Multi-ethnic, mixed age group of volunteers work together at food bank. They pack sacks and boxes of food for needy people in their community. Man gives sack full of groceries to needy family.
Power Pack Project feeds kids and their families on weekends
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Scott LaMar
Multi-ethnic, mixed age group of volunteers work together at food bank. They pack sacks and boxes of food for needy people in their community. Man gives sack full of groceries to needy family.
Airdate: December 13, 2022
More than 1.7 million children in Pennsylvania qualify for free lunches and breakfasts at their schools. But what about on the weekends when there are no classes and no lunch or breakfasts periods?
In Lancaster and Lebanon Counties, the Power Pack Project has a stated mission of “empowering families with education and ingredients to create nutritious weekend meals, so their children can return to school fed and ready to learn.”
Brad Peterson, the Executive Director of the Power Pack Project joined us on The Spark Tuesday and explained the project’s mission,”What it boils down to is we’re trying to empower families to make healthier food choices. And by doing that and what we do is every week, families that are enrolled in the power packs program, they get a pack of food. Included in that is a recipe and all the ingredients for that recipe. We we want to introduce them to some new foods and show them that they can eat a healthy meal on a budget. With that recipe, we give them the cost of the ingredients if they would go out to the grocery store to buy it. We try to keep it to about 5 to $7 this year. Sometimes it’s been more around ten because we’ve all seen what the prices are like at the grocery store. And it’s about empowering them to do that and giving food, the food and the nutrition to the kids that they need. Just as you read. So Monday mornings when they go back to school, they’re not worrying about a rumbling in their belly because they haven’t really eaten or weakened. They’re ready to learn and have academic success.”
Peterson was asked how many meals are being served each week,”We are now in nine school districts in Lancaster County, five school districts in Lebanon County, about 90 total schools. And we’re providing somewhere in the ballpark right now of about. Oh. 14,000 meals a week.”
Peterson talked about the number of children going without meals every weekend,”There are 15,000. Give or take. Food insecure kids in just Lancaster County and. It’s heartbreaking to think that these kids are going without. There was a recent community needs assessment done in Lancaster County. About 13% of families said they regularly skip meals to make ends meet and that one of the biggest challenges they have is finding getting access to healthy food. And that’s why we’re here trying to fill that meal gap, trying to provide some of that to them for the families who are really struggling to put food on their tables for their kids.”
