By Susan Thompson | Times Vedette

It has been several years since congregate meals for senior citizens were available in Panora. The program was managed by volunteers with meals prepared in the Panora Community Center kitchen and served in the dining room. Meals were delivered to those who couldn’t come to the community building.

As long-time volunteers stepped away for a variety of reasons, participation in the program declined, which led to onsite meals coming to an end. For a time, volunteers from a congregate meal site in Stuart delivered to a few Panora residents, but, eventually, that ended, too.

Last summer, members of the Panora United Methodist Church decided to research options for reviving meal deliveries in Panora.

“We felt there was a real need for the Meals on Wheels program for our older population who might have mobility issues or lack transportation,” Sue Merryman says.

A congregate meals program has been available in Guthrie Center for many years. Kim Betts, food and nutrition services manager at the Guthrie County Hospital, has been coordinating the program for 16 years.

Sue and her husband, Jay Merryman, worked with Betts to once again make home-delivered meals available in Panora. They recruited Panora organizations and volunteers and developed a weekly delivery schedule. They also spread the word to seniors who might be interested in weekday meals and got a dozen homes signed up. Meal deliveries began last July.

Meals are prepared and served Monday through Friday at Sneakers Café in the Guthrie County Hospital.

“We serve an average of 10 to 15 people daily at the meal site, with most of those from Guthrie Center and a few from Panora,” Betts says. “Meals delivered to Guthrie Center residents currently averages 24, with an average of 12 meals delivered in Panora.” 

Congregate meals and home-delivered meals are funded by donations and by the Elderbridge Agency on Aging. Elderbridge covers 29 Iowa counties including Guthrie County.

The home-delivery service isn’t technically called Meals on Wheels, but that is the name most people recognize. The meals site in Guthrie Center only delivers within the city limits of Guthrie Center and Panora. There also is a meal site in Stuart that provides home delivery.

“To be eligible for meals, the individual must be 60 years of age or older,” Betts says. “To have a meal delivered, the individual also must have a reason why it is too difficult to come to the meal site. There is a registration form that needs to be filled out when someone starts and then needs to be completed annually.”  

Betts says the Guthrie Center meals site uses a four-week rotational menu with a goal of providing a third of the daily nutritional needs for older adults.

“We try to have a meat, starch, vegetable and a fruit daily,” she says. “Some days, we have dessert. For example, one day we might have meatloaf, red mashed potatoes, green beans, grapes and chocolate cake. Another day might be goulash, buttered corn, mixed fruit and a dinner roll. It’s hard to please everyone. I try to have a variety of foods that the majority like.”

Betts coordinates the volunteers who make meal deliveries in Guthrie Center.

“Without volunteers, there would be no program. It would be very difficult for the hospital to do that on a regular basis. Hospital employees do deliver meals sometimes, when it works in their schedules. I have a short list of people I can call on to deliver if volunteers are unavailable or forget. If I cannot find anyone to deliver on short notice, it’s usually a cook or me delivering the meals in Guthrie Center,” she says.

Several organizations take turns scheduling volunteers in Guthrie Center. These are the Christian Church, Catholic Church, Methodist Church, Lutheran Church, Presbyterian Church, Royal Neighbors, Lions Club, Leo’s Club, Guthrie County Hospital and The New Homestead. If someone would like to volunteer, they can do so through one of these organizations or contact Betts at 641-332-3818 or kbetts@gcho.org.

To find volunteers to deliver meals in Panora, the Merrymans contacted Panora churches and other organizations that would then recruit and organize daily delivery volunteers.

“We would like to have 10 different organizations involved, which would mean each group would deliver five days in a row every 10 weeks,” Sue Merryman says. “Organizations currently involved are P.E.O., Panorama West Men’s Tuesday Golf group, Panora Methodist United Church, St. Cecilia Catholic Church, St. Thomas Lutheran Church, First Christian Church, and friends and neighbors of these groups.”

Organizations or individuals interested in helping with the Meals on Wheels program in Panora are asked to text or call Jay Merryman at 641-751-5957 or Sue Merryman, 641-751-5956.

Volunteers can get a free meal at Sneakers on days they deliver.

Meals are picked up around 11:15 a.m. at Sneakers Café. Volunteers are given two bags with food; one has hot food and the other has cold items. They also receive a list of names with addresses and any special instructions. They take food to the door, knock and announce themselves. Some people come to the door, while some ask the volunteer to come in and place the meal on a table. There is no meal delivery on major holidays or during inclement weather. 

The program does not charge for meals, but donations from clients for their meals help with the cost of the service.

“The congregate and home-delivered meals program is donation-based,” Betts says. “This means no matter what the meals actually cost, we do not send out bills or charge a specific amount. If someone needs a number to go by, we recommend $5 per meal; however, that is just a suggestion. Most people getting a meal pay an average of $3 per meal.” 

Betts says with Panora joining the home delivery program, the amount Elderbridge budgeted for reimbursement has been exceeded for the 2024/2025 fiscal year.

“This means the meals are coming out of the hospital’s food budget,” she says. “Hopefully we are able to get more in the next fiscal year, which starts in July. Those who would like to donate to the program to help cover costs can send funds to the hospital, attention to Sneakers or congregate meals, or drop off a donation at the meal site.” 

Guthrie Center residents interested in applying to attend the meal site or receive home delivery can call Sneakers Café at the Guthrie County Hospital at 641-332-3818. Panora residents interested in applying are asked to contact Jay or Sue Merryman, who say they have room for four more meal delivery recipients.

Kim Betts, food and nutrition services manager at the Guthrie County Hospital, coordinates the congregate and home delivery meals program available to seniors who live in Guthrie Center and Panora. She is shown with Sue Merryman, who is a Meals on Wheels delivery volunteer in Panora. Sue and her husband, Jay, also recruit and organize other volunteers to deliver meals in Panora.

Dave and Ilene Olson are two of the volunteers who deliver weekday lunches to seniors who can’t attend the congregate meal site in Guthrie Center. Here they are shown picking up meals at the Guthrie County Hospital to deliver to people who live within the Panora city limits.

Jay Merryman, a Meals on Wheels organizer and volunteer for Panora deliveries, picks up his free meal from Suzy Schulze at Sneakers Café at the Guthrie County Hospital. Volunteers can have a free meal on days they deliver.

Jean Densmore is one of many volunteers who deliver meals to seniors who live in the Guthrie Center city limits.

Sheryl Clark shows the two bags of food she will deliver to seniors in Guthrie Center. One bag holds hot food, and the other has cold items. Volunteers also receive a list of names with addresses and any special instructions when they pick up food bags at the Sneakers Café in the Guthrie County Hospital.

From the Iowa Department of Natural Resources

It was still an hour before the 2024 pheasant season would open but the birds were there and they were ready. Cackles and crowing were coming from all across the Kossuth County prairie as hunters whispered with anticipation – today would be one for the memories was the consensus.

Judging by the parking lots at the public hunting areas across north Iowa, that opinion was a popular one.

Pheasants are not native to the United States but seem to have found a home in the Plains and upper Midwest. Iowa’s birds can be traced back to a wind storm in 1901 that damaged William Benton’s private game farm in Cedar Falls, liberating around 2,000 pheasants. Rumor had it, Benton obtained his stock from a Tacoma, Wash. importer.

That unintentional release was followed by intentional stockings in 1908-09 by private landowners in Kossuth and O’Brien counties that helped the exotic birds get a foothold in northern Iowa. By 1910, the state Conservation Commission got involved, purchasing 6,200 eggs and distributed them to farmers in 82 counties. Farmers would often have hen houses where the pheasant eggs would be placed alongside chicken eggs.

At the time, Iowa’s countryside consisted of too-wet-to-farm sloughs and small farms, with a patchwork of corn, oats, hay, pasture and beet fields, which was a perfect match for the ring-necked pheasant. Soon, it became clear that wild birds were better equipped to survive than captive birds and in 1915, farmers were encouraged to trap and move wild birds to new areas.

The expanding pheasant population began to cause localized crop damage to the point that 130 farmers in Hancock County petitioned the state to open a hunting season. In 1925, Iowa allowed pheasant hunting in 13 north central counties for three days in the fall, opening at noon each day. In these early seasons, hens were occasionally legal to shoot along with roosters. In 1943, the birds were so numerous that Iowa held a spring season in addition to the regular fall season.

“These early seasons were extremely conservative, lasting only three to five days,” said Todd Bogenschutz, upland wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

In 1936, the Conservation Commission conducted its first roadside population survey in September and October. The survey evolved in these early years before moving to early August and becoming standardized in 1962.

Pheasants continued to expand across the state and additional counties were opened to hunting. The state was divided into zones based on estimated bird population – the Long Zone in northern Iowa had a 2- to-3-week season; the Short Zone in southern Iowa had a 5-12-day season.

In 1955, hunters bagged an estimated 1.5 million birds. Around 1959, shooting hours were standardized and pheasant hunting moved into the modern era with one season statewide and was open in more than 80 counties, with only far southeast Iowa still closed.

While pheasants were expanding their reach, Iowa’s agriculture community began to change, going from more than 6.8 million acres planted to small grains in 1950, to 1.29 million acres in 1972. Soybeans that had been planted on 1.9 million acres in 1950, increased to 6 million acres in 1972.

Changes to Iowa’s countryside accelerated during the farm crisis in the 1980s.

The 1985 Farm Bill created the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to reduce crop production to allow grain prices to recover, and Iowa producers enrolled 76,000 acres in the program by the end of the year. The second round of enrollments increased to 1.2 million acres. By 1993, 2.2 million acres of crop fields were enrolled and converted to grasslands.

When added to existing hay and small grains, Iowa had an estimated 4.5 million acres of pheasant friendly habitat, up from 2.9 million acres in 1983.

“CRP wasn’t a new idea. Its premise was similar to the soil bank in the 1950s and 60s,” Bogenschutz said. “Grain prices recovered quickly and pheasants responded to the expanded habitat.”

With the goal of improving grain prices achieved, the focus of CRP shifted to prioritize native seed plantings, seed mix diversity and specific landscapes. The federal Farm Bill had become the most important habitat program for the state.

Rise and Fall of bird numbers

Iowa’s pheasant population is heavily influenced by winter and spring weather – mild winters with little snow followed by warm dry spring is good for survival and reproduction; conversely, cold, snowy winters with cool, wet springs isn’t good for pheasants.

The consecutive bad winters and wet springs from 2008-12 saw Iowa’s bird numbers plummet to an all-time low harvest of 109,000 roosters in 2011, and hunter participation bottomed out at 41,000, two years later.

However, droughts benefit ground nesting birds – including pheasants – and the recent string of droughts followed by mild winters has returned bird populations to pre-crash levels.

Iowa is a national pheasant hunting destination, second only to South Dakota in bird harvest, with hunters harvesting nearly 600,000 roosters in 2023.

Much of the harvest estimate is dependent upon hunters in the field. The last time Iowa’s pheasant harvest topped one million birds was in 2003, when there were an estimated 142,000 resident and nonresident hunters. In 2023, that estimate was 83,000.

“Our pheasant population is similar to 2007 when the harvest was around 700,000 birds,” he said. “The only difference from today is we don’t have the number of pheasant hunters as we did in 2007. Harvest is driven by bird numbers, but also how many people are pulling the trigger.”

A century of pheasant hunting

The Iowa DNR and Pheasants Forever are celebrating 100 years of pheasant hunting in the Hawkeye State. The first season was held Oct. 20-22, 1925, when 13 counties in north central Iowa were opened to pheasant hunting. Hunters were allowed a three-rooster limit, for a half-day of hunting. An estimated 75,000 hunters participated.

Hunters can commemorate the 100^th anniversary by purchasing a hard card featuring Iowa Pheasants Forever Print of the Year when they purchase their 2025 hunting and fishing licenses.

Information on places to hunt, the August roadside survey results and more is available online by clicking the 100 Years of Pheasant Hunting graphic at www.iowadnr.gov/pheasantsurvey.

Special to the Times Vedette

Daniel Nordquist of Panora was named to the dean’s list for the fall 2024 semester at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Nordquist is enrolled in the university’s McKelvey School of Engineering. To qualify for the Dean’s List in the McKelvey School of Engineering, students must earn a semester grade point average of 3.6 or above and be enrolled in at least 12 graded units. 

By Rich Wicks | Times Vedette

At the March 13 meeting of the Guthrie County Board of Supervisors, discussion was held regarding possible wage increases for county employees for the upcoming fiscal year. Supervisor Steve Smith suggested a 3% increase.

Supervisor JD Kuster brought up the recommendation from the Compensation Board, which suggested a 7% wage increase. Kuster said he has heard from the Compensation Board in years past, voicing frustration when the recommended number isn’t used.

Supervisor Mike Dickson acknowledged that but pointed out that the county needs to budget for several large projects as well.

“We’ve talked about the generator down here. That’s a $200,000 project or a little more. We’ve talked about tornado shelters for some of our buildings… that money has to come from somewhere,” Dickson said.

Supervisor Brian Johnson made a motion for a 3% wage increase, excluding the Board of Supervisors. That motion passed on a 4-1 vote, with Kuster opposed.

Johnson then made a motion for no wage increase for the supervisors. That motion passed on a 3-2 vote, with Dickson and Maggie Armstrong voting nay.

Dickson voiced his concern about depleting the county’s fund balance.

“With the 3% that was just done, you’re looking at eating into your fund balance almost $400,000,” Dickson said.

The supervisors discussed ways to cut around $100,000 from budgetary expenses to help spare the county’s fund balance.

The supervisors will ask two departments (Sheriff and County Attorney) to come back and meet with the supervisors to work on ways to cut expenses.

Through March, the supervisors meet regularly Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9 a.m. The public is welcome to attend in person or via remote technology. To join remotely, call 323-792-6123, then use meeting code 547029216#.

The supervisors voted to cancel the March 20 meeting.