by Elise Person | CBS 21
Wed, January 24th 2024 at 6:11 PM
NutriPacks, a volunteer organization within the Central Dauphin School District (CDSD), helps combat food insecurity among students within the district.
It serves over 1,200 households in the district, packing more than 800 meal packs for 1,890 students to have enough food for over the weekends and on breaks.
CommunityAid foundation gave NutriPacks a $25,000 grant donation on Wednesday to allow the volunteer group to continue serving CDSD families.
NutriPacks program director, Pam Jones said since May 2023, the program saw a 36 percent increase in the number of students regularly picking up food each week.
CDSD assistant superintendent, Aaron McConnell said the program has grown from just providing canned food and dry goods.
“Now, they’ve expanded the program into milk and eggs and meat,” McConnell said.
According to McConnell, in 13 of the 19 schools in the district, over 40 percent of students qualify for free lunch.
He said they are expecting that number to grow.
The Central PA Food Bank’s policy research senior manager, Zach Zook said they’ve seen an increase in school aged children needing services across Central PA. Data from the Food Bank shows a nearly 30 percent increase in families with school-aged children making visits to food banks in Central PA over the last year.
“Households with children make up about 41 percent of pantry visitors in the last year,” Zook said.
McConnell said data shows there are lasting impacts on children when they don’t get properly fed over the weekend.
“We found that when kids were hungry over the weekend, it took them until about Wednesday to be able to focus on their education,” McConnell said.
Zook said inflation is impacting those nationwide, with data showing food insecurity increasing by 25 percent across the country.
Jones said NutriPacks purchases their food from the Central PA Food Bank, but inflation has taken it’s toll there as well.
“Costs at the Food Bank have also risen even though we don’t pay the grocery store prices, you know we have discounted rates at the food bank,” Jones said.
She said currently, there are no eligibility requirements for anyone in CDSD to sign up for NutriPacks.
Jones also said the hope for the program is for it to expand to serve families over the summer months as well.
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