Weekend Food Packs

Empower Youth provides 1100+ weekend food packs for the students of Bethel-Tate LSD, Batavia LSD, Grant Career Center, Amelia Elementary,  Eastern Brown, Fayetteville-Perry Schools, Felicity-Franklin LSD and Lynchburg-Clay Schools.

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Each pack has a unique name associated with the school mascot or theme of the school. The bags are meant to be an encouragement to families who may find themselves needing a little extra to make groceries stretch. Bags are sent home with the kids every Friday in their backpack and include self-serve foods. Students who participate in the free/reduced lunch program, or who are identified by faculty/staff as needing a hand up, have the opportunity to participate in the program. Discretion is maintained at all times for the students who participate.

Empower Youth spends approximately $16/student per month for these bags. This project works well when we receive consistent funding and not just food donations. We are able to buy milk at a low price but the cost is still $1,800 per month to put just one pint of milk in every bag. The monthly budget for our weekend food bag program is currently at $17,600 during the school year.  Beginning monthly donations is easy. Just click on our donation link and you can donate effortlessly through PayPal or you may send a check monthly.

We are always looking to expand our menu with items that the children can easily prepare, as many of our children cook for themselves. Below is a complete list of weekend food items we collect and send home each week:

NOTE: We are now only collecting peanut free Items.

  • Canned Pasta with Meat

  • Tuna

  • Beanie weenies

  • Ramen Noodles

  • Easy Mac-n-Cheese (individual serving/microwavable)

  • Pop Tarts

  • Granola Bars

  • Instant Oatmeal

  • Crackers/Cookies/Chips

  • Raisins

  • Fruit pouches (NO FRUIT CUPS PLEASE)

  • Individual Sweet Snacks

Volunteers on this team are needed for:

  • Food Collection: Collecting items for our food bags through food drives… great for sports teams, Girl Scouts, Boys Scouts, neighborhoods, workplace.

  • Packing Weekend Food Bags: We pack bags when it’s convenient for the groups wanting to volunteer. If you are interested you email our coordinators at volunteer.empoweryouth@gmail.com and ask them for the open weeks. Then when you find a week that works for your group, you pick your day and time and we show up with a volunteer team to lead you through the process.

  • Delivery Drivers: It takes 6 drivers to run our program.

  • Partner Outreach: Quarterly outreach to the staff of the schools we serve by providing baskets filled with items to uplift and encourage the staff. A great way to say “Thank You” for the job they do.

Contact us at toempoweryouth@gmail.com if you have any other questions regarding this program or if you know of a school that could benefit.

Would you like to start a weekend food pack program at your school?

In order to add a school, we ask that there be at least one teacher, administrator, or counselor at the school who will act as the liaison to distribute the items within the school. We need someone to champion the cause of the weekend packs with the local school community in order for this program to truly succeed. This would include participating in fundraisers that benefit the weekend food pack program for the school.

We are local to Southcentral Ohio but are always up for seeking solutions for schools outside of the areas we currently serve.