The Longest Walk

Conscious Alliance was recently a proud supporter of 'The Longest Walk' as it entered Pine Ridge Reservation on March 31st. The Longest Walk is a 5000+ mile walk across America from Portland, Oregon to Washington, DC. The Longest Walk was created to bring awareness to diabetes, and to demonstrate how this disease can be fought by changes in lifestyle and diet. Diabetes is extremely common on Native American Reservations as a result of poverty and little government support. Conscious Alliance donated food to the to make sure the 'Walkers' had a healthy meal upon arrival on Pine Ridge.

The Longest Walk participants will be visiting various Native American Reservations throughout their journey across the country. In Pine Ridge, they held a number of presentations on diabetes education and screening, as well as presentations on active lifestyles. They also performed songs and set up dances for the community members of the reservation.

To find out more about 'The Longest Walk' click here!

Our Volunteer of the Year

There’s nothing more rewarding about working with Conscious Alliance than making the trip to the reservation and delivering the donations. Following Winter Carnival, Justin Levy and Jenny Mueller will be driving to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Thanks to all of our donors and volunteers, we will have quite a load to bring to our emergency food storage!

We would like to recognize our volunteer of the year, Fran Lewis. She has created a network here in Boulder that fuels in-kind donations for Conscious Alliance. Her hard work does everything from obtaining coffee to collecting warm coats and blankets to bring to the reservation. A day in the life of Fran Lewis entails working with Boulder businesses on the phone to gather donations and filling up trunks of volunteers’ cars with new items. We thank you Fran for your compassion. Through your actions you have inspired others to engage in positive work within the community. Keep doing what you’re doing!

Winter Carnival Food Drive

With Winter Carnival quickly approaching, it is important for us to recognize the String Cheese Incident, one of our longest and most dedicated supporters. It is hard to say where Conscious Alliance would be without the support of this all-star band comprised of mandolinist/violinist Michael Kang, guitarist Billy Nershi, bassist Keith Moseley, pianist Kyle Hollingsworth, drummer/percussionist Michael Travis, and percussionist Jason Hann. These members got together in Boulder, CO in 1993. We met them nine years later.

We held our first ever ‘Art the Feeds’ food drive in 2002 at a String Cheese Incident show. Since then, Conscious Alliance and SCI have become almost synonymous in holding food drives and collecting donations to help fight hunger across America. Together we have been able to re-distribute several hundred thousand pounds of food. For this we would like to extend a huge thank you to all the members of the band.

We are excited to work in conjunction with the String Cheese Incident once again at the upcoming Winter Carnival. If you are coming to the shows on March 10-12 at the 1^stBank Center, please remember to bring your non-perishable food items to our ‘Art That Feeds’ Food Drive. Phil Lewis has created an amazing 3-panel poster set that will be given to everyone that donates 25 cans of food. Hope to see you all there!

Mountain Standard Time Joins the Fight Against Hunger

Since our inception in 2002, dozens of musicians and bands have joined Conscious Alliance to help fight hunger across the United States. One such band is the bluegrass group Mountain Standard Time. Nick Dunbar, the mandolin player in Mountain Standard Time, took a moment out of his busy schedule to talk to us about Mountain Standard Time’s support of Conscious Alliance’s efforts.

Dunbar says that Mountain Standard Time decided to start working with Conscious Alliance because “All of us had been to shows in the past and seen Conscious posters and we have always been into what Conscious Alliance stands for.” He explains, “It’s always a win-win situation working with Conscious Alliance, we always like to put out a poster and if we can help a support a good cause as well.”

In 2010, we collaborated with Mountain Standard Time for the first time to create a poster for their Fall Tour. This past week we were fortunate enough to join them once again for the band’s Colorado Run and album release. Renowned artist Josh Pollock created a poster in celebration of this event. “It is amazing that he (Josh Pollock) is going to be doing artwork for us. It is amazing that he is supporting it and Conscious Alliance is supporting us,” says Dunbar. Dunbar, along with the rest of the band members, is very excited for the upcoming Colorado shows, “We really hope a lot of people come out to see our shows, grab a poster and have a really memorable weekend.” A portion of the poster sales will benefit the Houma Native American Reservation near New Orleans, LA.

We appreciate Mountain Standard Time’s constant support, and we would like to extend a thank you to each and every band member for helping us fight the United States’ battle against hunger.

A Word With Artist Robert Marx

Throughout the years, Conscious Alliance has worked with many different talented artists. One of the most common contributors is Robert Marx, who has dedicated his time and artistic abilities to create over sixty unique posters for Conscious Alliance since 2003.

Robert Marx heard about Conscious Alliance about a year before becoming an active artist for our organization. While selling his art at shows, Marx was repeatedly told that he should get involved with Art That Feeds. Finally, during the String Cheese Incident Tour in 2003, Marx met Conscious Alliance founder Justin Baker. He became a part of the team after discussing Baker’s mission to bring food to communities in need: “After sitting down and learning exactly what was going on and what their goal was and what they were all about, it was stuff I agreed with 100%,” states Marx. Not only does Marx agree with our goals, but he also appreciates the relationship Conscious Alliance promotes between art, music, and the fight against hunger. “The fact that you see the end result when they come to pick up the food or the results at the reservations from the food drives, it is really rewarding,” says Marx.

In addition to working with Conscious Alliance, Marx also devotes much of his time helping with a number of different organizations, including a family-operated nonprofit called TOCO, which raises money for children in need, and an organization that provides children with musical instruments.

Since Marx has created so many posters for Conscious Alliance, we asked him what inspires his artwork. He explained, “Everyday, my life, whatever I am focused on at the time. I read a lot, so a lot of times the stuff that is cycling through my head fills out the pages. It is vast and varies.” Currently, Marx is taking time out of his busy life to create Conscious Alliance posters for upcoming Boombox and Umphrey’s McGee shows. Marx wants to express to our supporters that, “Even if they can’t do much, when enough people come together and they all provide even the smallest parts, in the end they can exceed your expectations.”

We'd like to send out a huge thank you to Robert Marx for his continual donations and support for Conscious Alliance. To check out Marx's posters, click here!

Together, We Can Make it Happen

Conscious Alliance would not be where we are today without the help of our volunteers all across the states. Many volunteers, including Riley Finnigan, Adrienne Beck and myself, April Morris, have dedicated much of our time and efforts to Conscious Alliance. Together we have contributed greatly to the success of our organization.

Riley Finnigan, who started working with Conscious Alliance in 2008, enjoys working with Art That Feeds because he "feels as if I am a part of a truly unique and inspired group of people." Not only has Finnigan encouraged others to become more involved, but he himelf has been inspired by the mission of Conscious Alliance. Finnigan is invigorated by, "seeing young people take it upon themselves to get involved in a cause and having such a powerful impact."

Adrienne Beck has been working with Conscious Alliance for over two years. "I decided to volunteer with Conscoius Alliance because, I whole-heartedly believe in what they are doing. Seeing a conscious and forward thinking group of people accepting food donations at music concerts and festivals was so refreshing in the scene. I wanted to help turn something I love, art and music, into something greater for other people," says Beck. During those two years she was part of the student group at her college in Charleston and then continued to run events all over the country. Working with Conscious Alliance has catalyzed her desire to become a part of other non-profit organizations.

Also, for two years, I have been working with Conscious Alliance by hosting a number of food drives at different concerts. "I have never seen a group of people so intrigued and amazed by an organization's mission, as I have seen when talking to others about Conscious Alliance." Like many volunteers I love working with Conscious Alliance and hope to continue volunteering into the far future.

The genuine and gratuitous people that work with Conscious Alliance make us who we are. Without these volunteers we would not have been able to collect and distribute the 1,000,000 pounds of food, thus getting closer to achieving our goal of battling hunger in America.