One band, 21 diners, 72 hours and 1000s of Families Helped
The Kindred Souls 3D Tour:Diners to Donate Dollars to End Hunger in New Jersey March 19- March 21st.
Bobby Bournias and his family, owners of the popular downtown Jersey City Brownstone Diner and Pancake House were pleased when selected as the only Hudson County restaurant to participate in an important event this past weekend between March 19-21st that was developed to end hunger in New Jersey.
When told that last year, 250,000 new clients sought help from New Jersey’s food banks, pantries and soup kitchens, while at the same time donations declined by 20%, and that many of the newly hungry come from middle class families, hard hit by the recession and job losses. Bob and his family joined the cause.
The Goal of the overall event was to raise at least $5,250 in 72 hours for the NJ Federation of Food Banks. Enough money to buy 21 tons of food. With the wholesale buying power of the Federation, charitable organizations throughout New Jersey will receive nutritious food supplies to help feed thousands of New Jersey children, seniors and adults.
The way the event was organized was unusual and a brilliant idea. Kindred Souls, a NJ-based rock band, would perform a free 20 minute acoustic set at a diner in each of New Jersey’s 21 counties in a 72-hour period with the goal of raising at least $250 per diner. During the weekend, customers in each diner would be asked to donate a dollar per table while diner owners would be asked to donate a dollar per check. All of the money collected would be donated to the Federation. And as an added motivation to contribute, an offer to get free song downloads with every donation was also included to those who participated.
Kindred Souls, will arrive at the Brownstone on Sunday March 21st at 6:00 pm appearance
 The other diners participating in this event from around the state:
Sussex County – Andover Diner
Hunterdon County – Readington Diner
Somerset County – Somerset Diner
Mercer County – Princetonian Diner
Burlington County – Mastoris
Gloucester County – Five Points Diner
Salem County – Elmer Diner
Atlantic County – Diamond Diner
 Monmouth County – Red Oak Diner
Middlesex County – The Seville
 Bergen County – Saddlebrook Diner
Camden County – Philly Diner
 Warren County – Belvidere Diner
 Ocean County – Ocean Breeze Diner
 Passaic County- Park West Diner
 Union County- Westfield Diner
Cape May County- Dino’s Seaville DinerÂ
 Morris County- Brookside Diner
 Cumberland County- Delsea Diner
Essex County- The Ritz Diner
The New Jersey Federation of Food Banks, which distributed over 27 million pounds of food to more than 1,800 charitable programs serving people in need statewide last year, including the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, Food Bank of South Jersey, FoodBank of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, Mercer Street Friends Food Bank, and NORWESCAP Food Bank are members of the federation.
Who Are Kindred Souls?
New Jersey based rock band Kindred Souls is an original rock band flavored with blues, funk, jazz, and R&B. The founding members of Kindred Souls, lead vocalist and songwriter Jeff Rafferty and keyboardist Lon Bachrach have been partners for eighteen years. The band features bassist Stan Quincy Adams, guitarist Ted Heman, and drummer Paul Lavenhar.
Kindred Souls was inspired to do the diner tour after a great experience working with the The band’s CD release party for its new EP “Social Ninja” was also a “peanut butter and jelly party” to raise money for the Food Bank.
We were surprised to find out that buying power of the Food Bank enabled it buy about 1,000 pounds of food for $250. We decided we wanted to raise enough money to buy 21,000 pounds of food – 1,000 pounds for every New Jersey county
