When legendary rock band Metallica visited Salt Lake City as part of their North American tour, they left a little something behind for Utahns facing hunger – $10,000 (or approximately 37,000 meals)! But we weren’t the only ones to benefit – by the end of this tour, they will have stopped in 33 cities and donated to food banks in each city! Through our membership with Feeding America, we were the beneficiary of their Utah stop, and we even were able to meet the band! We joined them for a check presentation just before their November 30th show, then were invited to stay and watch their ROCKING performance. Not only do these guys support the issue of hunger, but they are also advocates of the importance of volunteer service and gave us 2 additional tickets to invite one of our most outstanding volunteers in addition to supplying him with a copy of every Metallica studio album!
Through their All Within My Hands Foundation, Metallica aims to assist and enrich the lives of members of the communities who have supported the band for years, also encouraging participation from fans and friends. It seems they have plenty of fans locally because their November 30th show was sold out, with 17,574 fans attending, setting a post-renovation single-concert attendance record at Vivint Smart Home Arena. This great group of guys also donated a significant amount of money to support the areas affected by the recent wildfires in northern California.
If you’re wondering, they were nice, gracious and very engaged with our work, and we had a great conversation about just how much impact they will have on the 382,000 Utahns facing hunger. All in all, it was a rocking evening (to say the least)!
