Portland Musicians Go Big for Hungry Kids One More Time

Maine's Greg Martens has been putting great live music events to benefit those in need for many, many years now. And this Friday night with a little help from his friends, he's gratefully doing it again. 

It's the second annual Go Big for Hunger Benefit at Portland House of Music and Events. The first one launched the campaign to feed Maine kids in May of last year. It was a sold-out show at that night with great local acts like the Jason Spooner Band, Raging Brass Reggae, Pardon Me Doug and The Maine Dead Project taking turns backing the legendary John Popper of Blues Traveler fame. This year's line-up features headliners Dave Gutter and Anna Lombard's Armies. They were kind enough to join us at the Gritty's LA pre-party last year performing live on-air with Popper. We were blown away by a couple of live numbers on-air from John, Dave and Anna. Gritty’s in Auburn became an even more magical place after a powerful performance of The Mountains Win Again.

Unfortunately, they had scheduling conflict and couldn't take part in the event later that night, so it's really great that they on the top of the bill in 2017.  The man behind all this, Greg Martens has been helping hungry kids in Maine for many years now. His benefits have raised well over $100,000 worth of food for local children. Go Big for Hunger is a newly formed restaurant and live music fueled anti-childhood hunger organization. 100% of the money raised by Go Big is being donated through Preble Street to agencies across Maine feeding hungry Maine kids. Sadly, Maine’s number of kids living with food insecurity is staggering, among the highest in the nation, 1 in 4 kids is living with hunger.

March 3rd is Greg Martens' Birthday and he celebrates the best way he knows...giving.