As the weekend concluded, Auburn University's Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs ended Sunday night promoting hunger awareness with the Voices Against Hunger Gospel Fest Fundraiser.
The purpose of the fundraiser was to unite communities across Alabama in a spirit of giving as part of a local food drive to replenish food pantries in Lee and Macon counties.
The fundraiser was from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. and $5 or five canned goods were required for admittance.
The event was held at The City Church in Auburn with more than 600 people in attendance.
"We were rocking it over here at The City Church," said Vickey Sims, City Church member.
Gospel choirs from all over the state came to show their support for the cause with five choirs in attendance.
The Afro-American Choir from the University of Alabama headlined the concert.
"The event was wonderful and it was my first time in Auburn and I enjoyed the energy and the atmosphere," said Anthony Poellritz. "It was for a very wonderful cause to help those in need."
The host of the event was the Rev. Shaemun Webster, senior at Auburn University in public administration and radio, television and film and campus pastor of GANG Student Ministries.
"I think it was excellent, there were no seats available and I really enjoyed it," Webster said. "I liked how it created church outside of the traditional four walls, which is feeding the hungry."
The gospel fest took a month to put together and was organized by Brandon Wolfe, graduate assistant; Paulette Dilworth, assistant vice president of Access and Community Affairs; Rosephanye Powell, director of the Auburn University Gospel Choir; and Tiffany Sanders of The City Church.
Between acts, representatives from Project 19, the foundation where the canned goods were donated, would give hunger public service announcements to educate the audience on statistics in Alabama.
"It was fantastic and empowering. The spirit here is really great," said Douglas Coutts, senior adviser of United Nations World Food Programme. "The students doing PSAs in Alabama, it was good and maybe we can keep doing more."
It was a night of celebration for the community and students, said Jonathan Hall, junior in chemistry and chemical engineering.
"It is sad that we are in a country that is very blessed, but inner city children are not able to eat at night," Hall said.
Evaluations were passed out to the audience members to fill out rating the event and turned in at the end of the fest. The evaluations all stated positive feedback and marked with fives being the highest praise.
"I enjoyed all of the choirs, it was very uplifting and I commend Dr. Dilworth; She did a wonderful job," said Janice Watts, whose husband works for Auburn University. "It was good to have something like this in the community."
A total of 12,000 pounds of canned goods were raised from the event.
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