The Iowa 4-H Foundation has announced applications are now available for its 4-H scholarship program. Over 130 scholarship opportunities valued at over $120,000 will be awarded.
Former and current Iowa 4-H members are eligible to apply for 4-H scholarships if they meet individual scholarship requirements, as determined by the scholarship donors. Applicants must enroll as a full-time student to receive scholarship awards.
The various scholarship awards range in amounts from $500 to $5,000. Some scholarships are open to students pursuing any field of study, while others are open to students pursuing degrees in agriculture, food and nutrition, ag business, animal science, and journalism, as well as veterinary medicine and more.
Lesya Ryzhenkova and her family earned a reputation for their Ukrainian cuisine last year in a free-will donation fundraiser for the Ukraine war effort in March of 2022, shortly after the beginning of the Russian conflict with the family’s native country. Offering specialties such as Varenyky and Chicken Kyiv, residents of the Driftless region enjoyed the offerings and wondered when they might be able to enjoy them again.
From that demand evolved Ryzhenkova’s new venture to provide weekly carryout meals through her “Facebook Restaurant” called Ukrainian Village. With the new meal service launching Sunday, March 12, Ryzhenkova and her family will hold a Ukrainian Day and Open House at Lansing Office Works and Kitchen Works Sunday, February 26 where visitors can sample a variety of these specialties and note their favorites to prepare for their orders in March.
During its regular meeting Monday, February 6, the Lansing City Council approved a City of Lansing Parks Board request to apply for a Wellmark Grant related to “environments to be physically active in” for 2023, with matching funds up to $10,000 to be provided by the City of Lansing. The funding would be used to resurface and update the City’s sports courts.
“The budget is about $40,000 and it’s a 50/50 match,” Parks and Recreation Board Chairperson Maryann Baldwin noted. “We’ll request half that from Wellmark. Ten thousand dollars of the match funds will come from the City and we’ll be looking for additional contributions from private donors and fundraising for the other $10,000.”
The council also approved a request by the Water and Sewer Department to submit a grant application for water/wastewater generators through the Allamakee County Community Foundation Grant Program, with that grant application due February 24.
The Allamakee County Board of Supervisors met in regular session Monday, February 13 to address a full agenda of matters including the consideration of changing the Maximum Levy Public Hearing date, the approval of a Resolution allocating American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds for election items and the consideration of personnel matters relating to the Allamakee County Auditor’s office and the Allamakee County Sheriff’s office.
Board chairperson Dan Byrnes called the meeting to order with Supervisors Mark Reiser and Dennis Keatley present for this meeting. There was no Public Comment during the time allotted for that agenda item.
Guide Available for Underserved Farmers, Ranchers
A multi-agency guide for USDA assistance for underserved farmers and ranchers is now available. If you are a farmer or rancher and are a minority, woman, veteran, beginning, or limited resource producer, you can use this booklet to learn about assistance and targeted opportunities available to you. This includes programs offered through the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Risk Management Agency. Download the guide here. The guide is also available in Spanish, Hmong, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese on farmers.gov/translations.
Crop producers must make some important and timely decisions if they want to participate in the Farm Bill programs for 2023.
The deadline to make an election and enroll is March 15, according to Ann Johanns, education extension specialist and manager of the Ag Decision Maker with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.
For program year 2023, producers have three options: Agriculture Risk Coverage-County (ARC-CO), Price Loss Coverage (PLC) or Agriculture Risk Coverage-Individual Coverage (ARC-IC). Even if producers have enrolled in the past and want to keep the same program, they still need to enroll this year, by March 15. Enrollment is an annual decision.
“To be eligible for payment, producers must complete the enrollment contract for each of their farms,” said Johanns. “Every situation is unique, so we need to make the best decisions for individual farm operations and take the opportunity to make changes if necessary.”
Farmers and industry persons are invited to attend the 2nd Annual Soil Health Workshop in conjunction with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Thursday, February. 23, from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The event will be held at the Wilder Business Center on Northeast Iowa Community College’s (NICC) Calmar campus. The workshop will feature a variety of speakers focused on unlocking nutrients with soil health.
Jimmy Emmons of Leedey, OK is the first presenter with “Grazing Beyond the Yield.” An international leader in the soil health movement, Emmons served as the regional coordinator for USDA’s Farm Production and Conservation Program. He recently joined the Oklahoma Conservation Commission as its soil health mentoring coordinator.
Our representative, Anne Osmundson, in the Iowa House, has cosponsored House File 3 which adds eligibility obstacles and restrictions on individuals and families receiving SNAP. This is a program that provides financial support for people in need to provide food on their table.
An average of 50% of the people who are nourished with this support are our northeast Iowa children and 24% are our northeast Iowa elderly. The money does not come from our Iowa state taxes. It is a federal program so it is already coming to the state.
SNAP is a program where eligibility is based on income. This bill would add obstacles including having to meet monthly red tape requirements so that our friends and neighbors would lose eligibility and access to food for our northeast Iowa children and elderly.
Iowa conservative MAGA Republicans are showing us great examples of hypocrisy. They want to eliminate a woman’s right to choose, ban abortion, criminalize dispensing abortion pills, and force women to have babies. Then, once these children are in the world the HF-3 “SNAP” bill (Food Stamps) that these same conservative Republicans are pushing will limit who can access the needed food to help these children thrive. Approximately 300,000 Iowans receive this federally funded program; half of them are children, disabled, or elderly.
A total of 39 Republican legislators, including Anne Osmundsen, want to institute a means testing for recipients. That means if you have over $2,450 - or $4,250 if over age 60 - in household assets, you won’t qualify for SNAP. If you have two cars, you won’t qualify. Do you know anyone in Allamakee County who can get to work without a car?
Iowans value their freedom to make their own healthcare decisions without interference from the government. This attitude extends even to the emotional issue of abortion. The majority of Iowans believe such pregnancy questions should be left to a woman and her physician.
A recent Iowa poll found that 61% believe that abortion should be legal in most cases, while only 33% felt it should be illegal. And yet, extreme Republicans who are in control of our state government intend to restrict that freedom as much as possible.
The latest example is House File 146, which is supported by State Representative Anne Osmundson. The bill would make it a felony to “manufacture, distribute, prescribe, sell or transfer” abortion drugs in Iowa. The use of pills to cause an abortion (called a medical vs. a surgical abortion) was the most common approach used in Iowa in 2020 at over 79%.
