According to the American Cleaning Institute’s 2021 National Cleaning Survey, nearly 70 percent of adults in the US say they spring clean every year, down from 78 percent in 2020. Only 10 percent reported this year that they never spring clean. This month, we decided...

Before COVID, nearly 64,000 people, including almost 23,000 children, were facing hunger in Utah County. With numbers like that, there will always be those who step up to bring the numbers down through service. Brent Haymond and the Kiwanis Club in Springville are no...

Have you sampled the mouth-watering cookies delivered straight from the oven from Chip Cookies? Or cut into a fresh sourdough loaf from the Time Traveler’s Bakery? If you live in Utah Valley, the chances are good you’ve come across their products: Chip Cookies now has...

Imagine this: You’re a single mom caring for a teenager and a baby while also looking for a job and working on your college degree. When your baby’s daycare closes because of a COVID-19 outbreak, you miss an interview for a much-needed position. Without a job, you...

Over the past few years, declining mortgage rates have made it easier than ever to afford to buy a house. In 2018, the average annual rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.54 percent, according to Freddie Mac. In 2019, it dropped to 3.94, then to 3.11 in 2020 (the...

Every year, 72 billion pounds of food—worth $218 billion—is thrown out or plowed under instead of being consumed, according to Feeding America. That number includes food from grocery stores, manufacturers, restaurants, and farms; it doesn’t include food people waste...

It’s easy to focus on the bad of 2020 because, let’s face it—so many things went wrong in 2020, from a global pandemic to the worldwide economic crisis. Successes happened, too, though, thanks to grants and people who care about their community. With the help of...

The pandemic has cast such a heavy cloud over 2020, with sickness, death, economic issues, isolation—the list goes on and on. So it can be hard to remember the good that happened this year. For us, the bright spot was seeing how the community came together to help...

It’s hard to feel the holiday spirit when the Centers for Disease Control say there’s no safe way to hold a holiday gathering and when the governor tells you not to socialize with anyone outside of your household. So you can’t have a party or a big holiday meal, you...

The Circles initiative in Utah Valley empowers people with the resources and community support they need to get out of poverty. In 2019 alone, 39 percent of its participants got off public assistance, 50 percent decreased their debt, and 65 percent increased their...