Mt. Joy’s concerts at The Mann doubled as a food drive. Fans donated roughly 3,000 pounds of food

Sharing Excess collected roughly 3,000 pounds of food donations outside of The Mann Center during Mt. Joy’s two shows over the weekend.

The Philadelphia-based nonprofit used the donations to create 2,500 meals that have been distributed to the Sunday Love Project and the Northwest Mutual Aid Collective, two organizations fighting food insecurity throughout the city.

Thousands attended the concerts held at the Skyline Stage, including a sold-out first night. Sharing Excess requested fans donate healthy nonperishable items, and they delivered, bringing in lots of soup, granola bars, pasta, as well as capers.

“Someone, I guess, had a lot of capers in their shelves,” Sharing Excess director Evan Ehlers said. “But, hey, we love it. We love all different kinds of food, and so do the communities that we serve. So we were able to get a lot of really good shelf stable items that were perfect for the organizations that feed families that are looking for those types of food.”

Mt. Joy thanked the nonprofit for their efforts to fight food insecurity from the stage during their second night of homecoming shows. Ehlers said seeing the band happy to work with Sharing Excess “meant the world to us as well.”

“The way that they put it, which I love, is how this is not only an opportunity for them to play a great set, but also an opportunity for them to give back to the city that they’re playing in, but most importantly, the city that they came from and one that they obviously care very deeply about,” Ehlers said.

This was the first time Sharing Excess partnered with an artist to do a direct food drive outside of the venue. Ehlers said they’ll be working with as many artists as they can to host more of these down the line.

“Music speaks to the soul and so does food,” Ehlers said. “And if there’s a way for us to mesh those two passions of both our team and the communities that we serve, we really see that as a symbiotic mission to not only help get more food into the hands of people who need it, but also spread the awareness that there are organizations that you can support in the same way that you come out to show love for the music that you enjoy.”

 

The nonprofit, which started on Drexel University’s campus in 2018 and has since grown to a nationwide operation, redistributes over 250,000 pounds of food a week.