Benefit tonight for food pantry

Evangeline Pabalan, 16, of Sparta aims to raise $1,000 for the Sparta Community Food Pantry at a benefit performance at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 23 at Sparta Avenue Stage, 10 Sparta Ave. N.

Pabalan’s nonprofit organization, Chords for Change, provides young artists with a chance to showcase their talents and to make a difference and bring awareness to food insecurity in their communities.

People are considered food insecure when they don’t have the resources to acquire the amount of food needed to function throughout the day. According to Feeding America, more than 800,000 people in New Jersey suffer from food insecurity.

“I think what makes our beneficiary, the Sparta Community Food Pantry, so special ... (is) the fact that they are open to serving anyone, even communities outside of Sparta,” said Pabalan, a student at Pope John XXIII Regional High School. “You don’t have to provide any documentation or proof of need in order to be provided with food, and they feed anyone who is hungry.”

For more than 30 years, the Sparta Community Food Pantry has been distributing food to people in need. The organization runs purely on volunteers and donations.

“Any success that comes from this fundraiser is in great part due to the help that’s been provided to me by Joe and Diane Garsetti from the Sparta Avenue Stage,” Pabalan noted. “Joe and Diane’s generosity has enabled my organization to be able to afford to donate 100 percent of all of our proceeds to the Sparta Community Food Pantry.”

She thanked Elisa Girlando of Elisa Girlando Studios for her guidance throughout the planning process. Girlando has been Pabalan’s vocal coach for two years and is experienced in organizing fundraisers.

Chords for Change was officially formed in April but has been in the works for more than a year, Pabalan said.

“Music has always been a huge passion of mine. I write songs in my free time, and I began singing and performing at my school plays and local events when I was about 10 years old,” she said.

“Music is a remarkably potent force, and our voice is undeniably one of the most powerful tools that we have, so I thought, Why not make art out of it and put it toward something good at the same time?”

Performers from throughout Sussex County and beyond will perform at the benefit. They include Mia Sanchez, a young singer from Sparta who recently performed at the Apollo Theater in New York City; Ben Janiszewski, a classical pianist and composer who has attended the Juilliard pre-college program since he was 14; and Marco Concha, a songwriter, singer and actor who worked with Janiszewski to write “Unfathered,” an original musical that won the Rising Stars Award for Composition and Lyrics at the Sussex County Teen Arts Festival.