NORMAL Inc. Power Pack Program.

NORMAL Inc in partnership with Maryland Food Bank Western MD Branch and Life House West Church, the Power Pack Back Pack Program was implemented in 2010-11 school year started with just 10 backpacks a week being distributed to schools and has now grown to distribution of over a 215 backpacks a week to six different schools. These Backpacks have meal supplements and nutritious snacks to help children that are in most dangers of going hungry. The NORMAL Inc. Powerpack goal for the 2012-13 school year is to distribute 300 Power Packs to help the Washington County Board of Education Micha's Back Pack reach its goal of all elementary schools adequately served by back packs or school pantries..

The 2011 national average spent per school year per student was $300.00, this puts our program and administrative budget at approximately $99,000 thousand dollars the 2012-13 school year. The total estimated project cost will be approxiamtely $300,000 dollars for the county to be adequatly served if the program is to find any future success. Approximately 450 backpacks are being delivered in Washington County this school calendar year with the numbers increasing on a weekly basis. I f this is the indication of what the future holds for the upcoming 2014-15school year a strategic plan to fund the program must be developed now according to Garry Holman.

Garry Holman states the future of the backpack program is bleak with no funding in the future forecast for the Churches & Agencies that provide the backpacks. Executive Director Tracy McCleary has met with the NORMALInc. Board of Directors and laid out a course of action to help sustain the Power Pack Program for the remainder of the 2014-2015 school year. In giving the national stats listed below we know this program is needed and in our community we are making and impact and we must work harder to find funding to secure the future of the program, stated Tracy to the Board of Directors.

About 55 million school age youth are enrolled in our schools nation wide and over 18% are youth who will go home on the weekend to a home with no food or not enough food. The Power Pack Program provides Backpacks to the school age child and a Care Bag to help families that need extra help.

Stopping hunger is the objective of the program, but the benefits also include:

* Better School Attendance

* Improved School Grades

* Improved Test Scores

* Better Focus and Participation

Each week of the school year backpacks are filled with food and sent home with children identified by the school social worker or guidance office as a child in need and a parent meeting is held to obtain consent from the parent.