2025: A Year in Review

It truly does take a community to be able to make great things happen. And YOU are our community. This year we get to celebrate a record number of snack bags: 15,097! That’s 3,401 more than last year. And while that’s certainly worth getting excited about, we know that we don’t do what we do in order to hit a new record. We pour our hearts and our efforts into this group because it helps to meet a very real need out there. 

We partner with Fern Creek UMC Street Reach, The Forgotten Louisville, Jacob’s Ladder, Jacob's Generation, Keep Louisville Warm, Louisville Outreach for the Unsheltered, Southend Street Angels, and Homeland Homeless Outreach to distribute these snack bags into the community where they are needed the most - like the camps that are now hidden away to stay protected from being cleared away. I served at some of these camps recently, and I can tell you that I still feel such joy to be a part of something that means so much to those fighting food insecurity. They depend on these bags as much as they depend on the other items essential for survival, like heat sources and potable water. 

So THANK YOU to our donors, supporters, volunteers, outreach partners, and our corporate donors. Below we’d like to recap what we were able to do together. This end-of-the-year summary is exhaustive, but not all-inclusive. We also have several anonymous donors and those who give bags without sending pictures to post. Thank you ALL for ALL of your hard work and generosity.

Thank you so much to Greg Drake and the great people at Spectrum for including us in their community giving program again this year! Pictured (right image) are a representative from Spectrum, Kentucky House Minority Leader Pamela Stevenson, Spectrum employee Greg Drake, and Snacks in Sacks board member Angela Doyle. 

Our heartfelt thanks to those pictured above as well as those who sent in donations ahead of the event. We had a great bag-making event at the Academy For Individual Excellence in February, and we were able to make 1,135 snack bags. A special thank you to Barrett Traditional Middle School Beta Club for all of your help!  

Thanks to  Village School of Louisville for including Snacks in Sacks in their service gathering. Students and families brought supplies and put together 60 snack bags for the houseless in our community. 

Many thanks to our friends at  Ahrens Work Transition Program for making and dropping off 755 total snack bags this year. And THANK YOU to Knowfully Learning Group for the grant that supported this invaluable partnership for its 5th year.

A huge shoutout to our friends at Christ Church United Methodist. They showed up BIG for us this year making 1,141 snack bags for outreach in March as well as featuring us as the beneficiary of their VBS fundraising efforts. Their successful campaign raised over $3,000, and they hosted a snack bag making event as part of their annual Christ Church Cares Day in September. They assembled 1,000 snack bags for those experiencing houselessess and food insecurity! Christ Church UMC also put together 377 winter supply bags, 214 hygiene kits, and gave 50 $5 McDonald’s gift cards to Street Reach.

Thank you to the Seneca High School RedHawk Rangers for collecting supplies and making over 100 snack bags! 

The friendly folks pictured here gave up 1-1/2 hours of their weekend in June to help us fill 1,176 bags with tons of yummy snacks for the hungry. A sincere thank you to the family that dropped off around 500 items (chips, Cliff bars, treats, fruit snacks, etc.) for the event. What a blessing! Thanks, St. Michael Catholic Church, for hosting the event!

Over the summer, Melanie Page organized a bowl and bag event. What a fun idea! I love how this party brought the girls together to bond and pay it forward.

We had another new group support our mission this year as they gathered for volunteer service parties:18 kids made 72 snack bags in addition to supporting other good causes by collecting diapers, wipes, dog food, and making cards for seniors.

We appreciate their spirit of service to the community!

We gathered at Fern Creek UMC for a huge bag filling event. With generous support from the  Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels, we made over 2,210 snack bags for our houseless friends. We are grateful to have been chosen again as a recipient for a grant through their Good Works Program.

Thank you to the St. Michael Catholic Parish youth group for making and dropping off 100 snack bags! 

Our friends at St. Nicholas Academy honored us for the 2nd year in a row during their service learning project. They collected a tremendous amount of donations for Snacks in Sacks (an entire car load)! Those tiny bodies contain such big hearts!

Westport Road Baptist Church hosted a wonderful event pulling together approximately 50 people to make 639 snack bags from donations collected. Carmita (navy shirt), Melissa (yellow blouse), and others from the church have loyally supported Street Reach monthly. And their first big public event was a huge success.

Girl Scouts from St. Edward School in Jeffersontown filled 443 snack bags for the cause.

AAA on Rockford Lane in Shively made snack bags again this year!  Thanks, ladies!

The Jollie family hosted a Kindness bagging event in the neighborhood for the second year in a row. The neighbors really enjoy participating in the community outreach.

We were happy to be a part of another event hosted by  Down Syndrome of Louisville. It has become a pre-Thanksgiving tradition, and this year, our friends packed 663 snack bags for houseless outreach. 

In November we gathered at Clifton Universalist Unitarian Church to celebrate the act of giving thanks with our words and our deeds. Thanks to donations collected by the church and other SIS supporters, were able to put together 758 snack bags today!!!

We also filled up the food pantry outside the church with snack bags before delivering the remainder to our outreach partners. After all - our mission is to feed those experiencing homelessness and food insecurity in the neighborhoods around us.

Spectrum News stopped by - unexpectedly - and recorded a clip of the bagging event as well as a brief interview with Emme (the daughter of our nonprofit’s founder, Trisha).

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Cto4zKHyY/

We received another shoutout from Louisville Public Media in an article written about The congregation of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral. The church has made hundreds of bags to date following their morning services. They distribute the bags to their unhoused neighbors as well as the women and children who stay overnight at their Room in the Inn shelter. Snacks in Sacks will continue to support their cause as they serve the growing population.

Big thanks to LHC Cub Scouts Pack 175 from St. Edward who made 625 snack bags at their Christmas party! 

We had a great bag-making event in December at St. Martha School (thank you for hosting!). Many thanks to Super Troop 194 for sponsoring! We had several groups join us, including Burnett Avenue Baptist Church and Seneca High School National Honor Society. We made 1,643 snack bags!

Special thanks to the Norton Children’s Research Institute team who made and dropped off several boxes of snack bags and wonderful hand-knitted hats. These gifts arrived just before Christmas. Kindness is always right on time. And we just love seeing how each group adds their own personal twist to make a bagging event something to remember.

Snacks in Sacks began after a single person was inspired to do something to contribute to the greater good. But the success of her passion was contingent upon others also getting involved. Our loyal group of supporters includes those who regularly share our posts on social media, those that give monthly through PayPal and  Venmo, those who send donations through our  Amazon Wishlist, and those who host their own private events as well as those who attend our quarterly bagging events. We see those of you who send us spare change through  Kroger Community Rewards ($90.08 received throughout 2025) and the Walmart Spark Good Round Up Program ($100.64 received throughout 2025).

We received close to $16,000 in grants, matching donations, and large private donations this year. Thank you to the Kentucky Colonels, Charter Communications/Spectrum Community Grants, Surgent McCoy, UPS donations and company match, J-town Sam's Club, J-town Walmart Neighborhood Market, Fern Creek Walmart, and Knowfully Learning Group. The community at large really rallied around us, and we cannot show enough appreciation. This year was ONLY successful because of YOU!