Every Friday afternoon, 162 students at Portsmouth Elementary School in southern Ohio head home with a bag of nutritious food and snacks to ensure they have enough to eat over the weekend. And it’s all because of Steven Hunter, a Portsmouth High School graduate and beloved son who passed away unexpectedly at age 21.
His parents, Mark and Virgie, said Steven had always been concerned about the well-being of other children from a very early age.
“He was drawn to be a friend to the child who seemed to have no friends, and he would ask us for extra lunch money to buy extra milk or food for his friends who appeared hungry,” Mark said. “His compassion for others grew into young adulthood and was rooted in his strong Christian faith.”
After his passing on Jan. 18, 2006, Steven’s parents immediately began honoring his life and legacy of helping children in need. In lieu of flowers at the funeral, they asked for donations to be sent to his alma mater to help kids with various financial needs. That day, the Steven A. Hunter Hope Fund was born, inspired by his endless enthusiasm, compassion, and faith.
The Hope Fund eliminates barriers for children living in low-income households by fulfilling their basic needs and providing opportunities to achieve their full potential.
“For the first four years, we were offering assistance to Portsmouth High and Jr. High School students only,” Mark said. “We were open to providing financial assistance to any child whose needs weren’t being met — for clothing, shoes, glasses, field trip or excursion fees, and scholarship assistance. The idea was to level the playing field to ensure they had the same advantages as other children.”
Steven’s Power Packs
In 2010, the Hunters decided to broaden their mission after learning that many children in their community didn’t have enough food on the weekends. At the time, the Ohio Department of Education reported that Portsmouth City Schools had the highest percentage of children receiving free and reduced lunches.
“I came home from work one day and Virgie told me we weren’t doing enough for the kids at school,” Mark said. “She learned that there were children right here in our community who only received their meals at school throughout the week and had little or nothing to eat over the weekends.”
The couple began looking for a way to help meet the need. Virgie started reading about weekend backpack programs operated by churches in larger metropolitan areas and discovered that Cincinnati Freestore Foodbank provided pre-assembled “Power Packs” to several of these programs. Power Packs are food bags that contain 15 nutritious, shelf-stable, and easy-to-prepare items for children to take home over the weekend.
The Hunters met with Freestore Foodbank and began a partnership that would provide Power Packs to children at Portsmouth Elementary and East Portsmouth Elementary schools. Every week since then, the food bank has delivered the Power Packs to Portsmouth, where they are picked up by local school representatives and taken to schools for distribution.
Teachers, counselors, and other school personnel are vital to the success of the program, as they identify students who show signs of food insecurity and distribute Power Packs during school every Friday afternoon. At Portsmouth Elementary, a team of three staff members discretely labels, organizes, and delivers the food bags to desks outside classrooms.
Ali Adkins, counselor for Portsmouth elementary and junior high schools, is part of that team and sees first-hand both the need and the impact weekend food bags make for her students.
“In Portsmouth, we have high poverty rates and low median household incomes,” she explained. “Children who are food insecure may be more likely to be absent from school or lack focus. We try to take care of their basic needs while they are with us, but the Power Pack program helps us reach their needs on the weekends.”
Adkins said there is an excitement among students on Fridays when they see her team distributing Power Packs.
“All the time, I hear kids say, ‘It’s Power Pack Day!’ when we are in the hallways with the bags of food,” she said. “One of the third-grade students told me that he loves getting his Power Packs and always gives me hugs whenever he is near. Another student told me that the Power Packs ‘really help me and my family’.”
The Hunters try to visit each school once or twice a year and always receive a heartwarming welcome from children.
“When we are introduced as the folks responsible — at least the face of Steven’s Hope Fund — we receive many hugs from the kiddos,” Mark said. “What a precious gift to us!”
A Growing Need
While Steven’s Power Packs started in Portsmouth schools, the Hunters have expanded the program over 16 years to serve an ever-increasing number of children with food insecurity.
“There are many more children facing hunger now due to the higher cost of groceries and reductions in SNAP benefits,” Mark explained. “School districts are requesting an increased number of Power Packs, and we continue to have new districts joining the program.”
With support from local schools, community donations, and grant funding, the Hope Fund now provides weekly Power Packs to nearly 1,500 children in 22 elementary schools throughout Scioto, Pike, and Adams counties in southern Ohio, which have some of the highest child poverty rates in the state.
Feeding Teens
Recognizing that hunger doesn’t end after elementary school, the Hunters partnered with Portsmouth Junior/Senior High School in 2018 to open the first Steven’s Power Pantry on the school’s campus.
The Hope Fund has since opened eight more school-based pantries throughout Scioto, Pike, and Adams counties. They provide students access to nutritious food and snacks, as well as household, health, and hygiene items.
Like the Power Pack program, Power Pantries are also made possible by a partnership with FreeStore Food Bank. The Hope Fund gives each pantry a food budget, and school personnel place online orders to the food bank. Pantries also receive shelving, refrigerators, and freezers.
A Valued Partner
Since its inception, the Steven A. Hunter Hope Fund has provided the equivalent of over 2 million meals to children in southern Ohio schools, as well as school supplies, clothing, financial assistance, fresh produce, and more.
The Hope Fund has become a longtime, valued partner of the Pallottine Foundation of Huntington, receiving its first grants in 2020 to build a new website and purchase 10,000 Power Packs for children. Since that time, the Foundation has invested over $168,000 to help the Hunters and southern Ohio schools reduce childhood hunger.
“The Hunters are fierce advocates for children and families in the communities they serve,” said Claire Snyder, Senior Program Officer for Learning and Impact at the Pallottine Foundation. “We are continually inspired by their leadership in addressing gaps in rural food access and ensuring resources reach students where they are. The Hope Fund demonstrates that love, faith, and deep community commitment can be transformed into lasting, meaningful change.”
The Hope Fund is supported entirely by community donations, fundraising initiatives, and grant awards. To learn how you can help, or for more information, visit www.stevenshopefund.org or call 740-352-5321.
Steven A. Hunter Hope Fund 2025 Distributions
- 51,174 Power Packs to 1,450 students
- 74,982 lbs. of in-school pantry food
- 5,000 pairs of Bombas socks
- 868 winter coats
- 325 pairs of shoes
- 53,530 lbs. of fresh produce
