(Radio Iowa) – After setting multiple records during the pandemic, the Food Bank of Iowa is setting yet more records this summer for the number of people using its pantries.

Annette Hacker is the spokeswoman for the Des Moines-based agency that serves Iowans who are facing food insecurity. “Food Bank of Iowa set records — and these are not the kind of records that we like to set — for the most individuals served in our history in May and then again in June,” Hacker says. “We are finalizing July numbers next week, the first full week of September, but the trend looks to be the same.”

It was hoped food demand would slack off once the panic over coronavirus began to wane. Hacker says, “The level of need we’re seeing is not only higher than it was during the height of COVID but the highest we’ve seen in our 40-year history.” 

While most businesses that were closed by the pandemic have long since reopened, other factors are now making life challenging for many thousands of Iowans. “The economy is tough right now. Groceries are high. Everything is higher, we’re seeing that, like rent,” Hacker says, “and so many of us are one life event, one catastrophe away from needing help with food, whether that’s a car repair, a medical issue, losing your job.”

Some may have a perception that the people who use food pantries are homeless, unemployed or both, but Hacker says that’s just not the case. “The vast majority of folks served by our 700 partners in 55 counties are working,” Hacker says, “they’re working not one job but sometimes two or three with no benefits and they just can’t make ends meet.”

As demand rises, she says food donations have dropped from restaurants and grocery stores and food is costing the agency more to buy now than ever before. The Food Bank served nearly 122,000 individuals in May, while the number exceeded 135,000 in June, an all-time high, while July’s numbers are projected to be equally as high.

(Radio Iowa) – Both Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Mike Franken, the Democrat challenging Grassley’s bid for reelection, have completed tours with stops in each of Iowa’s counties. Grassley addressed a crowd in the Taylor County Historical Museum in Bedford yesterday. “This is the 99th county meeting I’ve had for the 42nd year in a row,” Grassley said, and a crowd of about four dozen applauded.

During the town hall style forum, people in the audience expressed opposition to vaccine mandates for the military and President Biden’s move on student loan debt. One man questioned how the FBI and the Justice Department are treating President Trump, prompting a woman in the crowd to suggest defunding the FBI.

“That would look silly for Chuck Grassley to defund the FBI because I’ve been telling these law enforcement people that have been attending my meetings: ‘I want you to know I’m not for defunding the police,’” Grassley said, “but I know where you’re coming from because you can’t have the extraordinary confidence in the FBI that you ought to have.”

Near the end of the hour-long event, a woman in the audience told Grassley she’s no longer confident there are free and fair elections in the U.S. “I think Iowa is still better than some others, but I doubt them all,” she said.

Grassley. (RI photo)

In his reply, Grassley expressed opposition to election bills Democrats have proposed at the federal level and he praised the tighter absentee ballot rules Iowa lawmakers adopted early last year. “But right now, you say: ‘What can you do?’ About all you can do is talk to your state legislators, unless you want a federal law,” Grassley said. “And I hope you don’t want a federal law.”

Franken, a retired Navy admiral, chose Grassley’s hometown as the last stop on his campaign’s 99 county tour.

“He has chosen division and distraction over unity and understanding. Senator Grassley has made his choice and tonight I ask you to make yours,” Franken said, drawing cheers from the crowd gathered in a church basement.

Franken campaigned in New Hartford and four other cities Saturday. He started in Nevada, where a woman asked Franken if he’s confident the 2022 election will be fair given Republican-backed election law changes. Another woman said Republicans are undermining faith in government and elections.

“They tell a lie often enough and they persuade people. They start to believe it,” she said. “How do you fight that?” Franken replied that if it’s not addressed, the country will devolve.  “This is not winnable. This is not good for the nation,” Franken said. “This is my issue about country over party.”

A man then asked Franken how he’d bridge the partisan divide. “The Inflation Reduction Act, there are some things in there that I’m not happy with, but it’s something and it moved the needle and that’s a positive,” Franken said. “My plan as any, I think, wide-eyed legislator should be — small bites at the apple, getting things accomplished.”

On October 8, Franken and Grassley are scheduled to appear together in a debate on Iowa PBS. The November 8th election is 69 days away.

(Radio Iowa) – The northwest Iowa town of Sheldon is getting some national media attention for a lost time capsule that, well, is not lost. The original story indicated that the location of the time capsule buried during Sheldon’s centennial celebration back in 1972 had been lost to time, leaving officials without its precise location. The capsule was to be opened as part of Sheldon’s sesquicentennial celebration on Friday. Sheldon’s Chamber Director Ashley Nordahl says there was some confusion.

“A big misunderstanding, I think. We always knew where the time capsule was. It was just a matter of making sure that we could get to it,” she says. “There is a little bit of concrete that’s laid around it, so we did not want to create a mess in front of Celebration Days.”

Sheldon Time Capsule (KIWA photo via Radio Iowa)

Nordahl says the ceremony and the other events are all on as scheduled in Sheldon.

(Radio Iowa) – Small businesses that are being impacted by the drought in 11 northwestern Iowa counties can now apply for low-interest federal disaster loans from the U-S Small Business Administration. S-B-A spokesman Mark Randle there’s a wide range of businesses that are now eligible for the help.

Small businesses that qualify for the Economic Injury Disaster Loans may be able to get up to two-million dollars to help meet their financial obligations.

Randle says eligibility for the loans is only based on the financial impact of the disaster and not on property damage. The loans have an interest rate of just under three-percent for businesses and under-two-percent for private nonprofits.

The 11 counties covered under the program are: Buena Vista, Calhoun, Clay, Dickinson, Emmet, Humboldt, Palo Alto, Pocahontas, Kossuth, Sac and Webster. The deadline to apply is April 17, 2023. Applicants may apply online at: https://disasterloanassistance.sba.gov/

(DES MOINES) – The Iowa Finance Authority Board of Directors today (Wednesday) awarded a total of nearly $10 million in federal housing tax credits to support the construction of a total of 385 affordable rental homes for Iowans. The awards were made to 11 rental housing projects located in Adel, Audubon, Bondurant, Boone, Carroll, Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Grinnell, Hiawatha, Ottumwa and Winterset.

Iowa Finance Authority Executive Director Debi Durham said Wednesday, “Housing is foundational to the economic mobility of Iowans and the strength of our communities. The tax credit awards announced today will provide hundreds of Iowa families and seniors with homes in which they can thrive in urban and rural communities all throughout the state.”

City of Audubon Mayor Barb Jacobsen said “The addition of the 35 rental homes to be constructed at the Villas at Fox Pointe Audubon will provide dozens of families with an affordable place to call home right here within our community. This investment in Audubon will spur many economic ripple effects as more of our workforce will be able to live near where they work.”

The Internal Revenue Service makes an annual per capita allocation of federal tax credits to each state for the Federal Housing Tax Credit program. The Iowa Finance Authority is charged with allocating those credits to affordable housing developers. The developers who receive tax credits sell them to investors to generate equity for the housing developments.

The Iowa Finance Authority received 24 applications requesting more than $20 million in housing tax credits in the 2022 tax credit round. IFA had a total of approximately $10 million available to allocate. The actual awards total nearly $100 million because the credits are committed annually for a 10-year period.

View Award Listing Here

The Adair County Board of Supervisors met for a brief meeting on Wednesday morning at in the boardroom at the Adair County Courthouse.

One topic of discussion was changes for collecting plastic at the landfill. They are recently done away with a locally placed bin that residents could put plastic in for recycling and those services have moved out to the landfill directly. They said they have heard complaints from a few residents concerned about more littering and not finding the location at the landfill. The board discussed it just wasn’t effective to have the bin anymore because only very specific plastic items could be recycled and too much other waste thrown in the bin was contaminating the loads. They said the changes at the landfill site have mostly been going smooth.

The board also held some discussion about street repair responsibilities in Bridgewater. There are some questions about responsibility for a current repair job and the county needs to update a 28-E agreement with the city for future repairs. They plan to speak with the city at their next council meeting to sort the issue out.