SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Bread for the World is using Wyoming's two-year removal of its sales tax on food as a way to revive the issue in South Dakota.

Members of the group's Sioux Falls chapter and other activists gathered Saturday to salute the neighboring state and encourage a repeal or reduction of the tax in South Dakota.

"The food tax is definitely a hunger issue in our state," said Cathy Brechtelsbauer, a Bread for the World volunteer. "We're suggesting this year, the state start to phase out the food tax."

Those at the event used milk, juice and other food items to make a toast to Wyoming and all of South Dakota's neighboring states. One mother, Heidi Binstock of Sioux Falls, held her 3-month-old daughter, Clara, in one arm and raised a baby's bottle with the other to show her support for a tax repeal on baby formula and other groceries.

This spring, Wyoming's Legislature included a two-year food tax holiday in its general budget bill. Although the tax break would expire in two years if the state takes no action, proponents are gathering signatures to try to force a public vote to make the tax cut permanent in 2008 if the Legislature doesn't act first to repeal the tax.

Thirty states now exempt household food purchases from the sales tax. Five states do not levy general sales taxes at all.

Wyoming's natural gas, coal and oil make it possible for that state to take such action, but South Dakota does not have such a luxury, said Jason Dilges, South Dakota's Bureau of Finance and Management commissioner.

At the height of a food tax debate in 2004, South Dakota government leaders argued the repeal could cost state, city and tribal governments $62 million a year.

Voters rejected a measure on the ballot that year to repeal the tax. The effort got only 33 percent support.

"We didn't repeal the food tax in South Dakota, and I don't expect for that to happen until we are ready for a complete tax reform in South Dakota," said state Sen. Garry Moore, D-Yankton.

That year, Gov. Mike Rounds proposed the state's Sales Tax on Food Refund Program, intended to benefit low-income families earning less than 150 percent of the federal poverty level.

Under the program, a two-person household or a single parent with one child can receive benefits if their total household earning are below $19,800, according to Department of Social Services guidelines. The income limit increases with larger households.

"I think the program is working well so far," Dilges said. "It serves a niche of exactly what it's intended to do."

He said many South Dakotans can afford the grocery tax, and the state promotes its program with public service announcements and fliers for those who cannot.

The program has grown in its first two years, said Sharon Sonnenschein, division director for economic assistance at the Department of Social Services.

Those at the Bread for the World event said eliminating the tax is the best solution because disabilities, illnesses and language barriers keep many from completing the state program's required paperwork and other demands.

"People don't have any idea of the plight of the poor," said Sister Carol Quinn, a parent-child educator volunteer and Bread for the World member.

Low-income families may not be the only South Dakotans affected by the tax now that all surrounding states having tax-free groceries. One Nebraska grocery store runs a weekly ad in the Yankton Daily Press and Dakotan that clearly states "no sales tax on food in Nebraska," Moore said.

"That could become a major issue," he said. "I could see, for instance, stores on the bordering edge of South Dakota near Sioux Falls running ads like that in the Argus Leader. It might be a windfall to them."