Today’s scheduled City of Kalona “Pop-up Food Pantry” has been moved to next Saturday, February 27th.

City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh says the decision to delay the event was the result of snow and sub-zero temperatures, “Due to the weather mid-week and where we get our food from, we were just a little uneasy as to whether we would receive that (food) in a timely fashion, so we did move it to the 27th so we could have a little better window of weather next week to get that (in), so we’re going to go the 27th..”

Schlabaugh says they’ll have another 200 boxes of food ready to distribute to those in need next Saturday from 9 to 11 a.m. at the public works building. He says through generous public donations and supplemental supplies from Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP), they will dispense between 10-15,000 pounds of food.

Schlabaugh says they’re assessing the future of the pop-up food pantries as well as their weekly deliveries of food bags and hot meals to seniors, which have been extended into the first couple of weeks in March. He says they’re looking at getting church and volunteer groups involved to help lighten the workload for city staff.