Conscious Alliance, Electric Forest donate 30,000 pounds of food to local community.

By Allison Scarbrough, Editor.

ROTHBURY — Conscious Alliance, in partnership with the Electric Forest Festival, donated 30,000 pounds of food to the local community Thursday, April 14.

Battling fierce winds and cold temperatures, Delores Price, 80, of Rothbury worked with Conscious Alliance and EF representatives to load the food into vehicles for distribution.

“Conscious Alliance, the national hunger relief organization with deep roots in the music industry, builds on its 10+ year partnership with Electric Forest, the beloved Michigan festival taking place June 23-26, 2022 in Rothbury, when it delivered 30,000 pounds of food to the Rothbury community” states a press release.

“Electric Forest fans held an online fundraising — called “Forest Family That Feeds” — event in collaboration with Conscious Alliance from which they raised over $13,000 to help fund the truckload of food that was delivered to the community, full of foods gathered by ALOHA and a collective of food brand partners.

“Conscious Alliance first partnered with Electric Forest in 2010. Since then, the organization has collected more than 280,000 meals from food donations given by festival goers. Notably, in 2008, Conscious Alliance broke the Guinness record for largest canned food structure while at the Rothbury Festival. Outside of the festival, Conscious Alliance engages in ongoing work to ensure that Rothbury families are fed.

“One of the heroes behind the food donations is Delores Price, 80, who has lived on 54 acres in Rothbury since 1961 and who helps distribute the donated food to families in need in the area. Price owns part of the property on which the festival is hosted and also caters food at the event. In 2017, she was recognized as Conscious Alliance’s Hero of the Year — the festival’s food drive is named in honor of her late husband, Roy Price.”

Price said the food will be distributed to food pantries in Oceana and Muskegon counties. “I keep telling them, ‘I’m not a hero,’” said the modest Price. “But they say, ‘Yes you are Delores.’”

“In 2020 when the pandemic hit, we hadn’t been up to Rothbury since 2018, which is when we had our largest food drive ever,” said Conscious Alliance Director of Marketing and Digital Partnerships Ali Stone. “We had a festival goer reach out to Electric Forest and Conscious Alliance wanting to do a fundraiser as part of our end-of-year fundraising campaign. In 2020, Electric Forest Family raised $5,000, which is about 10,000 meals In 2021, we decided to elevate it and do more, and so we told Celeste, the festival goer, that if the Forest Family raised $10,000, that we would send the truck to Rothbury. Conscious Alliance worked with all of our food brand partners for the actual donations, but the money that the fans raised offsets our trucking costs; increases in gas prices; warehouses; and equipment.”

“Conscious Alliance lives its motto ‘art that feeds’ in everything that it does to ensure that food insecure individuals and families are fed nourishing, healthy foods. Conscious Alliance partners with more than 120 artists, musicians, and festivals and nearly 70 food brands to bring food to communities nationwide. The organization got its start in 2002 when its founders hosted a food drive at a String Cheese Incident concert in Colorado. In 2022, Conscious Alliance celebrates its 20th anniversary and has delivered over 8 million meals in that time.”

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