UPDATE! There's been a slight change of plans for the benefit tonight. The start time has been pushed back to 9 and instead of local bands, you can come out for the Sky Lounge DJ. Canned food won't get you in, but IFFS will still get proceeds from the cover charge. Thanks agains to Eric and his class for making this happen. Last summer at the Mix 101.5 BackPack Buddies Food drive, I met Eric Fotheringham. Eric teaches Political Science at NC State and was interested including a service learning component in one of his courses.
We exchanged emails about it and came up with options his students could choose to work on over the semester. I went to speak to the class, to tell them more about what the Food Shuttle does. They were very engaged and asked some great questions.
In the end, they decided to focus on two things. One was developing sort of a manual for us on how to get in touch with the elected officials for the counties we serve. This is huge for us. About 97% of all the money we raise goes back into our programs, so we've never had dedicated staff to stay on top of that kind of information.
The other project they wanted to take on was organizing a food drive for BackPack Buddies.That was exciting to hear, because we know how important it is to make sure children have nutritous meals over the weekend. And we were excited to see the energy and creativity a group of college students would bring to the process.
Energy and Creativity? They haven't disappointed. As they thought about how to maximize how much food they could collect, the decided to go a step beyond a food drive. Working on their own, they lined up a venue, some local bands and have organized a concert to raise food and money for us. Check out the flyer above for details.
Thanks to Eric and PS201 for all their work to makes this happen. This is a great example of how anyone can join in the fight against hunger. Start with what you are and where you are. Engage your community. Amazing things can happen.
Come out Friday night to the Sky Lounge for a night of great music and to support the fight against hunger. What's better than that?
*Apologies to Dave Eggers for borrowing the title of his best-selling memoir for this post, but it seemed to fit.