This holiday season, Westchester residents have the opportunity to give the gift of song while helping provide food to those who are hungry in the county.
Local radio station 107.1 WXPK-FM has teamed up with the Food Bank of Westchester and created a CD available for purchase with all net proceeds going to the food bank.
“Peak Performances Volume I” features 17 tracks that were recorded live and aired during the station”™s Peak Performance series.
The idea for the charitable collaboration germinated during a conversation between Adam Handler, a member of the Food Bank”™s board of directors, and Jason Finkelberg, general manager of Pamal Broadcasting of the Hudson Valley, which owns 107.1, also known as The Peak.
“Adam and I had been friends for a few years and he has always been after me to see the food bank,” Finkelberg said. “About a year ago I went over there. You look around a giant warehouse and see the amount of food and it really hits home that there (are) a lot of needy people in Westchester. Something about that visual and seeing the volunteers and seeing the scope of what they”™re doing really hit home with me.”
The two men tossed around ideas about how the radio station could help do charitable work for the Food Bank.
“I first thought of maybe doing a huge concert at the (Westchester) County Center, and maybe bringing in an act like the Rolling Stones,” Finkelberg said.
He decided to do something unique that the radio station could offer and thought of issuing a collection of the station”™s Peak Performances. These are small, usually acoustic performances done by artists for the station and are recorded at Acme Recording and Mastering in Mamaroneck.
The station had considered releasing a compilation of the performances but thought it would be difficult to secure the go-ahead from the artists to allow the work to be put on a CD.
“Then I threw out the idea of doing it for charity, and it took about six months to clear all the music,” Finkelberg said. “It was easier to pull off once (the artists) knew it was for charity.”
The CDs can be ordered by filling out a form that can be downloaded at the station”™s Web site www.1071thepeak.com and mailing it with a $17 check to the station. Customers cannot order the CD online because the record industry is sometimes wary of online purchases of music, said Finkelberg.
In addition to mail-order, then CD is available at Rothman”™s in Scarsdale, Miller”™s in Mamaroneck and In Motion at Grand Central Station. All proceeds will go to the Food Bank.
Handler said in addition to raising money, the promotion with the radio station will help raise awareness of hunger in Westchester.
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“Hunger is an acute crisis. It is a silent problem,” he said.
According to the Food Bank, about 200,000 residents in Westchester are at risk of hunger.
“People don”™t think of this as a problem in Westchester, but there are people out there who are having trouble paying the weekly food bill,” Handler said.
He said only 5 percent of the hungry in Westchester are homeless, while children make up 36 percent, seniors on fixed incomes comprise 14.5 percent and the rest are the “working poor.”
“It”™s an urgent problem. Unless people have felt that kind of pain in their own gut, it”™s very hard to relate,” he said.
Chris Hermann, the station manager at 107.1 who helped put together the songs on the CD, said the station will look to release similar CDs in the future as an annual charitable drive.
“The issue of hunger is a powerful and real issue,” Hermann said. “The results are very tangible ”“ you can see how you are making a difference.”
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