STATE News:
…People Still Encouraged to Donate as State’s Hunger Crisis Continues
SANTA FE – Food for Love organizers are thrilled to report that so far the benefit concert has raised $862,577.
All the money is going to the New Mexico Association of Food Banks who, through their partner food banks, will be able to provide 3,450,300 nutritious meals for New Mexicans who are having trouble putting food on their tables.
“New Mexico food banks are grateful for the generous help provided by people from our home state, those from other parts of the U.S, and people from as far away as Europe and Australia,” said Sherry Hooper, Chairperson of the New Mexico Association of Food Banks. “Not only did the Food for Love benefit concert raise enough funds to provide more than 3.4 million meals for New Mexicans in need it called attention to the severity of hunger in New Mexico. We thank the Planning Committee for their tremendous work on this stellar event!”
Thousands have donated with donations ranging from $1 to a $100,000 anonymous donation.
The “Food for Love” concert premiered online on Feb. 13 and was available to stream for 48 hours. It featured dozens of the country’s top musicians, singers and songwriters including Lyle Lovett, David Byrne, Steve Earle, Nathaniel Rateliff as well as many New Mexico-based acts. It also included special appearances by Ali MacGraw, George RR Martin, N. Scott Momaday, Hampton Sides, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, former Governor Bill Richardson, former Senator Tom Udall and Jo Harvey Allen.
While the concert is over, the need is not with one in three New Mexico children and one in five adults facing food insecurity. The state’s food crisis has only been made worse by the continuing COVID pandemic and associated record unemployment. The state’s food banks will continue to need help keeping up with the demand. Anyone who would like to help still can by donating at the Food for Love website.
“We can’t be more grateful for the outpouring of love we are seeing,” said the Food for Love organizers: Terry Allen, Jo Harvey Allen, Bill Banowsky, Susan Banowsky and Stephen Feinberg. “We want to thank the participating artists and special guests for lending their time and talents, our generous sponsors and the thousands of people who opened up their hearts and wallets to help New Mexicans in need.”
“We created Food for Love to highlight New Mexico’s hunger crisis. While we’re extremely proud of the money raised, we know that the crisis continues. We hope that the concert has inspired people to get more involved to work together to help solve our state’s hunger crisis once and for all,” organizers added.
Food for Love proceeds will be distributed to all five of New Mexico’s food banks— Roadrunner Food Bank in Albuquerque and Las Cruces, The Food Depot in Santa Fe, the Community Pantry in Gallup, the Echo Food Bank in Farmington and the Food Bank of Eastern New Mexico in Clovis. Together these food banks provide emergency food assistance to families in every county, Native American Nation and Pueblo in the state.
Major sponsors for the event included Avalon Trust Company which pledged a $55,000 donation match and Thornburg Investment Management and Thornburg Foundation which both pledged matching $25,000 donations.
“The Food for Love concert shined the spotlight on the thousands of food pantry volunteers and staff who have been working around the clock, seven days a week to help fellow New Mexican families through this pandemic,” said Erin Cave, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility at Thornburg Investment Management. “We hope the concert catalyzes continued critical operations support for New Mexico Association of Food Banks through gifts of funds, time, and food.”
Other sponsors included the SLF Foundation, Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico Bank and Trust, El Maguey Single Village Mescal and KRST 92.3.
Donations can still be made at www.FoodForLove.org.
