The Red Rocker feeds St. Louis kids

Photo Credit: Alan M. Poulin / www.alanpoulinphoto.com

By Valerie Schremp Hahn

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

 

Rocker Sammy Hagar may not drive 55, but he is helping to feed just over 2,000 children from St. Louis Public Schools.

Hagar is donating money to a program called Blessings in a Backpack, a program which helps feed children over the weekends.

During the week, many poor children eat federally-funded breakfast and lunch at school, but on the weekends, they’re on their own. Though Blessings in a Backpack, every Friday students are given backpacks with meals for the weekend and they bring the backpack in on Monday to be set up for the next weekend.

The group says the program helps students do better in school and gets parents curious and involved.

“To me, it solves so many cool problems,” Hagar told the Post-Dispatch last week. “And it’s such a simple concept, I love it.”

Hagar will perform at The Pageant on November 18 and 19, and proceeds from the concerts will benefit Blessings in a Backpack. Hagar said he plans to return to St. Louis every year for more benefit concerts, and his goal is to pour a million dollars every year into the program.

“St. Louis has been and throughout my career, one of the greatest markets in the world for me,” Hagar said. If it all works out here, Hagar said he plans to do the same thing in other cities.

Stan Curtis, president of the non-profit group, said he’s been working with Hagar for more than 15 years through his group U.S.A. Harvest, which donates surplus food from hospitals and restaurants and delivers it to needy people.

Students at ten St. Louis elementary schools will likely start taking home their backpacks in mid-September, Curtis said.