Gary McLendon • Staff writer • May 1, 2009 Call it a marriage of bread and vine.
To raise funds, a Rochester-area provider of emergency food hooked up with an online social network to notify potential donors. The first local “Twestival 4 Foodlink,” a fundraising event designed to bring significant awareness to the hunger crisis, took place Thursday at Boulder Coffee in Brooks Landing at 955 Genesee St. Twestival is a cross between Twitter, an online social networking site, and the word “festival.” The Rochester Twestival 4 Foodlink was organized using Twitter and other social media to spread the word. Two hours into the four-hour event more than 200 people had attended. “People are coming and going, and we expect more,” said Frances Pesavento of Rochester, director of programs and development for Foodlink. “We’re shooting for three-grand,” said Twestival organizer Matthew Ray of Rochester, moments after the festival started. All the proceeds will support Foodlink &mdash a regional branch of the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, Feeding America.
Foodlink reached out to Twestival organizers with the idea for a local Twestival after the first national Twestival in February.