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Newsday • October 30, 2003
Bands, fans give back to communities they visit

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Jamie McGinnis and Jorge Gomes often donate to food drives near their home in Gardiner.

So when they came to the Palace Theater here to see a bluegrass jam band called The String Cheese Incident and heard there was a food collection, they brought along bags of food and some flowers for the volunteers.

"I think we're lucky that we have never been hungry," said McGinnis, 25. In exchange for their offering, they got an event poster and a ton of "thank yous."
The October concert brought in more than 1,100 food items for a local food bank. It's part of a growing trend in the $1.7 billion concert industry, which last year drew 42 million people to venues across the country, according to Billboard.

"We recognized early on that giving back to those communities that the band visits was something we wanted to do," said String Cheese bass player Keith Moseley. "We're very grateful to be surrounded by a community that wants to be involved and contribute to positive change."

Fan Justin Baker approached the band in the spring of 2002 about his Colorado-based group, Conscious Alliance. The food service organization became a "Gouda Cause," nonprofit groups the band endorse by allowing them to collect donations at concerts. In Vermont, fans had committed to helping cut and clear a half-mile mountain trail while a summer Gouda Cause was Solar Cookers International, which taught fans about solar ovens and poverty.

Baker, who collected close to 4,000 cans at that first event in Colorado, got 8,000 cans in seven nights as The String Cheese Incident performed from Philadelphia to Boston. The band gave him free tickets for volunteers and Baker looked for help nightly.

"A lot of good people in the String Cheese community have stepped up and helped out," he said. Since high school, the 23-year-old Baker has been helping get food to people who might not otherwise eat. He has raised enough money to build a food storage facility for the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
After collecting more than 1,000 cans in Rochester the night before the Albany show, Baker drove the donation to FOODLINK, a regional food bank that redistributes food to more than 550 agencies, soup kitchens, shelters and pantries in central New York.

"For an emergency food network to survive, it has to rely on the good energy and good efforts of groups like this," said Jaime Wemett-Saunders, vice president of operations for FOODLINK. The agency estimates the 1,000 cans would provide 1,200 meals.

Bands give back in other ways, too.

The popular touring band Phish, which in August drew 75,000 fans to northern Maine for a two-day show, created the Waterwheel Foundation, an organization that raises money for environmental and social non-profits. During the past summer tour, the Waterwheel Foundation raised $55,000 for 18 groups. Since its inception, the group has raised about $420,000 for 180 groups. Recently, Phish has been registering fans to vote.

"It was very important to the band members to do what they could to ensure they left behind a positive impact whenever they played," said Waterwheel's Amy Skelton. This year's beneficiaries have included prison literacy programs, women's shelters, community music programs and a camp for children with HIV.

Panic Fans for Food, made up of devotees of the jam band Widespread Panic, have collected 18,222 pounds of food and $27,311 since 1999.

"This is people giving dollars and fives," said Joshua Stack, director of the Washington, D.C., based group. He now runs collections at a third of the band's concerts. "We've helped a lot of people, that's for sure."

And fans of other bands including Ekoostik Hookah and Strangefolk have collected tens of thousands of food items for local distribution.

"As I tell everyone who stops by the table, one item can make a difference in someone not going hungry," said Strangefolk volunteer Donald Pearson.

"I think people have realized that music and good causes go very well together," said Moseley of The String Cheese Incident. "Music lovers just have the right kind of heart."