Banquet will be a primary tenant and anticipates serving 2,000 meals each week from the facility. We also have been cleared by Bismarck city zoning for Dream Center Bismarck to include the Adopt-a-Block program, food pantry and meeting rooms and offices for non-profits to use when working with clients. Other entities are partnering with us as we work to improve the lives of those in need.