Back in the spring of 2003, Feeding Children International of Stewart had a goal of packaging 1 million meals for needy kids across the globe.

John Neisen, who started the area chapter of New Hope-based Feeding Children International, expected it would take three years and feared the organization might go broke doing it.

Instead, it hit the million-meal mark in one year. Through its popular Kids Against Hunger volunteer meal packaging events, the group has packaged 19 million meals, distributed to food shelves in the U.S. and countries in Africa, Central America and the Caribbean.

Will the McLeod County and Bergen Township boards play chicken over a closed bridge?

Both bodies were standing firm last week on how the County Road 84 bridge’s replacement should be paid for. The bridge was closed Dec. 7 after it was found to be structurally deficient.

Edwin LaMott of Silver Lake has been a livestock truck driver for 61 of his 83 years. Even though one of his most frequent destinations, the South St. Paul stockyards, closed April 11, LaMott continues to keep on trucking.

LaMott received the stockyards’ End of an Era trucker award on the 11th, for his loyalty to the South St. Paul Stockyards, Central Livestock — the stockyards’ owner — and his dedication to the livestock industry.

How much longer will this World War II veteran continue to haul cattle, sheep and hogs to market?

By Mary J. Anderson, University of Minnesota Extension

I still have my job. I still get the same salary or hourly rate. I may even receive a cost-of-living increase in my paycheck. But cost-of-living increases in pay will not come close to the increases we will see in the price of food, fuel and housing.

These prices could double when we compare last year’s prices to what they might be by mid-summer. Many families will experience a significant decrease in their ability to purchase many of their basic needs.

The past few months have seen promising signs of progress on the proposed Greenleaf Lake State Recreation Area.

A 386-acre tract, containing nearly all of the shoreline along Greenleaf and Sioux lakes, was purchased in December. A state bonding bill signed into law last week sets aside $2.4 million to help purchase more land within the 1,200-acre proposed area’s boundaries.

And, on April 7, state Department of Natural Resources representatives met with about a dozen area residents to begin planning how the recreation area can serve the public.

The McLeod West School Board voted unanimously to keep the district as a K-12, rather than a K-8, at its Wednesday night meeting (April 9).

A final tally of results from a survey mailed to 1,461 households in the district was not discussed.

The scheduled start of a seven-month State Highway 7 reconstruction project was postponed until Monday, April 21, due to a winter storm predicted for McLeod County and much of central and northern Minnesota for today (Thursday, April 10) and continuing through Saturday morning (April 12).

Kelly Brunkhorst, a project engineer for the state Department of Transportation, said the project still has a November estimated completion date.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)