$100,000 Raised by Concert Will Help Feed Farm Families

Country singer Willie Nelson said Wednesday that the first proceeds from last weekend’s FarmAid concert will be used to feed hungry farm families, not to subsidize lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill.

Nelson, a principal organizer of the concert, said he was signing a $100,000 check to the National Council of Churches for distribution to food pantries serving poor farmers. He said it would be the first donation check written since the Sunday musical rally in Champaign, Ill., which drew between $8 million and $10 million in pledges.

“I’m just trying to take care of what I think is the most important and serious need, which is naturally hunger, and this is the reason the first check was written for that purpose,” Nelson said.

He said that he will send $11,700 out of his own pocket to the League of Rural Voters, which he called a lobbying group, so its members can travel to the capital to attend debates on a new national farm policy.