Athens has no shortage of annual festivals, concerts and benefits. Tonight, an organization whose local roots are little more than a year old will host the first of what it hopes will be a perennial event.

The Food 2 Kids program, initiated in Athens in January 2008, provides food to Athens-Clarke County children who are at risk of going hungry over the weekends.

“They go to school, they get breakfast, they all get lunch, but when they leave, for a lot of the most impoverished children, there’s not that reliable source of food,” said Joanna Carabello, founder of the local program.

The Junior League of Athens, of which Carabello is a member, adopted the program as its “signature project.” With the help of the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, it is providing food to 180 students, with every school in Athens-Clarke County represented. Food provided includes kid-friendly snacks and meals that require no adult help in case of their absence and cost only about $6 per student per weekend.

After a year of raising funds via canned food drives and good, old-fashioned donations, the group had the idea to host a benefit concert.

“With this community, anything you can do that unites the music community and the interest in music with helping others and providing for the community is sort of a win-win situation,” Carabello said.

The “Will Rock 4 Food” concert has merited donations from numerous big-name Athens bands and community members, including R.E.M., Widespread Panic and Coach Mark Richt and his wife. Some donations were monetary, and some were in the form of signed merchandise, which will be in a raffle along with T-shirts, restaurant gift certificates and even two-night stays in the Gameday Condos.

The music at the show will include a range of bands of varying genres and experience levels. All bands will be united, though, under the theme for the night: Georgia Grown. Each band performing will play collections of songs originally performed by Georgia artists, enhancing the sense of community that surrounds this event.

“Even if you don’t recognize the names of the bands . you’re going to know the music. It’s not going to be a totally foreign experience,” Carabello said. Songs by James Brown, Otis Redding, the Allman Brothers, Kenny Rogers, the B-52s and more all are expected to be reinterpreted by participating groups.

Corey Crowder, an Americana-style act, heard about the show through a friend and immediately hoped to get involved.

“It seems like a really awesome cause, and I’m pumped to be a part of it,” said Crowder, who will be performing songs by Redding, Ray Charles and the Black Crowes.

Crowder is based out of Covington, but for some of the other acts, the cause is even closer to home.

“The charity is very important to me personally,” said Chris Taylor, an art director in the Terry College of Business.

Taylor’s band Elijah is a Phish-style jam band who won the Flagpole “Up and coming” award last year. Elijah will perform tonight.

“We’re playing to raise money for these kids, and they deserve it, and they need it, and we’re going have a good time doing it,” Taylor said.