Imagine this: Your favorite band is coming to St. Louis, and you’re super-pumped to see them play. And by purchasing a ticket, you are single-handedly feeding a hungry child in St. Louis for the whole weekend. LiveFeed, one of St. Louis’ newest and most innovative non-profit organizations, is making this scenario a reality, “ending hunger, one show at a time,” as its slogan proudly declares.
In November 2007, Tom Robinson, LiveFeed’s founder, came up with the idea to take events that were already happening in the St. Louis area and give them a cause. In St. Louis alone, there are 135,000 people who go hungry each day. Many children depend on school lunches to get them through the week. The LiveFeed concept is a clever and mutually-beneficial idea: The organization hooks up with as many entertainment events in the area as possible by promoting them and channeling a portion of the ticket sales or merchandise into the mouths of hungry children.
The organization works closely with Operation Food Search and their backpack program, which gives these hungry children a backpack full of nutritious food for the weekend. The concept is to bring it back on Monday to be refilled for the following weekend. It only costs four dollars to feed a child for that amount of time. LiveFeed makes it incredibly easy for people to donate to a good cause without any extra effort.
LiveFeed has grown very rapidly in the past year and is currently establishing its first campus chapter here at Wash. U., which will serve as the model for future campus chapters.
Outreach coordinator and senior Steve Kurtz is working hard to ensure that the ultimate goal of fully integrating LiveFeed into every entertainment event on campus is reached. Currently he manages livefeed.org, which lists all entertainment events happening in the St. Louis area, including non-LiveFeed events. “We want people to say ‘Oh, I’m bored…let’s check out livefeed.org and see what’s happening. Let’s go to the LiveFeed event and make a difference.’”
As of now, the campus program is looking to get as many people involved as possible. Sophomore Josh Truppman, who recently joined the group, really enjoys the fact that there is no hierarchy yet. “How we’re operating right now is that everyone is equal, and the organization is a team. I’m excited to be involved at such an early stage,” he said.
Kurtz agreed. “Someone can do an event and run with it if they want to.”
LiveFeed St. Louis and LiveFeed Wash U. have plans to work closely together, but each is an entity of its own. The city organization will be the campus’ support network, and each group will function to serve the same purpose but will hold independent events.
Amy Graham, director of operations of LiveFeed St. Louis, said, “The Wash. U. chapter will always be a unique example because of the natural collaboration with the city.” But it’s not stopping here. The organization has major plans to expand. “I see us becoming a national organization in the next five years through campus chapters. It will virally spread,” Graham said.
LiveFeed’s current approach to its national development is hosting “battle of the cans” events at local high schools and presenting information about the program. Ideally, seniors will get excited about the organization and spread the information at their future respective college campuses. Graham said, “Anybody at any other university could set up a LiveFeed chapter. They would just need to get in contact with us, and we have a package of materials ready to go.”
As of now, though, the Wash. U. chapter is trailblazing the first campus pathway to ending hunger through concerts and entertainment.
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