By Erin Longchari
Fall 2020
While school certainly looks different this year, one fact remains clear: children consistently learn, problem-solve, and perform better when they’re well-nourished. Our Power Packs program grew out of an understanding that many families depend on their school's free and reduced lunch program to help keep kids fed and focused - and sometimes, those families need a little extra help on the weekends. At the start of the 2020 school year, 1765 children in the Issaquah School District qualified for free and reduced lunch. Here at the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank, we regularly hear from families whose resources continue to be stretched too thin by the enduring effects of COVID-19.
Pre-pandemic, we partnered with counselors, nurses, and school administrators throughout the Issaquah School District to make sure that each school had the right number of Power Packs on site and that they were easily accessible to any child needing a little extra food for the weekend. Now that children are distance-learning at home all day, every day, families face the additional stress of ensuring kids eat all their meals and snacks at home, keeping them fueled and ready to learn. Working parents may not have the ability to stay home to prepare meals, so older siblings have to balance their own online schooling while fixing breakfast and lunch for younger brothers and sisters.
To help families meet these new challenges, we adjusted our Power Packs (Plus!) program to include 5-7 days' worth of kid-friendly, easy-to-prepare breakfast, lunch, and snack options. Packs are available right here at the food bank and all shoppers with children at home - regardless of school district - can pick them up anytime. We are currently working to make Power Packs even more widely available, including partnering with the Issaquah School District to have Packs at select meal distribution sites, as well as at elementary schools on materials pick up days or special events.
With the support and partnership of the Issaquah Schools Foundation, the Issaquah School District, and our generous donors, Power Packs Plus will take the place of our traditional Lunch for the Break program in the 2020-21 school year. Since kids are (likely) studying at home all year, we are focusing our efforts and funds on providing robust weekly food assistance to all K-12 children in our service area, each and every week. As with everything we do here at the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank, Power Packs Plus would not be possible without dedicated donor support.