The City of Kalona is suspending their pop-up pantry and senior bags food programs while deliveries of hot meals to seniors will continue in an altered form.

City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh says they’ve hosted 10 drive through, pop-up pantries since last April with assistance from Hawkeye Area Community Action Program (HACAP), distributing almost 80,000 pounds of food to those in need. He salutes the generous donations received to keep the program going through the winter months, but it’s now time to take a pause, “It being sustainable on the financial side of it and also on the labor side of it is, we’ve seen our numbers go down a little bit on a couple of different levels, I think it’s really time, and the council supported it, it’s time we regroup and re-evaluate those programs.”

Schlabaugh says the warmer months ahead coupled with more people getting COVID-19 vaccinations has lowered demand for the pantries, so they’ll suspend operations with hopes of bringing them back in the fall. However, he says if someone faces a food emergency, the city does have some food in reserves to help those in need if they contact city hall.

Schlabaugh says the success of the pantries led to the start of the food bags and hot meal deliveries for seniors in Kalona and Wellman, but those programs also are seeing changes. He says the food bags have been discontinued and the hot meals will remain free through March 11. After that, meals will cost between $4 and $7 based on a sliding income scale.