Above / Sandwiched between Loaves & Fishes President & CEO Megan Selck and Loaves & Fishes’ Board Member David Brown, Sammy Hagar presented a $2,500 check to Loaves & Fishes’ Child Nutrition Initiative at the Exchange Club of Naperville Ribfest. (Photo courtesy Loaves & Fishes)
Before making his way onto the Navistar Main Stage Friday night at the Exchange Club of Naperville Ribfest, Sammy Hagar, front man for The Circle, presented local hunger relief organization Loaves & Fishes Community Services with a $2,500 check.
This donation, made through The Hagar Family Foundation, will be used to expand Loaves & Fishes’ Child Nutrition Initiative, which provides supplemental nutrition to children of low-income families in DuPage County.
Above / Also generous with his music, Sammy Hagar (a.k.a. The Red Rocker), front man for The Circle, dazzled a packed audience in Knoch Park from the Navistar Main Stage on July 3, 2015. (PN Photo)
“It takes a village to raise a child,” said Megan Selck, Loaves & Fishes’ President and CEO. “Throughout the years, our community has banded together with Loaves & Fishes to ensure that parents have the means to provide well-balanced meals for their children. We recently expanded our Child Nutrition Initiative to include supplemental nutrition for families with children aged 0-4 as well as expectant mothers, so this donation is very timely, and I am honored to be standing alongside Sammy Hagar in our fight against child hunger.”
Hagar rose to prominence with hard rock band Montrose in the 1970s and then launched a successful solo career before replacing David Lee Roth as the lead singer of Van Halen in 1985. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen in 2007. Most recently, Hagar formed The Circle in 2014 with Michael Anthony, Vic Johnson and Jason Bonham. Aside from his success in music and business, Hagar has been involved with philanthropy for quite some time. With his wife, Hagar started The Hagar Family Foundation, a private non-profit which seeks to fund grassroots organizations that are able to have immediate impact on the individuals it serves. He has funded organizations in each city where he performs and has served as an advocate for hunger issues in the United States. Hagar also launched a chain of restaurants, called Sammy’s Beach Bar and Grill, from which 100 percent of the profits go to The Hagar Family Foundation.
“My mom was always half on welfare or food stamps and would get in line during Thanksgiving or Christmas when people were giving away free turkeys,” mentioned Hagar. “I grew up like that and remembered how it made a big difference in our life.”
Did you know? Located at 1871 High Grove Lane in Naperville, Loaves & Fishes Community Services provides groceries and essential supportive services to more than 2,800 suburban Chicago families each month. Its multi-faceted Client Engagement model combines programs such as job search support, food assistance, skill-based classes and public benefit assistance, to both assist and empower clients to achieve self-sufficiency. To learn more about making a donation, volunteering or getting help, visit http://www.loaves-fishes.org.
News release submitted by Allison Kurtz for Loaves & Fishes
