By McKenzie Romero | Editor
One by one, students at Wendover High School filled 90 boxes with meats, fruits and vegetables, eggs and more.
The packages were bound for people in their far-flung community of 1,130 people on the Nevada border where rising costs and shrinking federal benefits have many struggling, though traditional food aid might not reach them.
In today’s Dispatch we look at a new “community-based food security network” structured to reach rural areas, where Democrats’ leads have slipped in legislative election results and the rising age of first-time homebuyers.
“We came together, and the plan now is to be able to take food to every single county in the state of Utah. It’s a huge undertaking, of course, but it’s also a huge gap that we understand that needs to be taken care of.” — Leo Gonzalez, program manager at Chicanos por la Causa, on the organization’s new food assistance program.
Wendover High School students pack food boxes as part of a new food security network for rural communities in Utah. (Courtesy of Chicanos por la Causa)
By Alixel Cabrera
The number of people experiencing food insecurity in Utah rose by nearly 100,000 people in a year, reaching 445,000 Utahns in January of this year, according to the Utah Food Bank. That includes 1 in 5 children.
After changes implemented in Congress’ spending package known as the “Big, Beautiful bill,” over 5 million people throughout the country have lost access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, including almost 29,000 Utahns, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Rep. Tiara Auxier, R-Morgan, talks to other lawmakers on the House floor at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Katie McKellar
As more votes are tallied in Utah’s legislative races, two House races have flipped, putting Republican Luke Searle now leading Democrat Celeste Johnson by 465 votes in House District 59, and Republican incumbent Rep. Tiara Auxier ahead of Democrat Zane Woolstenhulme by 141 votes in House District 4.
If Republicans keep those leads, they’ll chip slightly at Democrats’ projected gains, but the House GOP’s supermajority is still on track to be broken. On election night, 15 Democrats and two unaffiliated candidates were ahead in 17 House races. Now Republicans are down in 15.
A new residential development is advertising homes for sale in Spanish Fork on Tuesday, July 16, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
STATELINE
By Tim Henderson
The age of the typical first-time homebuyer last year remained stuck at a historic high of 40 years old as younger people continue to get the worst of brutally high prices and interest rates in much of the country, according to new data from the National Association of Realtors.
An increasing number of first-time homebuyers are using all cash rather than taking a mortgage, and those are even older, typically 54, said Jessica Lautz, the association’s deputy chief economist and vice president of research. Cash purchases are usually because of inheritances or other family help.
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