Power Packs Project

In 2004, the Club earmarked funds for the "Power Packs Project" to assist with meeting the nutritional needs of Lancaster School children by providing food to them over the weekend.

Nearly 20,000 Lancaster children don't know where or when they'll find their next meal. In Lancaster City alone, more than 71 percent of the district's 11,300 students qualify for free school meals under the federal guidelines.

The Rotary Club of Lancaster helped launch Power Packs Project when it was founded by Joan Espenshade in 2005. The organization provides recipes for low-cost meals, along with the ingredients needed, so that parents may feed their children over the weekend and learn to cook their own affordable and nutritious meals. The program has grown to include four core school districts: Manheim Township, Lancaster, Warwick, and Penn Manor, as well as several partnering districts, and Power Packs now serves 45 schools throughout the county.

Rotary Club of Lancaster past president Liz Martin noted that the Club has provided volunteers, as well as financial support, to Power Packs since the program's inception. "Enhancing child health, improving literacy, and community development are core values of Rotary," explained Martin. "Power Packs ... addresses those issues in a way that touches local families." According to Martin, meeting a child's nutritional needs may result in better grades, and helping families learn to manage their food budgets can lessen their dependence on area food banks and other assistance programs.

Near the end of 2014, the Rotary Club of Lancaster presented Power Packs Project with a grant of $5,000. The funds were earmarked specially to help address food insecurity needs in the Lancaster area. Food insecurity, which refers to not knowing how food for the next meal will be supplied, affects more than 14 percent of United States households.

The donation came about when the Rotary Club of Lancaster provided a Simplified District Grant of $2,500 which was matched by Rotary District 7930.

This grant was instrumental in helping Power Packs to launch EmPower Packs, which is a rebranding of Power Packs to make it more appealing to middle school-age students. EmPower Packs were created with a goal of reducing the stigma associated with receiving free food and making the program more acceptable to middle- schoolers. According to Kim McDevitt, Power Packs Project executive director, the pack is marketed as a self-sustainability kit that helps students learn skills that they can use to live independently. "We are talking about study skills and self-resiliency, and we are adding inspirational literature about teens who have overcome poverty and done great things in young adulthood. The literature is focused and age-appropriate," explained McDevitt.

One reason for creating the special EmPower Packs for young teens was that often these youngsters are responsible for younger children in a household. Each pack will include a recipe, ingredients to make that recipe, two pounds of produce, and additional foods such as peanut butter or cereal. "(The pack) will contain a recipe with all the ingredients to make a meal that costs $5 or less," said McDevitt. "The (cooking) tips (included) will be more focused on the age group we are serving."

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