One Little Apple Started Something Big

As a national organization, Blessings in a Backpack’s mission is to mobilize communities, individuals, and resources to provide food on the weekends for elementary school children across America who might otherwise go hungry. But, you might not know why or how it got started . . .

Missy Hammerstrom was visiting Roosevelt Perry Elementary School on West Broadway for a community project. As she’s eating lunch with the students, a little girl asks for Missy’s apple. Missy asked if the girl if didn’t get enough to eat in the lunchroom and offered to get her more food.

The girl said, “No. I’m taking it home so I can eat it this weekend.”

Missy was heartbroken by the thought that kids in her community were going home hungry.

So, that night, she drove to the store and purchased every backpack that she could find. She filled those backpacks with food, and donated the backpacks to Roosevelt Perry Elementary. At that moment, Blessings in a Backpack was born.

Sadly, Missy passed away in 2010, but her legacy lives on every Friday of the school year when kids leave school with a backpack full of food.

On Friday, September 28, 2018, Missy’s family joined Blessings in a Backpack’s Louisville staff and Engelhard Elementary School volunteers to pack more than 400 bags of food for the weekend.

The Hammerstrom family was recognized with a proclamation from Mayor Greg Fischer declaring Sept. 29, 2018, “Melissa Hammerstrom Day” in Louisville.

Missy Hammerstrom

Missy Hammerstrom’s family