MEETING — Jefferson County commissioners inspect a grant agreement during Thursday’s meeting. -- Linda Harris

STEUBENVILLE — Jefferson County Commissioners said Thursday they’re willing to make a $5,000 donation to make sure area food pantries have enough meals, at least for the short term, to feed food-insecure residents, pending the prosecutor’s approval.

The decision came in response to a presentation by United Way’s Marci Crawford, who told commissioners she wants to bring “Meals of Hope” to Jefferson County. The organization seeks to turn hunger to hope by enlisting the help of community sponsors to pay for the ingredients, volunteers to pack meals and then get them to area food pantries for distribution.

“I’m excited to bring something powerful and some hope to our county, you know, with everybody worried about SNAP benefits, the Urban Mission and everything,” she said.

The administration paused payment of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits due to the ongoing government shutdown, while Urban Mission, faced with hefty funding cuts, recently closed its emergency shelters, sparking concern throughout the community.

Crawford said Meals of Hope will provide the ingredients for 15,000 meals for just $6,500 and told commissioners two area businesses had already committed a combined $1,700. She said she’s also lined up some of the volunteers they’d need to help with the Dec. 8 meal packing event.

“For 15,000 meals we’ll need 30 volunteers, but that’s if I bring in $6,500,” she said. “I have no doubt I’ll get more money than that, because I’m going to try to get as much as I can, because how amazing would it be if we were giving our county 30,000 meals, 50,000 meals?”

She said the ingredients are freeze-dried and shipped to event locations throughout the county, shelf stable.

“It’s all freeze dried,” she said. “You make it as community and it goes to our food pantries, so everything’s there. I’m not asking a lot–I’m not even asking for $6,500 just whatever. Because whatever I get, the more money I get, the more food we can make, and (the meals) will all go to our food pantries. And December 8, it will happen in our food pantries, we’ll have those meals to pass out to people. It’s amazing. It makes me so excited, because everybody’s so worried about, you know, SNAP and Mid-Ohio (food collective) making cuts, and now we can actually, as a community, give some of these people hope and food.”

Commissioners also agreed to:

• Submit a letter of support for the Jobs Plus Program administered by the Jefferson Metropolitan Housing Authority helping residents achieve their employment goals and strengthen workforce development.

• Approved load limit reductions on various roads from Feb. 1 to April 30.

• Leased Logitech a 532 square foot office space in the Tower building. The firm will pay $500 a month in rent from Nov. 1 and continuing through Oct. 31, 2027.