Feeding Team’s 3rd Hunger Awareness Music Festival to Bring 3 Live Local Bands

Noblesville husband and wife Mark and Lisa Hall, co-founders of the two-and-one-half-year-old Feeding Team, are raising awareness of the face of hunger in Hamilton County again this year. And they’re doing it in a big way, come Saturday.

The setting is Federal Hill Commons Park just west of White River in downtown Noblesville.

“It’s on Saturday this year, rather than a Sunday, and we’ve condense the time,” said Mark and Lisa Hall. “We have more food vendors. We’ve digitized our silent auction, and it’s much bigger than last year. Another exciting addition this year is a bounce house for the kids.”

Three local live bands will take the stage between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.: Mike & the Boys, 3:30-5 p.m.; Fast Cadillac, 5:30-7 p.m.; and Tyler Robling band 7:30-9 p.m.

Admission is free with a food donation.

“The Music Festival is a way to gather and celebrate with our community,” the Halls said. “This is a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors and if friends want to be involved in this way, they are part of our team, serving our neighbors. It’s a party with a purpose: have fun and attract attention to the fact that most people don’t know the face of hunger in Hamilton County. It’s not readily acknowledged that people here need help. The purpose is bigger than us, bigger than any one person.”

The Halls have put together an amazing family-friendly six-hour festival of these three live bands, plus six food trucks, a beer garden, silent auction with some highly sought-after silent auction items, and more, in celebration of their feedingteam.org.

They expect a crowd of about 3,000 people and hope to beat last year’s record of 7,000 items donated. Their goal is 10,000 items this year as we head into a hard winter for many folks in Hamilton County.

Mark and Lisa Hall have accomplished amazing things since they started placing their little yellow outdoor food pantries throughout the county. The organization’s motto is “Take what you need, give what you can.”

The Noblesville couple created Feeding Families Hamilton County in April 2020 and in summer 2020 rebranded the nonprofit’s name as the Feeding Team or www.Feedingteam.org.

“We were going to stop at six (pantries),” Lisa Hall has said, because the pantries were going to be a nice community service project for their business’s employees.

“I do believe God had something better in mind,” Lisa Hall has said.

Last year at this time, they had 27 food pantries. This year, they have 48 pantries with the 49th food pantry opening this Friday at Legacy Christian School in Noblesville.

Their pantries include 23 Noblesville locations, seven Cicero locations, two Arcadia locations, four Fishers locations, two in Carmel, one in Sheridan, one in Westfield, three on the East side of Indianapolis, one in Anderson, one in Kokomo, one in Portland, one in Seymour, one in Tulsa, Okla., and one in Las Cruces, N.M. They have requests for more pantries in Pendleton, Anderson, Hancock County, Westfield, Washington, D.C., Colorado, Michigan and Ohio. They have an Eagle Scout building one and have asked IMMI to build another 15.

“We never expected it to be this big,” Mark Hall said.

“Our plan from the beginning was to serve our neighbors in Hamilton County,” he said. They help as many out of the area with plans, best practices and location ideas.

The reason for the Feeding Team Music Festival is to collect food and funds that will pack their little yellow outdoor pantries all winter.

“The face of hunger in our communities is not what most people think,” Mark Hall, the more than 35-year Noblesville resident, has said. “While homeless neighbors use these outdoor no-questions-asked pantries, too, Feedingteam.org pantries are designed to serve ‘gap’ families that don’t qualify for public assistance or might be embarrassed to go to a traditional food pantry.”

The Halls said, “We appreciate the community support. It continues to amaze us how the community gets behind the FeedingTeam. Every time we have an ask, it is answered.”

The first musical festival was in 2020, a small fundraiser with live music, featuring the Tyler Robling Band, at Morse Beach Park in Noblesville.

“The bands are supporters of the feedingteam.org cause,” he said. “Many have their own stories of being food challenged, which makes our collective cause personal.”

Mark and Lisa Hall enjoy watching live music themselves. So when they’d find a band they liked, they would tell them about feedingteam.org and ask them if they’d be interested in being a part of providing food to hungry neighbors.

This Saturday, Addison McMillan, 16, Noblesville, is set to sing The National Anthem, which kicks off the music festival at 3 p.m., just before Mike & the Boys, 3:30-5 p.m.; Fast Cadillac, 5:30-7 p.m.; and Tyler Robling Band 7:30-9 p.m.

Feedingteam.org is the corporate charity of the Halls’ TLX company, www.tlxcorp.com, which provides the majority of the funding for the festival.

A silent auction will feature more than 60 donations from local merchants, restaurants, friends and supporters and includes one hour in a police simulator donated by Noblesville Police Department, flight time in a World War II 1941 Boeing Stearman Biplane donated by Larry and Marianne Jacobi, landscape installation package valued at $1,500 donated by LA Landscapes and a birthday party package donated by Urban Air in Noblesville.

The food will include: Limonez Catering (Mexican), Just in Time (barbecue), Subzero (ice cream), Froze (slushies), Wilson’s Farm (popcorn) and Wine Trough (beer and wine garden), plus feedingteam.org merchandise tent and donation station.

The community is asked to bring non-perishable food for admission for hobbyman, for those who forget to bring food, Mark Hall has said.

The feedingteam.org provides 9,200 meals per month, and the community adds more to that.

“This fall and winter are expected to be particularly hard on families that are already food challenged. It’s a critical need that we, as a community, can step into a gap and serve our neighbors in a real and meaningful way,” Mark Hall said.

The Halls thank their sponsors. The event is not possible without their support.  Sponsors include Associated Builders and Contractors Indiana/Kentucky, EquipCon, Gaylor Electric,  Mark F Hall for Hamilton County (Mark Hall is an unopposed Republican candidate for Hamilton County Council District 3 seat in the November election), Talent Logistix and Williams Comfort Air.

Mark and Lisa Hall have two daughters, seven grandchildren, and have lived in Noblesville for more than 35 years. They are just weeks away from their 43rd wedding anniversary. The Halls are active members of Harbour Shores Church where they serve in music and teaching, and are members of the Noblesville Elks Lodge and Harbour Trees Golf Club.

Most of the pantry use is between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. The face of hunger in Hamilton County is those families who just need a meal or two to get by. Mark Hall said, “It’s the folks who look just like us.”

Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.