Tornado Packs: A Ministry of Feeding Local Children

 

Did you know that with the absence of a school lunch over the weekend, children in our community go hungry? The Tornado Packs Program, named after our public school district’s mascot, the Tornadoes, is a food ministry that was created in 2020 to combat this weekend food insecurity throughout the school year. Hundreds of Storm Lake students have benefited since.

Starting in 2023, Lakeside Presbyterian Church began hosting the Tornado Packs Program. Each week, October through May, volunteers gather for about an hour to pack shelf-stable food, such as juice boxes, granola bars, small cereal boxes, microwavable cups of macaroni & cheese, etc. in storage bags for some of the youngest Storm Lake Tornadoes to take home on Fridays so they can have snacks and lunches throughout the weekend. In fall of 2025, we also started providing packs for the Kindergarten class at St. Mary's.

Funding

During the 2025-2026 school year we had Income of $26508.15, total expenses - $21042.67. The difference is $5465.48 in the black.

Percentage wise the income breaks down like this:

  • - 67% Individuals

  • - 15% Businesses

  • - 4% service clubs

  • - 4% came from other churches

  • - 3% from memorials

  • - 7% came from Our church through a portion of the peacemaking offering, Christmas eve offering, synod school service offering, super bowl, and a portion of quilt sales.

We also received a $1500 grant from Kwik Star which was used for product at their store which helped to offset our expenses.

Donations

If you would like to donate, please click the button below. The donations go through Lakeside Presbyterian's donation page, but all money donated to Tornado Packs will go directly towards feeding hungry children in our community.

Donate