Finance committee approves up to $50,000 to Feeding Medina County for city residents

Medina — The Medina City Council finance committee voted to approve an ordinance authorizing a donation of up to $50,000 to Feeding Medina County to support food distributions targeted to city residents during the holiday season and into January if needed.

Council chair John described the proposal as a city response to rising food insecurity and cited city data that “11.4 percent of our population who is on the SNAP program or other similar program that qualifies,” as part of the rationale for city assistance.

Chet and other council members reported conversations with Feeding Medina County. Chet said the nonprofit’s drive-through plan would likely reach 100–150 families in a single event and that the nonprofit already uses a check-in process that records client addresses. Feeding Medina County representative Janet (identified in discussion as the executive director) told the committee the organization has served over 300 city residents from Jan. 1 through Nov. 10, 2025, and approximately 100 seniors, and estimated a $50,000 donation “could easily feed at least 300 people” and likely up to 400 people for a week’s worth of groceries depending on food costs.

Councilors raised privacy concerns about publishing client names in council records. Janet said she could provide addresses and demographic breakdowns (number of adults, children, seniors served) without releasing names because the partner food bank agreement includes privacy provisions; the committee asked the law director to amend the draft ordinance so section 4 reports addresses (not names) back to the city.

An unidentified councilor moved to approve the ordinance with an emergency clause, subject to the law director’s final approval of the wording; the motion passed.

What happens next: the law director will review and finalize the ordinance language to allow address-based verification; Feeding Medina County will schedule distributions and provide address-level reporting to the city without publishing client names.