Iowa
61 new free summer meal sites created by new Iowa grant program
DES MOINES — A state grant program will fund 61 new free summer meal sites for Iowa children in low-income families, the state education department has announced.
The $900,000 grant program was created by Gov. Kim Reynolds after she declined $29 million in federal funding to remain in a federal program that provided $40 per month to low-income families for food during the summer months.
The new state program still is supported by federal dollars: Reynolds used federal pandemic assistance funding to finance the program.
Under the new Summer Meal Program Expansion Grant program, 38 grant recipients were chosen from among 43 applicants. Of the 38 recipients, 36 are public or private school districts; the others are the Northeast Iowa Food Bank in Waterloo and Story Medical Center in Nevada, Iowa. Of the recipients, 14 are new sponsors and collectively are creating 19 new meal sites in their communities.
The average grant was $23,684, and 24 of the 38 grants awarded were for $16,639. Most grant recipients will use the funding to operate between one and three summer meal sites.
But the Central Community School District in Elkader received a $51,557 grant — the largest award — to fund four meal sites. Those sites begin June 6, according to the district.
The Cedar Rapids Community School District received a $39,918 grant to fund three meal sites — at Noelridge Park, the Cedar River Academy at Taylor Elementary and the Truman Early Childhood Center. The sites will run for different time frames, according to the district’s application, but they begin June 10 at Noelridge and Truman and June 17 at Taylor.
The Marion Independent District received $16,639 for a site at Starry Elementary, from June 3 to Aug. 16, and the Iowa City Community School District also was awarded $16,639 for a site at Hills Elementary School, which will close for academic programs at the end of the school year. The meals program there will run June 17 to Aug. 2, according to the district’s application.
Among the applicants that did not receive grant funding was St. Joseph Catholic School in Marion, which had requested $93,400 over three years, including $24,100 in the first year, to expand its Seamless Summer Option program.
New meal sites were required to be in areas where at least 50 percent of the children are eligible for free or reduced-price meals.
“Through partnerships with schools and community-based providers, the Summer Meal Expansion Grant builds upon family-focused solutions to support child nutrition and well-being in the summer,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in a statement. “We commend the awardees for their leadership in growing the reach and impact of these programs, providing children with no-cost, healthy meal options in enriching environments this summer and beyond.”
The 61 new sites add to the more than 500 summer meal sites that operated in Iowa last year, according to the education department.
Luke Elzinga, board chair of the Iowa Hunger Coalition, said the daily average participation at summer meal sites in Iowa in 2023 was 21,557. Elzinga said more than 245,000 Iowa children would have received the $40 per month from the federal Summer EBT program that Reynolds rejected.
“While we certainly welcome the new grant program to expand summer meal sites, we also recognize that barriers will remain for families to access those sites. Summer EBT is meant to complement, not replace, summer feeding sites,” Elzinga said in a statement when Reynolds announced the new grant program.
The new grants help expand participation in two current federal summer child nutrition programs — the Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option. Those programs are administered by the Iowa Department of Education in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Free summer meal site operates will be reimbursed with the grant funds once their operating budgets are finalized, the state education department said.
Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com
Video: Kirk Ferentz reacts to Iowa’s ReliaQuest Bowl win over Vanderbilt
Kirk Ferentz meets with media after Iowa football’s 34-27 win over Vanderbilt in the ReliaQuest Bowl.
IOWA CITY — In what has been an active transfer portal window for Iowa football, the Hawkeyes added to their offensive line room with the commitment of Trent Wilson.
Wilson appeared in all 14 games as a true freshman at James Madison last season, including one start. The Dukes made the College Football Playoff and finished the season 12-2 overall.
The 6-foot-4, 300-pound lineman has three seasons of eligibility remaining.
Iowa is losing three starters from its Joe Moore Award-winning offensive line last season. The Hawkeyes started the same five offensive linemen every game in 2025: Trevor Lauck, Beau Stephens, Logan Jones, Kade Pieper and Gennings Dunker. Stephens, Jones and Dunker are departing the program.
At the very least, Wilson gives Iowa more depth in that room next season as the Hawkeyes try to replace some serious experience and production.
Wilson is not the only player to transfer from James Madison to Iowa. Tyler Brown, who started all 14 games at free safety for the Dukes last season and ranked second on the team in total tackles with 80, is joining Wilson in Iowa City.
Wilson detailed his commitment to Iowa, providing typed responses via social media to the Register:
Note: Answers have been edited slightly for clarity and grammatical accuracy.
On why he committed to Iowa
“I committed to Iowa because of the culture. At Iowa, offensive linemen get sent to the NFL, and the team isn’t ‘flashy’ (like) other teams, they just want to win. On my visit, Iowa toured me around the facilities, which were amazing, but my favorite part was talking to the coaches. In the meeting, (offensive line coach George Barnett) spoke my language exactly. He spoke about the drive it takes to win and how their linemen play, and I immediately felt at home. Walking out of that meeting, I knew I was going to commit.”
More insight from Wilson on his commitment to Iowa
“As for JMU, and even my high school, I come from a winning culture. I knew what college I picked couldn’t be satisfied with a mediocre season. This also led me to picking Iowa, as they are one of the winningest programs in the Big Ten. Since I was young, I’ve dreamed of having a dedication to a college team, then going to the NFL. At Iowa, I feel I can make this happen. That’s why I’m committed.”
What Wilson learned from getting meaningful playing time on a winning team as a true freshman
“I learned (I) could play with anyone. Going into college, I was nervous that all the other athletes would be a lot bigger, faster, and stronger than me. At JMU, especially against Oregon (in the College Football Playoff), I proved that I can compete with anyone.”
Wilson describes his skillset
“Aggressive and intelligent. I’m going to give my all every play, all while knowing exactly what’s going on in the defense and seeing their movement. After I pick up the movement, I’ll make sure to put them on their back.”
Follow Tyler Tachman on X @Tyler_T15, contact via email at ttachman@gannett.com
TIFFIN, Iowa — Authorities have now identified Lee Earl Krogh, 57, of Iowa City, as the man killed in a shooting outside an apartment building in Tiffin late Saturday morning.
Deputies responded to the 400 block of Iris Court at about 11:44 a.m. and found Krogh outside the building suffering from a gunshot wound, the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said.
Emergency crews took Krogh to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where he was pronounced dead.
Investigators said the shooting appears to be isolated and does not pose an ongoing threat to the public. No arrests have been announced, and authorities have not released information about a suspect or motive.
The investigation is ongoing.
In five of six legislative special elections last year, Democrats overperformed by more than 20 percentage points compared with the 2024 presidential election.
Here are the top 2026 midterm races to follow in Iowa
Des Moines Register Chief Politics Reporter Brianne Pfannenstiel breaks down Iowa’s top races ahead of the 2026 midterms.
Iowa Democrats ended 2025 on a high note, winning a Dec. 30 special election in Des Moines’ western suburbs by a wider margin than during the presidential election.
That capped off a year in which Democrats won four of the six legislative special elections and ended Republicans’ supermajority in the Iowa Senate.
In five of those six special elections, Democrats overperformed by more than 20 percentage points compared with 2024.
They’ll look to build off the momentum going into the pivotal 2026 midterms that will include open races for governor and U.S. senator as well as regular Iowa congressional and Legislature elections.
Whether 2025’s Democratic Party victories are bellwethers or blips will play out this year.
Democrats saw Iowa special elections consistently tilt left
Though Republicans won in two special elections in 2025s, their margins of victory were significantly smaller than 2024.
Republican Wendy Larson won December’s special election for the vacant seat in House District 7 by 40 points. That’s a wide margin, but wide margins are expected for Republicans in that part of the state: The party holds strong advantages in voter registration totals in Calhoun, Pocahontas, Sac and Webster counties, where the district is located.
And even that 40-point margin represented a shift toward the Democrats.
In the 2024 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Kamala Harris by 50 points in House District 7. Democrats didn’t even field a candidate for the district’s legislative seat that year.
The 10-point shift toward Democrats from the 2024 presidential election to the 2025 special election in House District 7 was the smallest of any legislative district that held a special election last year.
Each of the five other districts shifted toward Democrats by more than twice as much.
Moreover, those special elections were spread across the state.
Democrats consistently gathered a greater share of votes from Senate District 1 in the northwest part of the state to House District 100 in the state’s southeast corner, ranging from 10 to 26 percentage points.
The two seats Democrats flipped in special elections — Senate Districts 1 and 35 — each shifted to the left by more than 20 points compared with the 2024 presidential election.
In Senate District 1, Trump outpaced Harris by 11 percentage points in 2024, while Democrat Caitlin Drey won the seat there by more than 10 points in August.
In Senate District 35, Trump’s victory margin in Senate District 35 was more than 21 points. In January 2025, Democrat Mike Zimmer won the district’s Senate seat by 3½ points.
In 2022, Republicans won both those seats by even wider margins than Trump in 2024.
Should Democrats expect momentum to carry over to 2026?
Pushing voters to the left in six isolated special elections is one thing. Parlaying those successes into November’s midterm elections is quite another.
Turnout was key in 2025’s special elections, and it will be again in 2026.
The numbers of votes cast in 2025’s special elections equaled roughly one-quarter to one-third the votes cast in the 2024 presidential election in those districts.
Turnout should be higher in November’s midterms.
Since 2000, the percentage of Iowa’s registered voters who have participated in the midterm elections typically has hovered around 55%. (About 75% of registered Iowans usually vote in presidential elections.)
But what determines an election is less about the number of people who show up and more about who those people are.
An increased share of those who went to the polls in the special elections were Democratic voters — or, perhaps more accurately, a greater number of Republican voters stayed home.
Republicans will be working to get those voters back to the polls this November.
Republicans maintain advantage in Iowa voter registration data
The leftward shift in last year’s special elections has yet to materialize in Iowa’s voter registration numbers.
Over roughly the past 15 years, voter registrations in Iowa have swung heavily toward Republicans.
Democrats, conversely, have lost 200,000 voters in that time, and Republicans have opened up an overall advantage of more than 10 percentage points.
Despite their victories at the ballot box in 2025, Democrats have not chipped into Republicans’ significant lead in voter registrations.
Last year was the first since at least 2000 when the share of active voters who were Republicans was at least 10 percentage points higher than the share who were Democrats throughout the entire year.
Republicans began 2026 with nearly 200,000 more active registered voters than Democrats, among their largest leads this century.
Those two parties do not comprise the entirety of Iowa’s electorate — a large share of Iowa’s active voters are not registered to a party, and a smaller amount are registered to other parties, including Libertarians.
And just because a voter is registered as a Democrat or Republican doesn’t mean they’ll vote for their party’s candidates.
But the large voter deficit indicates Democrats are starting from a less favorable position.
Their special election victories in 2025 proved they can win elections, but they’ll need to make up some ground to replicate that success in 2026.
Tim Webber is a data visualization specialist for the Register. Reach him at twebber@registermedia.com and on Twitter at @HelloTimWebber.
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