Blessings in a Backpack feeds 350 Galesburg grade schoolers each weekend, a $30,000 annual endeavor.
The Blessings, Blues and Brews fundraiser is at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the Iron Spike. Beer and wine tasting along with a performance by the Knox Cherry St. Combo are included in the $20 ticket price.
All money goes to buying food for kids.
Knox College Chair of Educational Studies Joel Estes helps organize the local branch of Blessings in a Backpack. He tells Galesburg’s Morning News on WGIL the national organization is a “perfect fundraising philanthropy project.”
“We raise the money locally,” he says. “We depend on local volunteers of college students and the people at First Presbyterian, who are just incredible, to get food for us. We pay for the food with the money that we receive from the community and 100 percent of the money collected goes directly to food for the kids.”
Estes says Blessings feeds students at Silas Willard, Nielson, Steele and King elementary schools and he’d like to include Gale in the future.
Wednesday’s fundraiser includes an auction with a special guest auctioneer — Knox College President Teresa Amott.
A karaoke contest starts at 10 p.m. Wednesday and runs until midnight. Tickets for karaoke are $5.
Tickets for Blessing, Blues and Brews can be purchased at Iron Spike, through the Lions Club or from Blessings members.
