Power Packs Project

The Power Packs Project aims to improve the mental and physical health of the children in the program by helping their parents provide nutritious meals over weekends when the school breakfast and lunch programs are unavailable to them. The Power Packs Project recognizes the vital role that nutrition plays in the ability of children to learn in school. According to the Center on Hunger and Poverty  

Hungry children have a hard time learning in school, have short attention spans and, suffer more absence due to illness. The Power Packs Project does not solve the problem with highly processed, highly sugared and expensive pre-packaged foods. Instead, each week a recipe for a low-cost meal and the ingredients to make it is provided in addition to staples like peanut butter, and cereal. Empowering the participating families to better use their food dollars and assure their children are well-fed and ready to learn at school is the goal of the program.

What started as a program in one school in 2005 has grown to over 50 distribution sites in in 11 school districts across Lancaster County. Currently there are over 1600 families being served each weekend during the school year and about 400 families in the summer.

Over 350 volunteers at the warehouse and distribution points give their time each week to ensure that the participating parents have the groceries and the tools to provide complete meals to their families over the weekends.