LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) - This weekend three celebrity chefs combined their talents for Blessing in a Backpack’s “Pack the Sack” event. The annual dinner raises funds to provide meals for kids in need over the weekends when they don’t have access to meals at school.
This year the event featured dishes by chefs James Moran and Joshua Moore and dessert by baker Jaclyn Joseph. Pocket Pencil Case
Joseph won Season 4 of The Food Network’s “Best Baker in America” competition in 2021. Moore was a winner on the show “Chopped” in 2019.
Every year, the Louisville chapter of Blessings in a Backpack feeds thousands of food insecure students using “blessings bags” with meals to get them through the weekends.
“We distribute 5,400 backpacks to kids who qualify for the federal free and reduced lunch program,” said managing director Kim Holsclaw. “Oftentimes they go 65 hours throughout the entire weekend without anything to eat, so that’s where we come in.”
WAVE News anchor Dawne Gee spoke at the event and presented a $10,000 donation from her non-profit, A Recipe to End Hunger.
This year a lack of donations and rising costs forced Blessings in a Backpack to cut 1,400 students from the program. Holsclaw says the organization hopes the funds from this year’s event can help add those kids back to the program next year.
“Once you see the faces of the children that you serve and hand the bag of food to every Friday, once you see how much it means to them, you just want to do more,” Holsclaw said.
For the celebrity chefs, it’s the perfect way to use their skills to give back to kids in need in their hometown.
“I was one of these kids,” Joseph said. “The least you can do is ensure the children in the city that we love are taken care of.”
“Three locals pouring into the community, the cause and what we’re here for is the most important thing,” Moran said. “We got the call, we showed up, we’re ready to go.”
It costs only $150, or $12.50 a month, to feed a child for an entire school year. You can make a one-time donation or sign up to become a monthly donor here.
Plush Animal Pencil Case Copyright 2024 WAVE. All rights reserved.