(West Des Moines, Iowa -December 2, 2021) – Iowa Select Farms and the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation have announced the locations of Operation Christmas Meal, a free pork loin giveaway for families who aren’t planning a Christmas meal due to insufficient funds. This year, Operation Christmas Meal will give away 17,000 boneless pork loins roasts at 13 different events across Iowa, plus an additional 1,500 through the Ignite the Spirit Program aimed at increasing awareness of hunger locally and helping even more families during the holiday season.

Operation Christmas Meal will kick off Friday, December 3rd at 5:00 a.m., at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, and end on Thursday, December 16 at 6:00 p.m. in Algona, at the Bomgaars parking lot. Over the course of five days, Operation Christmas Meal will also travel to Creston, Osceola, Humeston, Ellsworth, Hampton, Osage, Aplington, Hubbard, Iowa Falls, Sac City, and Storm Lake.  (See details for area sites/times, below)

“During an especially difficult time for families in need, Operation Christmas Meal helps create a happy holiday for all Iowans, no matter their circumstances or level of income,” said Jen Sorenson, Communications Director of Iowa Select Farms. “The event is free and open to anyone in need.” Now in its 11th year, Operation Christmas Meal has provided more than one million Christmas meals to Iowa families. The event has become a holiday tradition for the Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation with hundreds of Iowa Select Farms employees volunteering to brave the cold to hand out the pork loins year-after-year.

An additional component of Operation Christmas Meal is aimed at increasing awareness of hunger locally and helping even more families during the holiday season. The Deb and Jeff Hansen Foundation and Iowa Select Farms is awarding cases of pork loins and $250 cash to over 50 local FFA, 4-H, and school-based organizations throughout the counties where Iowa Select Farms has employees and farms. The donations will help student organizations host a community meal, organize and distribute holiday food baskets, or come up with their own idea for providing a meal to families in need. “This is a great opportunity for students to better understand hunger, plan their own unique project or event while also partnering with organizations that provide different areas of support to local families,” said Sorenson. FFA and 4-H clubs will also be provided event kits with insulated totes, aprons, t-shirts, and meat thermometers.

Operation Christmas Meal information for two area communities:

• Creston, Iowa – Old Walmart Parking Lot (next to Tractor Supply), 614 New York Ave.; Tuesday, December 7, 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
• Sac City, Iowa – Sac County Fairgrounds, 416 Park Ave.; Thursday, December 16, 7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.

Additional information can be found HERE.

Police in Red Oak say the driver of a 2016 Chevy Equinox suffered suspected minor injuries, during a collision Wednesday, with a 2017 Chevy pickup. Authorities say the accident happened at around 4-p.m. at the intersection of U-S Highway 34 and N. 8th Street. According to the report, 74-year-old Dennis Dean Hartstack, of Clarinda, failed to yield the right-of-way from the stop sign, as he was southbound on N. 8th Street, crossing Highway 34 in his Chevy Silverado pickup. The vehicle was struck broadside by the Equinox, which was driven by 66-year-old Paul Henry Dumler, of Red Oak.

Dumler was injured, but was not transported to the hospital. His vehicle sustained $25,000 damage. Damage to the pickup was estimated at $50,000. Red Oak Police cited Hartstack for Failure to Yield. Both men were wearing their seat belts. Red Oak Police were assisted at the scene by Red Oak Fire & Rescue, and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

The broadcast News at 8:06-a.m., with Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.3MB)

Subscribe: RSS

(Radio Iowa) – Authorities are searching for a missing autistic teenager in northeast Iowa’s Fayette County. Sheriff’s officials are asking for the public’s help in locating 14-year-old Walker Richardson, of Arlington. They say he was last seen Wednesday around 2:30 p.m. wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans. According to authorities, Richardson is a highly-functioning autistic who they are actively trying to find. Sheriff’s officials began their search Wednesday afternoon. but suspended operations overnight over safety concerns. Authorities are organizing a search party and plan to resume search operations at 9:30 this morning.

Walker Richardson

Anyone wanting to assist in the search should report to the Arlington Fire Station.

The broadcast News at 7:07-a.m., with Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS

(Radio Iowa) – Hundreds of pedestrians celebrated completion of the new Interstate-74 bridge over the Mississippi River by walking across the span yesterday (Wednesday). Every mayor in the region was there for the event, including Bettendorf Mayor Bob Gallagher.

Construction on the six-lane bridge began in 2017. West bound lanes opened a year ago. The east bound lanes are scheduled to open next week. The bridge project includes a highway between Bettendorf and Moline and cost more than one-point-two billion dollars. East Moline Mayor Reggie Freeman says the old, green I-74 bridge was built in 1935 for horses, carts and pedestrians.

Illinois Governor J-B Pritzker says the I-74 bridge is one of the country’s primary Mississippi River crossings.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds wasn’t able to attend the ceremony and sent a written statement to mark the occasion.

(Harlan, Iowa) The Shelby County Board of Supervisors, this week, set December 21^st as the date for a public hearing on a proposal to enter into a General Obligation Emergency Communications Equipment Loan Agreement, and to borrow money thereunder in a principal amount not to exceed $1,880,000. The Supervisors propose to enter into the loan agreement for the purpose of paying the cost of acquiring and installing emergency communications equipment and systems.

The public hearing will be held at 9-a.m. On the 21^st, in the Supervisors Room at the Shelby County Courthouse in Harlan.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans who made a donation to charity on Giving Tuesday in order to get a tax deduction are fortunate this year as far as their federal returns. I-R-S spokesman Christopher Miller says changes to tax laws mean you can still file a simple return and deduct at least some of those donations.  Miller says, “It certainly opens up avenues for taxpayers who still want to make a donation and take a deduction for those donations but find it more advantageous to take the standard deduction.” That means you can deduct 300 dollars in donations on the standard 10-40 or 10-40 E-Z form without filing more paperwork.

“You’re still able to take that standard deduction,” Miller says, “and give to a qualified charitable organization and take a deduction on your tax return this year.” If you’re still looking to make a donation before year’s end, make sure you’re giving to a legitimate group. Miller says it’s vital to use a credit card or a check when donating and to get a receipt.  “Don’t fall for or be pressured into donating by a gift card, like an iTunes gift card or a wire transfer,” Miller says. “That should be a big red flag to people that the charity is not for real.”

Also, he says to make sure the charity you’re singling out qualifies for donations under federal tax laws. Find a list of qualifying charities at irs.gov.

(Radio Iowa) – A southwest Iowa company has hired a Hartland, Wisconsin company to design its proposed 500-thousand square foot beef processing plant. Cattlemen’s Heritage lead developer, Chad Tentinger, says the plant will be built in northern Mills County just south of Council Bluffs. “A couple of things that will be different — from the front of it, it won’t look like a processing plant — it will look like an office building. Design is very important to us,” according to Tentinger. “It’ll also have state-of-the-art equipment in it. A lot of new equipment that maybe wasn’t available five years ago.”

E-S-I Group was chosen to design and construct the facility. He says a new plant like this hasn’t been built in a long time. “Certainly in the Midwest, it’s been decades. And what you see in plants is they use the existing footprint and figure out how to fit all the stuff into,” he says. “But we have the ability from a brand new facility to lay out how the equipment should look, how it should lay out, have this proper room, spread out, and then design the building around that.” He says the design process will take several months. He says they hope to have a final design this spring and begin construction and get the operation underway by the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.

The plant is expected to employ 750 people, and Tentinger says there is a good workforce in the area. “We are going to start out with aggressive pay. The wages will be at the very high end of the wages for this field. We will also have onsite daycare, onsite banking, and some limited onsite medical,” Tentinger says. The plant is expected to process 15-hundred head of cattle each day. “Midwest beef that is primarily small family-farm raised — which is very important to us. So that we know the quality of the cattle, the quality of the caretaking, the source of the cattle — all that is very important to use down to the traceability — so that we know that anything that is coming through the plant is very high quality,” according to Tentinger.

The company says an estimated 33-hundred workers will be needed to construct the plant.

(Shenandoah, Iowa) – Police in Shenandoah say a man was arrested on a drug charge early this (Thursday) morning, following a traffic stop on a vehicle with an equipment violation. Authorities say Officers pulled the vehicle over in the 200 block of N. Center Street in Shenandoah, at around 1:40-a.m. Following an investigation, the driver, 21-year-old Noah William Flowers, of Essex, was arrested for Possession of Paraphernalia. He was also cited for Driving While Suspended.

Flowers was released with the citation and a court date.