School is back in full swing, but many students are having trouble finding fun, inexpensive things to do. To curb the back-to-school blues, the university’s Farmhouse Fraternity is hosting a benefit concert at Buffalo Wild Wings, with proceeds going to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Knox County.
The concert will begin Jan. 16 at 10 p.m. and is scheduled to host singer/songwriter Wes Loper. Loper’s past tours throughout East Tennessee have brought him around the campus a few times, but most people recognize him through his affiliation with the band Troutline.
With roots in the Alabama coastal region, Loper’s music mixes his seasoned twang with a folk style — a blend that’s been largely commercially unsuccessful. But with two independent records, a hit song titled “Shreveport to L.A.” that’s played daily on Sirius Radio and a full-fledged southern tour, the tide may be coming in for Loper.
While listening to Loper, students can mingle with the Farmhouse Fraternity brothers. Farmhouse was born out of a group of Missourians from the Young Men’s Christian Association in 1905 who were all studying agriculture and decided to form a club. From there, the group spawned into a national fraternity, and the Knoxville chapter was founded in 1959 with 469 initiates. Today, the fraternity is known both for its love of the agriculture and animal sciences as well as its philanthropic work around East Tennessee.
But unlike many UT organizations, most of Farmhouse’s previous charity work has not benefited the campus directly. Senior A. J. Haynes, a major in animal science and vice president of Farmhouse, said it has been a while since Farmhouse gave back to the university community.
“We usually do different kinds of philanthropy throughout the year, and most of them are more oriented towards the guys in the house,” Haynes said.
Farmhouse member T. C. Kerrigan, a senior majoring in agricultural science, added that this was the first time the fraternity has hosted a benefit.
“This is a ‘welcome back’ deal, trying to get our name out there,” Kerrigan said. “We haven’t done on-campus philanthropy in a long time, so we’ll give students a little entertainment and also some time to help out.”
The group chose Second Harvest Food Bank because it was the preferred philanthropy project of the fraternity and because it allows students an easy chance to act charitably.
“There are tons of organizations for students to get involved in, and too many times you hear about students who don’t want to because they don’t have the time to do it,” Haynes said. “This is one of those opportunities where they can just come by and have fun, donate some money, that kind of thing.”
The Second Harvest Food Bank serves the needs of the hungry in Knox County and around the nation. According to the organization’s statistics, 13 percent of all Knox County residents live below the poverty line, including 18 percent of its youth, leaving 74,191 people at risk of hunger. Haynes said he has even heard about poverty-line college students benefiting from Second Harvest. Farmhouse is making it easy for students to give back to the organization.
“While we’re there, we’ll set up some bins to the side for food, and people will pitch in what they can,” Haynes said. “They’re eating food themselves, so hopefully they don’t mind donating a little bit to somebody else.”
The event is free and open to all students as well as the public, though the fraternity is asking for both non-perishable food items and monetary donations, all of which benefit Second Harvest. Senior Andrew Lanford, a Farmhouse member majoring in turfgrass management, said the group expects a decent turnout.
“We have a lot of agriculture majors coming out and definitely some of our friends,” Lanford said. “We’re also hoping to call the fire marshal out there if we can.”
What’s more, not only will the music, community and charity bring in the crowd, but with 35 cent wings all night long, it’ll be hard to leave. The benefit concert is scheduled for next Tuesday at Buffalo Wild Wings from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
