Asbury Lanes Hosts Benefit For The FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties

(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- Alex Biese has organized a benefit for the FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties to be held on Thursday, December 8 at Asbury Lanes (209 Fourth Avenue, Asbury Park).  The show's lineup includes Alex Biese, Big Wilson River,and Jamie & The Magic Torch.  Doors are at 8pm.  Admission is $10 or $7 with a non-perishable food item.  All artist proceeds will go to the Food Bank.

Alex Biese is a singer-songwriter in the Americana/Folk genre.  In addition to performing, Alex covers music for the Asbury Park Press and was recently nominated for a 2011 Asbury Music Award for Top Music Journalist.  For more information on Alex visit http://www.facebook.com/alexbiesemusic

Big Wilson River is a Bergen County-based roots rock collective that just released a great new album entitled "Octopus" on October 14.  You can hear tracks from the album online at http://bigwilsonriver.bandcamp.com

Jamie & The Magic Torch is the new acoustic project from Jamie Theurich (The O>Matics, Calamity Menagerie).  He calls his style of music "mainstream vegan rock."  you can find out more about Jamie at http://www.facebook.com/JamieAndTheMagicTorch

The FoodBank began in 1984 when three people saw hunger at the Jersey shore and decided to make a difference. They purchased a small, dilapidated warehouse in Spring Lake. Carpenters, masons and other members of the community donated work, office furniture and supplies. Food streamed in from hundreds of donors. After one year, the FoodBank was serving 25 charities with 100,000 pounds of food.

Ten years later, nearly two million pounds of food was being distributed annually from the same small warehouse. Bursting at the seams, the FoodBank undertook a capital campaign in 1998 to construct a new facility in Neptune. Three years later, the current 40,000 sq. ft facility became a reality.

Today, the FoodBank serves over 260 pantries, soup kitchens and other feeding programs with almost 7 million pounds of food distributed annually. The FoodBank also operates a Culinary Training Program for people in need of better-paid jobs, a Kids Café and Backpack program for children, a Mobile Pantry, and Food Stamp Outreach Program. With the help of roughly 1,000 volunteers each year, the FoodBank's programs are truly a community effort, working to eliminate hunger by providing emergency food, skills training, outreach programs and advocacy for families in need.

For more information on the FoodBank visit http://www.foodbankmoc.org