Page 30 - Blues Festival Guide Magazine 2021

Ending Hunger
Ending Hunger

With Blues!
With Blues!

The Blues Against Hunger Society (BAHS) is dedicated to food bank’s pantry for the season. Nervous and amateurish
producing live blues music events that promote the collection at best, they agreed.
and distribution of non-perishable food to the hungry while A crowd of nearly 300 showed up, and almost every
supporting, promoting and preserving the blues. Founders person brought a food donation. The event was a great
Sixx and “Sweet” Rachel Pack consider their organization’s success, and had a measurable, positive impact on both Sixx
beginnings as an unplanned, fortunate discovery, a and Rachel spiritually and emotionally. It was as if everything
serendipitous gift that feeds the hungry with bluescentric they had done up to that point brought them there; this is how
music. Sixx explains, “An old friend and mentor of mine they were going to make a difference. It was at that moment
used to say, ‘even a blind hog occasionally unearths an Blues Against Hunger Society was conceived.
acorn.’ I never really understood him until years later when I For the following six years BAHS was all the couple did
realized he actually meant ‘serendipity,’ like finding $20 in – they toured and produced food drive Blues Jamborees in
your jacket pocket.” the Western U.S. and Mexico until the spring of 2019, when
The backstory starts in 2006, when Sixx and Rachel began Blues Against Hunger Society finally became a 501(c)(3) non-
producing charitable events in Baja California, Mexico. The profit and the first BAHS International Board of Directors was
events covered the gamut from blues festivals to a 100-mile created. All the dedication and hard work of so many people
cancer walk, to plastic bottle boats and more. In 2011, a finally paid off. The organization, comprised of blues fans
series of events changed the direction of their lives and turned and musicians dedicated to ending hunger with music, was
their life’s soundtrack to blues. That spring, Sixx and Rachel finally in a place to be more, for more.
produced a 27-rider, 300-mile bicycle ride across the Baja The BAHS mission is simply to end hunger and preserve
Mexico peninsula. Then in 2012, they followed up the bike the blues while providing a strong sense of community. BAHS
ride with an 850-mile charity walk along the length of the food drive events include tours, festivals, seasonal musicals
Baja peninsula, finishing with only a few days to spare before and community Jamborees. The Jamborees are the staple of
hosting the first Baja Blues Festival in Rosarito, Baja Mexico.
By the time the festival was over and they were back
home, Sixx and Rachel were exhausted. They decided to take
a break from it all and recuperate. It was short lived, as they
began building a boat of plastic bottles to paddle down the
Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) to bring attention to the
plastic waste they had noticed during their walk. Ultimately,
the boat had equipment malfunction and was returned and
recycled, but this is where serendipity comes into the story.
Two musician friends had been living with the couple, and
suggested that since they had extra time due to the project
cancellation, Sixx and Rachel should learn to play instruments.
The couple loved the idea and quickly decided, after years
of producing blues festivals, to learn to play blues. A friend
who operated the local food bank heard that Sixx and Rachel
were aspiring musicians, and asked if they would make their Blues Against Hunger Society founders “Sweet” Rachel and Sixx Pack host a BAHS
musical debut performance as a food drive to help stock the Jamboree, joined by drummer Oscar Quiñones Nogueira. Photo by Diego Knight

28 Blues Festival Guide 2021