Morning Sun, IA

The Horzions committee became aware that food stamps were no longer accepted in Morning Sun. They have begun working with DHS to coordinate food stamp acceptance at local grocers.

>The next big fundraiser for the Morning Sun Community Center is the “Get On The Bandwagon” event on Saturday, May 31^st.   Bring your lawn chair and find a seat “inside” the painted outline of the new community center.  (On Main Street, the site of the old Delzell Shop.) In the morning donuts from Casey’s will be available.  Then there’s music, music, music thru the day!  Walk-ons invited!!  Stage, Electric Piano and Sound System provided!A great lunch of Maidrites, hotdogs, chips and cookies will be served up by the staff of Iowa State Bank.  All proceeds from food and other donations made that day will go toward the monies currently being raised to match the Vision Iowa Grant that the Community Center Committee has been awarded.A $5,000 challenge match for the day has been announced – meaning all the money donated that day, up to $5,000 will be matched by another donor.  In addition, Mr. Graber has agreed to match the first $100 in change raised by the school children and Music and Spanish Teacher Mrs. Nancy Martin has agreed to match the 2^nd $100 in change from the kids.  Look for the big bottle of change to fill up during the day!All children who come to the event during the day will be invited to put their handprints on a banner that will show how many people have worked on the wonderful musical event!Bring your The next big fundraiser for the Morning Sun Community Center is the “Get On The Bandwagon” event on Saturday, May 31^st.   Bring your lawn chair and find a seat “inside” the painted outline of the new community center.  (On Main Street, the site of the old Delzell Shop.) In the morning donuts from Casey’s will be available.  Then there’s music, music, music thru the day!  The line up includes the following:·         10am-11am - MS Elementary vocal and instrumental solos·         11-11:30am - Smooth Harmony, the Famed Barbershop Group from Mediapolis High School·         11:30am-12pm – The Morning Sun Elementary Spring Program·         12-12:30pm- Valentin Ruiz with Hispanic Music·         12:30-1pm - Various community solo performances including Miss Louisa County!·         1-2pm – Mediapolis High School  instrumental performances ·         Walk-ons invited!!  Stage, Electric Piano and Sound System provided!A great lunch of Maidrites, hotdogs, chips and cookies will be served up by the staff of Iowa State Bank.  All proceeds from food and other donations made that day will go toward the monies currently being raised to match the Vision Iowa Grant that the Community Center Committee has been awarded.A $5,000 challenge match for the day has been announced – meaning all the money donated that day, up to $5,000 will be matched by another donor.  In addition, Mr. Graber has agreed to match the first $100 in change raised by the school children and Music and Spanish Teacher Mrs. Nancy Martin has agreed to match the 2^nd $100 in change from the kids.  Look for the big bottle of change to fill up during the day! All children who come to the event during the day will be invited to put their handprints on a banner that will show how many people have worked on the wonderful musical event!Bring your change, or your checkbook and a chair and enjoy the day of musical entertainment and community fun on Saturday in Morning Sun!  (In case of inclement weather, the event will be held inside the Morning Sun Elementary School.)

MORNING SUN - Three months after the Morning Sun Market went up for sale, the store has drawn little interest from individual buyers, leaving residents concerned that the community’s only grocery store may be headed out of business.
But not if the town’s residents have anything to say about it. At a meeting hosted by the Louisa Development Group, more than 50 residents discussed the possibility of starting a grocery cooperative, or co-op, to manage the store.
Morning Sun’s Terry Crawford has owned the store, along with his wife, Julie, for the last eight years. Asked why he chose to sell, he answered simply, “Too many hours.”
Last year, the store’s supplier, Affiliated Foods Midwest, announced that it would no longer supply to stores that purchase less than $10,000 a week in groceries. As longtime member store, the Morning Sun Market had previously been exempted through a grandfather clause, Crawford said; but not any longer.
Since then, Crawford has been buying his groceries from Dave’s Foods in Mt. Pleasant, which doesn’t deliver to Morning Sun. So Crawford has to get in his truck to drive down every week, and bring the groceries back himself. “It makes Thursday a lot longer,” he said.
And it means higher costs, which have affected Crawford’s ability to keep the store’s three paid employees, to say nothing of his own profit margin.
“We don’t go hungry,” he said, “but it’s hard to cut a paycheck.”
Affiliated Foods still supplies a number of grocery stores in the area, including Dave’s and Walgren’s Market in New London. Walgren’s manager Jim Anderson said his store faces a threshold of $9,000 per week, which is sometimes a challenge to meet. “We have to watch it,” he said. “There’s times when we get real close to that.”
Kathy Vance, Louisa County director for the Iowa State University Extension office, said many smaller towns are having a hard time keeping their local stores, both due to large suppliers’ growing unwillingness to continue shipping to smaller stores and because people who work in larger cities tend to shop there.
“I’ve talked to a lot of store owners around the state, and it’s the same everywhere,” she said. “It’s not unique to Morning Sun. But we’re trying to deal with it in Morning Sun before we lose a grocery.”
The market’s troubles happened to coincide with a series of meetings between Morning Sun residents as part of the Horizons program. Sponsored by the Northwest Area Foundation and Iowa State University extension, the program offers grants to bolster smaller communities. Morning Sun has received $4,000 so far, part of which has been spent on various community projects over the past year.
Angie Sanders, the Louisa Development Group’s executive director, raised the possibility of a co-op at the Jan. 9 meeting, where she was met with a positive response. A six-member steering committee was formed by concerned community members, and held its first meeting Jan.18. Members then opted to embark on a fact-finding tour across the state, to examine how other co-ops and small groceries operate. Its findings will be discussed at the committee’s upcoming meeting next week.

Throughout the Horizons process, in Study Circles, and LeadershipPlenty, groups have struggled with transportation issues in Morning Sun. Transportation is often a big problem for people who are in poverty and people who are close to poverty. A group of concerned citizens met to discuss how to solve this issue in Morning Sun and after much discussion they came to realize that they have resources such as the local area BUS service but few people understand how the system works. So the group is partnering with Southeast Iowa Regional Planning and will be offering a training day for the BUS service. They will train different church groups and community organizations so there will be a large group of residents familiar with the system. They are also creating articles for the local paper and instructions to give to new residents and new public transportation users.