Featured Artist of the Week: Ambertone

Ambertone has been rockin' Central Florida for several years now. Things seem to only be looking better as they continue their rise to the top. As RFH Fest 3 artists last November, they happen to be one of our favorite bands. Their support, aside from their musical talent, is truly something worth noting.


On Friday, February 6th, you will be able to catch Ambertone at the Plaza Theatre in Orlando (Yes, the same stage they tore up at RFH Fest 3). They will be appearing with Ronyai, Orange Avenue, and Soulswitch. It really should be a tremendous show. Be sure to make it out!

Check out Ambertone's catchy blend of alternative rock music on their MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/ambertone

- Logan Lenz

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What is the Dream Center?

For several weeks we have been publicly talking about this Dream Center that Rock for Hunger wants to open this year. You may be thinking it sounds like a great place, but what is it all about?

The Problem: Most adults and children suffering from homelessness, poverty, and even lower middle class struggle with meeting their basic needs, and focus the majority of their day worrying about what they will eat, where they will sleep, what they will wear, and how will the get to work? Most of these individuals loose focus and/or motivation on their dreams and establishing a successful career. There are over 8,5000 homeless individuals in Central Florida and 1 out of 5 individuals in Central Florida are living below poverty line or right at poverty line and are not able to make ends meet. Of those over 75,000 are children.

The Mission: The Rock for Hunger Dream Center will be a place where individuals from the community can come and work towards fulfilling their dreams again. It’s a place where individuals can learn how to manage their finances, build resumes, develop interview skills, music & art lessons, entrepreneurial training, and more while their basic needs of food and clothing are met at no charge.

The Vision: Building this first Dream Center as a model for many more to come and give a helping hand to individuals to overcome homelessness and poverty. The Dream Center is about building a support system for the needy.

Why? In a land of many opportunities and a land of plenty, everyone has the right to live their dreams without having to suffer from homelessness and poverty. One of the biggest obstacles of overcoming this social issue is due to lack of a support system. By building a support system of continued education, mentorships, moral and spiritual support, we will end homelessness and poverty one individual at a time through our Dream Center and partnering with organizations who provide other services (such as mental help, health care, substance abuse, etc) , building a united community.

Fundraising Goal: $100,000

Immediate Needs:
- Funds
- Fundraisers
- Volunteers
- Creative minds

Check back for a weekly update and more needs for the Rock for Hunger Dream Center. We found a beautiful property we are looking at tomorrow.

Make a contribution today!

Contact: chris@rockforhunger.org.

Rock for Hunger
P.O. Box 771321
Orlando, FL 32877

“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.” - Mother Teresa (thanks Claire for this quote! Fits perfect)

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Four Ways to Keep Taking Action

I’d like to thank all the Volunteers who dedicate their time on Monday nights to help us provide meals for our friends in Downtown Orlando. We greatly appreciate your support and for truly setting the example for being the change we wish to see in the world. A lot of people ask us what they can do next, or some may want to get more involved, but don’t know how. Here is what you can do to continue making a difference in our local community:

1. Support Other Food Sharings:
We all provide meals to the same people. Let’s show our friends we are there on more nights than just Monday’s. Here is a schedule of all the Lake Eola Food Sharings.

Monday – Breakfast with Food Not Bombs 8:30am (corner of Central and Eola)
Monday – Dinner with Rock for Hunger 6:45pm at the Forum
Wednesday – Dinner with Food Not Bombs 5pm (Corner of Central and Eola)
Thursday – Dinner with NOMSA 6:30pm at the Forum

2. Start a Food Sharing:

See the schedule above? There are lots of gaps. Breakfast and Dinner are the times when people are most in need of food. Ask us how to start your own food sharing. All you need is 4 cooks, and 4 volunteer coordinators. That is the way we have found to make it work. E-mail Chris for more info to starting a food sharing: chris@rockforhunger.org.

3. Take on a Leadership Role

The following are committee’s within Rock for Hunger we need people to get involved with:

Rock for Hunger Fest 4 Committee:
Plan our annual Rock for Hunger Festival taking place in October this year. Contact Lisa for all the info: ldunaway@cfl.rr.com.

Food Sharing Committee:
Bring your ideas to make Monday nights run smoother, recruit people to start a second night or even a breakfast. Contact Ben or Chris for more info: bbergholtz@rockforhunger.org and chris@rockforhunger.org.

Dream Center Committee:
Help make someone’s dream a reality while helping them back on their feet at the same time. We are currently working on fundraising programs, budgets, and business planning to open our first Dream Center in Orlando, FL. Contact Chris for more info: chris@rockforhunger.org.

Internship Committee:
Our Interns need some great mentors with real life experience. The interns meet every Wednesday night and we have four teams they represent. Nonprofit Management, Marketing, Creative (Web, Graphics, Film, etc), and Event Planning. Contact Chris for more info: chris@rockforhunger.org.

Field Trips:
Help with the organizing, planning, and fundraising for field trips for less fortunate children in our community. For more info contact Chris (LoL we need some directors pronto): chris@rockforhunger.org.

4. Giving

For any organizations to continue expanding and existing they need funds. We are working hard on building up our donor list and already have over 100 individuals who are donors to Rock for Hunger. Did you know that close to 75% of all funding for nonprofit organizations comes from individuals? Please visit our website: http://www.rockforhunger.org/, and click the donate button to make a contribution. If you don’t feel comfortable to make a contribution yet, get tickets to our 2nd Annual Rock for Hunger Spring Show. They are only $10. Click here for Tickets.

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the Week in Rock for Hunger

Wow! This was a crazy week for us, but exciting. Lots of great things happening! Here is this week in Rock for Hunger:

MONDAY-FRIDAY – Tutors & Meals at New Image Youth Center
Join the amazing people of the New Image Youth Center and help tutors less fortunate children within our community. Every day of during the week from 3pm-6pm you can join them and help them with Tutoring and many other needs. For more information contact Angela Griner: angelagriner@gmail.com.

MONDAY – Food Sharing
Food Sharing #100 is getting closer and closer, with this week being our 98th consecutive Food Sharing. Come join us at 6:45pm as we serve meals to our friends in Downtown Orlando till approximately 8pm on the corner of Eola and Robinson. Check the website and create a profile to sign up for a position in advance. www.rockforhunger.org.

WEDNESDAY – Intern Meeting
Our interns are already in Week #4. It is amazing how fast the time goes by. Soon you will learn about the many great things they have been working such as a Bowl-a-Thon, Spring Concert, Field Trip for the kids at New Image Youth Center, Talk 4 Hunger, and much more.

THURSDAY – Artist of the Week
So, we’ve been trying to do the Artist of the Week on Wednesday’s, but looks like it’s been falling on Thursday’s this year. Last week our Artist of the Week was Transmit Now, who had an amazing show at House of Blues last night. Check out who will be this weeks Artist of the Week on the Rock for Hunger Blog.

SATURDAY – Storage Clean-up
We did a lot of work yesterday in making our temporary home look as nice as possible. However, there is still more work that needs to be done. We need your help with our storage clean-up from 10am-noon. We need approximately 6-8 volunteers. To sign-up send an e-mail to Chris: chris@rockforhunger.org.

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The Long Awaited Meeting with Lee Anne & John of NOMSA

It has almost been one year since I’ve met Lee Anne Rankin from NOMSA at one of our weekly Food Sharing’s. When we met I was running around like crazy, as I do every Monday night. In the short time we talked, she told me about the amazing things she was going with NOMSA and their food sharing that began with similar inspirations and ironically the same month and year as the Rock for Hunger weekly food sharing. So, the two of us really wanted to get together and meet to discuss all the great ways we can help our friends to better lives. Unfortunately, that meeting never took place until another NOMSA member, John Roquemore (the brother of local musician James Roquemore) contacted me through Twitter. This social media tool has done amazing things for us in recent months.

This week finally, Lee Anne, John and I have met and chatted about how we can help our friends in need. I was really excited to meet with these amazing individuals who share similar passions and visions as we do. It was great to find out that they also had the goal to partner with other organizations to make a change together as one community, and not as individuals. Which I truly believe is the only way we can make change happen. NOMSA and Rock for Hunger are going to be working on and partnering on many ventures in the future.

My main reason for also telling you about them, was to show you a video of their upcoming project called “Journey.” A 15-week trip through the country in 15 different cities, one week in each, documenting and studying about Homelessness and organizations that are out there to make a difference. Here is their first of weekly videos describing the “Journey.” Keep up the great work and keep inspiring!

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Featured Artist of the Week: Transmit Now

As Ariya, they were good. As Transmit Now, however, they are exceptional. Featuring most of the members of a band that won over Central Florida years ago, this young rejuvenated group of talented individuals revamped their style, changed their name, and began taking their music more seriously. I don't believe it has even been a year since the unveiling of their new presence, but they have already managed to do more than they had throughout years of playing around under a different moniker.

The band has had songs played on MTV and toured the country in 2008. 2009 looks to be an even better year for the band for they show no signs of slowing down. I truly believe Transmit Now will make a name for themselves within a few years time.

Check out their music at:

http://www.myspace.com/transmitnow

You can check them out on Saturday night, 1/24 at the House of Blues Orlando. The show is free and also features Senate, Under the Flood, Junkie Rush, and national recording artist TRUSTCompany.

-Logan Lenz

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Meet the Spring 2009 Interns

We are excited to introduce our spring 2009 Rock for Hunger Interns. This is our first semester with interns and we have a fantastic team of nine great individuals. In their term they will be working on many great programs and events such as: Bowl-a-Thon, RFH Memberships, Spring Concert, and Rock for Hunger Fest 4, Field Trip Programs, foundations for the Dream Center, and much more. We plan on doing a weekly update video of what they are working on within Rock for Hunger, so they will get a lot of practice in front of the camera. There are two more interns not in the video, Katrina who was interviewing the interns (hope I did not delete hers by accident), and Megan who currently has class on the nights we meet. We thank our interns for choosing to work with Rock for Hunger and for all their support in expanding our mission of change!

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Rock for Hunger Fest 4 Committee gathers Tonight

It’s time for Rock for Hunger Fest 4!!! Today is the inaugural meeting of the RFH Fest 4 Committee. Last years Rock for Hunger Fest 3 was held at The Plaza Theatre and featured Kardinal Offishall, Passafire, Laura Reed & Deep Pocket, and now Fueled By Ramen Recording artist VersaEmerge, and many more great bands. We had many great events leading up the RFH Fest 3 such as the first ever iRock for Hunger Battle of the Bands competition, Whole Foods Wine Tasting, Ten Thousand Villages Block Party on Park Ave, and many more. Be part of all the excitement of Rock for Hunger Fest 4 by joining our committee. The meeting is tonight at 5:30pm. For more info contact: chris@rockforhunger.org.

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Inauguration Party with Missy Ward & IZEA

What did you do for Inauguration Day today? Please leave a comment and share with us. We got to hang out with our great friends Missy Ward and Ted Murphy and the IZEA crew. Missy Ward organized the event along with Quaker Oats Oatmeal and chose Rock for Hunger as the beneficiary organization of receiving LOTS of Oatmeal to feed the needy. Of course we ate Oatmeal (had mine with Brown Sugar, Strawberries and Blueberries), Eggs, and Bacon (not very healthy, but sooo good!). It was a great time to hang out with these great individuals and watch an amazing day in American History!

The Rock for Hunger Crew and I would like to extend our thank you to Missy Ward for organizing this event and supporting Rock for Hunger, and IZEA for welcoming us to their Office & House of fun & creativity!

- Chris Goyzueta, Executive Director
“Stop talking about the Problem and start talking about the solution.” – Joel Osteen

(from left: Greg Rollett (RFH VP), Missy Ward, Chris Goyzueta)

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Day of Service in Orlando

I don’t know about you, but I’m very excited about Barack Obama taking office tomorrow. Today was the Obama’s call to service: “Day of Service.” Just as he preached, he called us to action in our community, and Rock for Hunger was blessed enough to have this day on a Monday night. We had a lot of great volunteers come out tonight and donate their time. I’d like to extend my thank you on behalf of all the Board Members, Directors, Officers, Family Members, Volunteers, and everyone involved with Rock for Hunger. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to serve your community, and would love to have you back. Tonight we had over 50 volunteers and served over 150 meals. Thank you for being part of the solution!

Here is what you can do next:
1.) Tell someone about Rock for Hunger
2.) Create a profile on http://www.rockforhunger.org/
3.) Go to events and leave a comment to volunteer
4.) Cook for our Food Sharing
5.) Serve on one of our Committees (Food Sharing, Concerts, Adopt-a-Homeless/Dream Center, Talk 4 Hunger, Field Trips, and Tutors & Meals)

To sign-up for a committee please e-mail Chris: chris@rockforhunger.org.
To cook contact Big Ben: bbergholtz@rockforhunger.org

- Chris Goyzueta, Executive Director

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the Week in Rock for Hunger

This week will be an action packed week for Rock for Hunger and an action packed week for the whole country with Inauguration Day on Tuesday. We hope everyone had a great weekend, and hope everyone is ready to take action and become leaders in our community like our new President asked us to. Here is how you can get involved and support your community in this week of Rock for Hunger:

MONDAY – Employment Guide Job Fair
Need a job? Need a Rock for Hunger Shirt? You can get all of that and more at the Employment Guide Job Fair from 10am-2pm taking place at the Florida Mall inside the Florida Hotel and Convention Center

MONDAY – Food Sharing & National Day of Service
For those keeping track this is our 97th consecutive weekly food sharing on this National Day of Service. We are looking forward to having some new volunteers come and serve with Rock for Hunger tomorrow. We are now signing people up for positions in advance! Go to out website to sign-up (click here) for a volunteer position by leaving a comment on our events page or send us an e-mail to chris@rockforhunger.org.

TUESDAY – Inauguration Day Event at IZEA
We our joining Missy Ward and IZEA in Downtown Orlando for their Inauguration Day Party with Quaker Oatmeal who will be contributing two cases of Oatmeal to Rock for Hunger. Come join us and meet lots of great people. Click here for more info on this great event.

WEDNEDAY – Artist of the Week
Our weekly Artist of the Week is back in action with Another Black Day and long time favorite Kaleigh Baker taking the first two weeks. Who will be this weeks Artist of the Week?

WEDNEDAY – Rock for Hunger Fest 4 Committee Meeting
The US is kicking this week off with a new leader in Office and Rock for Hunger is kicking this week off with a new leader for the Rock for Hunger Fest committee. We are proud to have our first Rock for Hunger Fest 4 Meeting this week with our new director Lisa Dunaway. Come join us from 5:30pm-7pm at 37 N. Orange Ave Orlando, FL 32801 on the 7th Floor across from the elevators at the Endagon Headquarters. Be part of making RFH Fest 4 even more magical than RFH Fest 3.

SATURDAY – SENATE & TRANSMIT NOW @ House of Blues
Get a sneak peak of the Rock for Hunger Spring Show by checking out Spring Show performer Senate and long time supporters Transmit Now and Junkie Rush at House of Blues with TRUST COMPANY. This is a FREE show! Send an myspace message to Transmit Now or Senate to get your tickets. If they don’t have any left, send an e-mail to Chris: chris@rockforhunger.org.

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A Conversation with Kardinal Offishall

It’s finally here, and yes we are still wrapping everything up for Rock for Hunger Fest 3. There is still a little more left to do, but here is a treat for you guys while we are at it. The wonderful Michele Wright, who hosted Rock for Hunger Fest 3 and hopefully many more RFH Fest’s to come, interviewed Mr. Dangerous Kardinal Offishall at Rock for Hunger Fest 3. The full interview is available below. While you are at it, check out the amazing interview by Michele and Greg Rollett aka G-Ro at My Fox Orlando, Fox35 News from yesterday morning: Click here for the Fox35 News Interview. Also, if you are interested in being part of Rock for Hunger Fest 4, please e-mail our RFH Fest 4 Director Lisa Dunaway.

Rock For Hunger Fest 3- Kardinal Offishall Interview

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Featured Artist of the Week: Kaleigh Baker

Sometimes I have a hard time choosing my favorite Orlando artist. I have recently been proclaiming my love for Afterglow Radio. Before that, I was enthralled with Social Ghost. Always consistently close to the top, however, has been Kaleigh Baker. What can I say? I'm a sucker for raw talent.

In the case that you might want to see Kaleigh Baker live, you will be delighted to see her upcoming show schedule. She will be at Full Sail University and NV(?) on January 17th, Copper Rocket on January 18th, and Tom and Jerry's on January 23rd.

More information on her and her upcoming shows can be found on her Myspace page.

-Logan Lenz

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A Conversation with Another Black Day

Rock for Hunger was very excited to talk to Jose from Another Black Day last week at they stopped by The Plaza Theatre for an amazing show! Another Black Day is a Bieler Bros Records artist, the label which also features Nonpoint, Skindred, Stereoside, and many more great bands. In the interview we talked about their newest record “Another Black Day,” what’s in store for 2009, and more. If they avail in the fall they will make a stop by RFH Fest 4 in October!!!! Shhhhh…don’t tell anyone I told you!

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Featured Artist of the Week: Another Black Day

The first Featured Artist of the Week for 2009 is Another Black Day.



Not only are they supplying RFH with an exclusive interview, but they will be in Orlando playing an in-your-face rock show at the Plaza Theatre (The home of RFH Fest 3).

Check out their take on trendy heavy alternative rock music by visiting their MySpace page.

Click here for more information on their show on Friday night, 1/9/09.


- Logan Lenz

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Do you Good Search?

Do you good search? What search engine do you use? Why do you use the search engine you use? Did you know that Good Search is a Yahoo! search engine and will give you the same results you get through Yahoo! On Alexa, which measures traffic to a particular site, Yahoo! is ranked as the number one site in the world. So, by using Good Search, not only will you receive great search results, but you can also help your favorite charity. Every time you conduct a search using good search, one cent is donated to your charity of choice. Please help spread the word of Good Search and make 2009 a year of giving. Rock for Hunger is listed on Good Search. We would appreciate you searching the web supporting Rock for Hunger, but our biggest concern is that you support any charity! It is important for us to give back. It brings people together and creates a more peaceful world. Support your local and global community by using Good Search!

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the Week in Rock for Hunger

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first week in Rock for Hunger of 2009! Thank you for all your support in 2008 and helping us be the change we want to see in our community! This year we have many great goals and plans in store which include field trip programs for less fortunate children, the first issue of Talk 4 Hunger, and hopefully the grand opening of our Dreams Center. Before we get to all that, check out what we have going on this week in Rock for Hunger:

MONDAY – Food Sharing for the Homeless
We are approaching our 100th consecutive weekly Food Sharing with week #95 this weeks. Come join us at our weekly food sharing at Lake Eola in Downtown Orlando this Monday at 6:45pm. We meet across from Panera Bread where the benches are and begin setting up. Meals are always served from 7pm-8pm. Feel free to bring drinks, utensils, plates, or canned goods for future weeks. Also, we are always in need of Food Sharing Committee Members, so we can continue building our new programs. Please let us know if you want to get more involved: chris@rockforhunger.org.

WEDNEDAY – Intern Orientation
Board Members and Volunteers, we are excited to announce that we will have six interns for the Spring 2009 semester who are going to spend 10-12 hours a week in helping grow our mission. We are meeting at 5:30pm at the Endagon Offices and Board Members Greg, Logan, and myself are already planning to be there. Feel free to come by to meet our interns or send us anything you’d like us to discuss: chris@rockforhunger.org.

SATURDAY – Storage Clean-up
Christmas and Thanksgiving have been great to us! However, we have a lot of new clothes, food, and other supplies that need to be organized in our storage. WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!! If there is only one thing you do this week to help us, make it this day. We need 4-6 volunteers to help with our storage clean-up day. Please e-mail Chris to sign-up: chris@rockforhunger.org.

That is all we have for this week. Please keep an eye out for the first Rock for Hunger Fest 4 Committee meeting in January, the Talk 4 Hunger Launch Party, and a Bowl-a-Thon coming soon.

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