EAST PETERSBURG, LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa.-- It's hard to always eat a healthy and balanced diet, most of the time. However, eating a nutritious meal helps you keep your focus and gives you energy throughout the day. One program in Lancaster County is playing a role in helping kids eat better, by providing them with healthier meal options.
The Power Packs Project is a non-profit organization with a goal of helping children in their program eat better so they can focus and work more efficiently in school.
The program is working with 45 schools in 12 districts. They help nearly 1,500 families across Lancaster County and have over 350 volunteers helping pack and distribute food.
The volunteers play a big role in making sure each family in the program has grocery items to make meals over the weekend. Amy Jordan, the Co-Director of the Hempfield Power Packs Program says each pack includes a recipe, ingredients to make that recipe, and other items to stock a pantry.
Different volunteers help unpack the food, pack the bags, bring the bags to the schools, and then distribute them to the families.
The organization purchases their food from the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank in Harrisburg but they also get help from community donors, businesses, local residents and more.
The Power Packs Project was originally founded in a school district in Lancaster City, with a purpose for kids to come to school not hungry and ready to learn.
"Families enroll through their school to be apart of the program and they pick up the pack every Thursday, our purpose is to help provide them with recipes they can reproduce on a low budget," says Jordan.
Right now they are wrapping up their summer program where they were serving around 40 families every week, but typically Jordan says they serve 80 or more families.