Ensuring Children Don’t Go Hungry on the Weekends
The Weekend Power Pack program sends backpacks of food, known as Power Packs, home with students on Fridays to meet the nutritional needs of Fauquier County children who have been identified as at risk of hunger on weekends. Each bag contains enough food to feed a family of four for the weekend, providing hunger relief beyond just the individual child. We also ensure that children are sent home with enough food to cover each day missed from school during Thanksgiving, Christmas, Spring break, and all 3-day weekends. We provide an abundance of Snow Day Kits to our schools. These kits contained food that can be sent home in anticipation of weather related cancellations.
FISH’s Weekend Power Pack program provides approximately 471 Fauquier County Public School (FCPS) and Headstart children with food each week during the school year. Program volunteers deliver the bags of food to county schools for the children to take home. New for 2026-27 school year, we’re excited to announce that Power Packs are also available at all 3 of our local libraries, creating even more accessible opportunities for families in need!
During the summer months, FISH partners with Fauquier Reaches for Excellence in School Health (FRESH), Fauquier Community Child Care (FCCC), FCPS, and Fauquier County Public Libraries. During the summer of 2025, we provided 1327 power packs of food to our families in need.
What’s Inside a Power Pack?
Power Packs contain family-sized portions of breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with snacks. Examples of what you might find in a Power Pack include cereal, peanut butter, spaghetti & sauce, granola bars, an apple, and other healthy options. Following the food pantry’s model, we attempt to include at least one DASH (Delicious, Affordable, Simple and Healthy) meal that come with all the ingredients, canned meat, seasoning, and recipe to make a satisfying meal for the family.
Get Involved
Every child in Fauquier County deserves proper nutrition — and you can help make that happen.
Sponsor a Weekend Power Pack: If you or your company would like to sponsor a weekly Power Pack, reach out to us at weekendpowerpack@fauquierfish.org.
Make a one-time gift: Support the program directly with a donation of any size.
Sponsor a child for a year: For just $25/month, you can provide a full year of Weekend Power Packs for a child in need through our Weekend Power Pack Sponsorship Campaign.
Get Help
Please contact your school’s guidance office for information on how to receive a weekend power pack or contact weekendpowerpack@fauquierfish.org and we can send you the contact information. Power packs are also available at all 3 Fauquier County Public Libraries.
Child Hunger Facts
According to the USDA, 15.9 million children in the US live in households where they are unable to consistently access enough nutritious food necessary for a healthy life. Read more from feedingamerica.org & nokidhungry.org.