Aberdeen Burger Battle raises $10k for community food programs

ABERDEEN, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - Earlier this week, Three22 Kitchen + Cocktails was announced as the winner of the first Aberdeen Burger Battle.

The Bourbon Bacon Burger was crowned the best patty in town, and not only did Three22 walk away with bragging rights, but a record month of sales as well.

”We looked at the sales numbers from the month before, which we had just rolled out a new menu, and we more than doubled the sales of that burger and definitely saw people coming in that hadn’t been into Three22 before,” said Three22 general manager Jacob Collins.

The competition also made a positive impact on the Salvation Army of Aberdeen by ‘taking a bite out of hunger’ and raising funds for the organization’s food insecurity programs, especially the programs for children.

“We believe that no kid should sit without anything to eat, and so, we want to help provide that. We want to help try to provide that nutritious meal to a child to have some type of lunch for over the weekend,” said Major Joel Arthur.

During the school year, the Salvation Army provides a free lunch to children through their Snack Pack program, which takes place on the weekends. During the summer holiday, the Salvation Army provides free lunch to children in need Monday through Friday.

”Gearing up for summer, school is about ready to end, so we’re getting ready for our Feed the Kids Summer Park program, where we take our mobile disaster unit out to the different mini parks in our community and we feed the kids a sack lunch throughout the summertime,” said Maj. Arthur.

The Feed the Kids summer program begins in Aberdeen on June 5th.

When the winner of the Aberdeen Burger Battle was announced Monday night in the Salvation Army’s chapel, it was also announced that the competition had raised $10,000 to give to the Salvation Army.

”It’s just fantastic that they chose us and chose our programs to benefit,” said Maj. Arthur.

The competition was created as the 2023 project for the Aberdeen Leadership Team, but restaurants that participated in the Aberdeen Burger Battle are hoping someone carries it on and makes it an annual event.

”That was one of the first questions that the restaurants had yesterday was, who is going to take the baton and run with it for next year? This would be a really really cool thing to see happen year after year in Aberdeen,” said Collins.