A generous donation will help a Nevada nonprofit fight food insecurity.
Ames Bottle and Can has donated monthly to local nonprofits for nearly three years, giving away more than $11,000.
Their most recent donation was a $1,100 check to Nevada Community Cupboard on Tuesday, an organization that provides food and some personal items to Story County residents in need.
Ames Bottle and Can donates to a specific nonprofit organization each month, using money from recycling and residential donations to help fund the initiative. The Community Cupboard was chosen as December’s recipient.
The Community Cupboard and the Redemption Center connected thanks to the vision of ABC employee Ron Brodie. His mother serves on the Nevada Community Cupboard’s board of directors.
Brodie saw a group in need and acted, noting how food can often be scarce during the coldest part of the year.
“I knew the winter months are harder to get food donations for the cupboard,” Brodie said. “When COVID-19 started, there was an influx in families coming for food and it just hasn’t gone back down after that point.”
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ABC opened on Dec. 1, 2022 at 5820 Lincoln Way, Suite 106. Co-owners Burger and Jay Vaughn were inspired by the changes to Iowa’s bottle bill, which increased handling fees for redemption centers. They also noticed that Ames lacked a redemption center, a perfect opportunity to support their home county.
“We have lived in Story County our entire lives,” Vaughn said. “We want to make sure that we’re giving back to Story County as a whole, the county that helped raise us.”
Locals can recycle cans and bottles at the center, where ABC sorts and distributes them to recycling companies. Burger said some people simply want to recycle their bottles and cans and don’t care about the monetary reward, which helps pad the donation fund.
“Our customers who come in and don’t care about getting the payment themselves and just want to see their cans recycled can donate to the monthly non-profit,” Burger said. “We keep a running total of how many cans and bottles have been donated over the course of that month, then write a check at the end of the month.”
The nonprofit of the month program started when the redemption center opened and has quickly surpassed $11,200 in donations.
“We were service-oriented from the beginning, so (the program) kind of went hand in hand with that,” Burger said. “There are so many great organizations in the area; this is a way that we could give back to them.”
ABC has already selected the nonprofits it will donate to in 2024, which includes the Ames Elementary PTO, the Ames History Museum, Friends of the Ledges, Story County Theatre Company and several other organizations in Boone, Story and Polk County.
ABC is taking donation applications for 2025 now.
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Located at 1110 11th Street, Nevada Community Cupboard has served rural Story County for more than 30 years. The board of directors is comprised of one member from each of Nevada’s churches, while the facility itself is open from 10-11:30 a.m. on Saturdays.
The nonprofit aims to end hunger by welcoming any resident of Story County.
“We’re a community cupboard for people in need of groceries,” Board Member Kenzie Alderson said. “We’re not going to provide it all, but we help with those things.”
The nonprofit uses its in-house funds and donations to purchase groceries through the Food Bank of Iowa.
The Community Cupboard has noticed an uptick in residential traffic as grocery prices have risen in recent years. Board member Teresa Haaland said prices rose when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020 and haven’t decreased since, motivating the shelter to provide more for families in need.
She’s appreciative of Ames Bottle and Can’s genoristy, knowing the $1,100 will help feed several local families.
“Because of the increase of grocery prices, we really need (ABC’s donation) because we’ve got an increase in families,” Haaland said. “We used to give visitors a gift card from Fareway for $7 every four weeks they came, but because of the lack of being able to get things like eggs and milk we upped it to $10.”
Nevada Community Cupboard’s role has only increased since the pandemic, and volunteers are dedicated to keep one of the few local food pantries in operation.
Celia Brocker is a government, crime, political and education reporter for the Ames Tribune. She can be reached at CBrocker@gannett.com.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A string of deadly crashes in and around Pahrump has prompted Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill to push for more safety measures along dark, sidewalk-free roads.
“The worst penalty is death, if you consider that,” McGill said.
The recent deaths include a single-vehicle rollover on State Route 160 during the morning hours of the last Wednesday in January that killed one person and injured another.
Then, into February, two pedestrians were killed in less than three days.
The first was a 7 p.m. crash on Quarter Horse Avenue. Investigators believe a 2006 Jeep Liberty was driving on the street when it hit a pedestrian, who was pronounced dead at the scene.
A few days later, this last Saturday, state troopers responded to a crash just after sundown at Charleston Park Avenue. A sedan hit a pedestrian, who was also pronounced dead at the scene.
Nevada State Police investigators are still investigating both pedestrian cases before more details are released.
McGill said the recent crashes were enough to spur action.
“When the third one came out, I was sitting at home and watching TV. I looked at my wife and I said, ‘We got to do something about this,’” McGill said.
McGill is responding with a reflective vest giveaway, pointing to limited infrastructure as a possible factor. He noted a lack of street lights off State Route 160 and no sidewalks inside the community.
“The only light that you have is the ambient light from houses and cars so it is really dark,” McGill said.
John Treanor of AAA Nevada said poor visibility can quickly turn dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians.
“It is very easy to be confronted with a situation that you cannot see coming because the visibility might be bad,” Treanor said.
Treanor encouraged pedestrians to carry lights and drivers to be prepared if they end up outside their vehicles in dark conditions.
“Having lights on you. Even carrying a flashlight allows something where a driver can see it,” Treanor said. “If you are a driver, make sure you have the right stuff in your car, in case you do get in a situation where you are on the side of the road and now you are in dark. Make sure you have a kit with some reflectors, some lights. Anything the trunk of your car in case you need it.”
McGill said vigilance is important even in daylight.
“Any time of the day, you have got to be vigilant. You have to keep aware of your surroundings if you are a walker or on a bicycle or if you are the driver,” he said.
Authorities also urged caution as more people may pull off roads in rocky areas along the route toward Death Valley National Park during springtime blooms, increasing the need for drivers and pedestrians to stay alert.
A waterfront mansion on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe just sold for $46 million, less than three weeks after hitting the market.
The speedy deal marks a departure from the typical U.S. market.
Nationwide, homes took a median 78 days to land a buyer in January, five more than the same time last year and the 22nd straight month of homes taking longer to sell on a year-over-year basis, according to data from Realtor.com.
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The lavish log cabin-like residence, in Incline Village, listed on Jan. 24 for $47.5 million. It sold 20 days later, on Feb. 13, listing records show.
The more than 7,000-square-foot residence was built in 2014, and has double-height living spaces, walls of windows, beamed ceilings, fireplaces, and plenty of rustic exposed stone and wood, listing images show.
There’s also a gym, a wet bar, a spa, a wine room, an office, two separate game rooms, seven bedrooms and dramatic Lake Tahoe views. Outside, there’s a private sandy beach, multiple decks, a heated driveway and two exterior fireplaces, according to listing information.
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The seller and the buyer are both limited liability companies, according to property records. Both parties were represented by Jeff Brown of Tahoe Mountain Realty, who declined to comment on the deal.
The median home price in Incline Village was $1.595 million as of December, a fall of 3.3% from a year earlier, according to data from Realtor.com. Listings, meanwhile, spent an average of 130 days on the market.
Updated February 26, 2026 – 8:28 pm
click to expand photos
Green Valley’s softball team claimed an 8-6 win at Liberty on Thursday on the first day of high school spring sports competition in Nevada.
Green Valley next hosts Silverado at 3 p.m. Friday. Liberty plays at Bishop Gorman at 3 p.m. Friday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
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