PARMA, Ohio -- Local nonprofit All Faiths Pantry is known throughout the community for its annual Parma Peanut Butter Drive.
Over the last decade, the Old Brooklyn nonprofit has surpassed 53,000 home deliveries, totaling more than a million and a half pounds of food to local seniors on fixed incomes.
Knowing a fundraiser was needed to support the charity, All Faiths Pantry Executive Director John Visnauskas decided a decade ago to merge his passions with the popular Reggae For Food event.
The 10th annual fundraiser takes place at 7 p.m. Friday at Music Box Supper Club. The benefit for All Faiths Pantry features Carlos Jones & the PLUS Band, Umojah Nation and Jah Messengers.
"The first Reggae For Food had Umojah Nation and everyone's longtime friend Carlos Jones," Visnauskas said. "We then moved it to the Beachland and picked up Jah Messengers. Over the years, we've had various other acts before taking it to the Music Box."
Attendance to the Reggae for Food fundraisers ranges from 250 to 400 people with All Faiths Pantry annually raising roughly $5,000.
"It gives us a reason to be out in the public eye and raises a lot of awareness for All Faiths Pantry, which is a unique organization in that we have outreach to age 60-plus seniors," Visnauskas said.
"We deliver 100 percent of our food. Typically, 99 percent of the 500 clients we service every month only receive food from us and not any other emergency food program. We're serving an unserved population."
Currently the charity delivers to Old Brooklyn and Brooklyn Centre neighborhoods in Cleveland, as well as Brooklyn, Brook Park, Berea, Middleburg Heights, Parma, Parma Heights, Seven Hills, North Royalton, Broadview Heights and Independence.
Northeast Ohio reggae legend Jones, who is a monthly volunteer at the All Faiths Pantry, has taken part in every Reggae for Food fundraiser.
"It's always such a joy to have our music be connected with helping others, and to be able to contribute to such a beautiful and worthy endeavor such as All Faiths Pantry," Jones said. "I have known John for a good 30 years or more, and his goal has always been to spread more love and compassion in the world.
"I feel we're on the same page in that respect, so to be able to help him in any way in his mission is a perfect complement to my own."
Visnauskas said this year's Reggae for Food event will more than likely be the last tied to the popular music genre due to his pending election next year to the All Faiths Pantry Board of Directors.
"Reggae for Food has been my baby," Visnauskas said. "So I think going forward the fundraiser may become a multi-genre event. We're going to reincarnate it and come back bigger."