Nourishing our Communty Through Music

The month of March was National Nutrition Month. Throughout the month, Longwood Symphony Orchestra participated in a number of musical/medical/service activities to raise awareness for hunger relief and nutrition.

Healing Art of Music: The Food Project
LSO's March 13, 2010 concert was in collaboration with the wonderful organization, The Food Project (www.thefoodproject.org), which serves the greater Boston community as a community building, youth leadership, and hunger relief organization. During the summers, hundreds of young people participate in tending acres of farms, building raised neighborhood gardens, and making fresh produce accessible to those in the inner city through TFP-staffed Farmers Markets. The concert was attended by 800 people, 325 of which were from The Food Project. Donors who could not attend the performance underwrote tickets so the young people could. At intermission, TFP volunteers shared packets of lettuce seeds with the audience.

LSO on Call: playing for hunger relief organizations

In keeping with its mission to bring music to those who might not otherwise hear classical music, LSO musicians spent a day in three hunger relief organizations for homeless: Women's Lunch Place, Pine Street Inn, and Haley House. Each has found unique and inspiring ways to feed our community's hungry while maintaining their dignity and helping them to move forward.

[Here, Drs.Caroline Kann and Gwendoline Thornblade played duets in the Haley House Cafe on a sunny Saturday afternoon.]

Orchestras Feeding America Food Drive

As members of the League of American Orchestras, Longwood Symphony added its contributions to the second annual Orchestras Feeding America Food Drive. Members of the orchestra and concergoers joined forces to collect 457 lbs of food, including a very generous donation of drinks from Ocean Spray. This food was delivered to the Greater Boston Food Bank for distribution to members of our community. Here are neurology researcher Caroline Kan (violin) and pediatric psychiatrist Dr. Andrea Spencer (viola) delivering food to the food bank.