Benefit concert set for soup kitchen, food bank

The Atrium is hosting a benefit concert Saturday starting at 6 p.m., both virtually and in person, for the Havre Food Bank and the Feed My Sheep Community Soup Kitchen.

Havre Book Exchange Owner Derek Hann is representing the Atrium and organizing the event.

Four different bands are performing, he said, which include the new Havre Middle School Band Teacher Luke Ratcliff, T.J. Overcast, Mandi Nystrom Wood and himself.

Hann said a food truck will also be at the event.

The event is going to be live-streamed through the Atrium’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/The-Atrium-257591514367286 .

It is a free event though free-will donations are encouraged.

People can donate over Facebook or over the livestream, he said, though any donations made from the Facebook page will go toward Feed My Sheep. The donation option is open right now.

The Havre Food Bank had a freezer malfunction last week, which forced the bank to dispose of items such as hams and turkeys that were part of the holiday distributions.

Food Bank manager Samantha Nimmick said the food bank is still accepting donations of all kinds.

“We are thankful for the generosity of the community,” she said.

The food bank is open from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and located 453 Seventh Avenue North.

“We just want to extend our thanks to Derek and the Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen for allowing us to participate in and benefit from this event,” Nimmick said. “It was truly kind of them to include us and we deeply appreciate them for it.”

“We thank Derek for doing this and the Havre community has always been very supportive of the soup kitchen and that past support is much appreciated,” Feed My Sheep Community Soup Kitchen Treasurer Jody Hellegaard said. “We just continue to serve folks during this tough time — costs are up a bit because of having to do takeout on everything, so any support we can would just be appreciated.” 

She said the concert should be a fun event.

Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen still provides lunch from noon to 12:45 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and is located at 611 Second Street.

“The meal service is takeout only, but we continue to provide 50-90 meals a day,” she said. “As a majority of the volunteers for the soup kitchen are in the higher risk age group for COVID infections, we have been operating with half the volunteer hours, which has been proven to be one of the more difficult challenges.”  

Feed My Sheep is looking for donations including paper lunch bags, sandwich bags, snack bags, lunch meat, cheese, bread and snacks like cookies, fresh fruit, granola bars etc, she said, adding that gift certificates from Gary & Leo’s Fresh Foods and Walmart are also very helpful.  

Hann said this is an important time to help one another out.

“I think that it is important that during this time, especially, there is a lot of people who are utilizing the soup kitchen and are utilizing the food bank more than they probably previously have,” he said. “Despite all the other things going on politically or debates going on about the COVID-19, the most important thing is to have the community stick together and support each other. This concert is kind of to promote everybody from different walks of life to support their neighbors through the soup kitchen and the food bank.”