OUR STORY
OUR MISSION
The mission and joy of Grace Packs Inc. is to provide weekly weekend food for students who lack an ample food supply, relieving the burden many of these children endure by being hungry. Our goal is to furnish breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack items at the end of each school week to students who may be suffering from food insecurity.
OUR HISTORY
Simple beginnings. As the 2011-2012 school opened, Lisa Ferrick and Laura Klosterman felt led to begin the Grace Packs program. Students were showing the “face of hunger” in various ways. Some visited the nurse’s office on Mondays complaining of stomach aches or headaches. Some students were hoarding or stealing food in the cafeteria, while others freely shared with staff members that they were hungry.
2011 – 2012
Grace Packs starts on October 7, 2011 at Oak Hammock K-8 School.
2012 – 2013
We receive our first news coverage in a local newspaper, and we add our second school, Morningside Elementary School.
2013 – 2014
We welcome our seventh school.
July 2014
Grace Packs Inc. gains tax-exempt status and is now recognized as a 501(c)(3) public charity.
2014 – 2015
We are serving students in 11 St. Lucie Public Schools.
2015 – 2016
We are pleased to welcome our 15th participating school in late Spring.
2016 – 2017
We begin serving our first high school and are blessed to be feeding 601 children every weekend by the years’ end in our 22 schools!
August 2017
The Grace Packs Pantry opens. We are so grateful that Sunlight Community Church has given us pantry space!
2017 – 2018
We are serving students in 26 St. Lucie Public Schools from our centralized pantry.
2018 – 2019
We send an even 16,000 Grace Packs home this school year! By the end of the school year, we are serving 734 students each weekend.
2019 – 2020
We are serving just over 600 students in 32 schools weekly when schools close in March 2020. During Covid-19 we are sending Emergency Family Boxes to families during Spring and Summer 2020.
2020 – 2021
We assemble and deliver 11,252 Grace Packs during the 2020/2021 school year. As the school year ends, 573 students are on our rosters in over 30 St. Lucie Public Schools.
2021 – 2022
We are grateful to ‘extend our reach’ with a trial initiative called Extended Grace Family Boxes over Christmas and Easter break to help many of our families.
2022 – 2023
Grace Packs and Indian River State College share ideas with the goal of increasing IRSC Pioneer Pantry outreach, impacting a higher number of food insecure college students.
2023 – 2024
Grace Packs Inc. receives the St. Lucie County Chamber of Commerce 2024 Business and Industry Award!