Feel Good Food Drive aims to give back to local food banks with a musical twist

When 13-year-old Wyatt Jackson-Neal noticed empty shelves at his local food pantry, he reached out to his family to ask for donations of canned goods. His grandfather, Grammy-nominated blues artist Kenny Neal, suggested something on a grander scale. Enter the Feel Good Food Drive, a concert and food drive to give back to the Baton Rouge community, planned for Sunday, Nov. 23.

“I just wanted to execute something,” says Wyatt. Amid the loss of SNAP benefits to roughly 42 million Americans at the start of the month, he knew he wanted to do something for the people in the Capital Region. He planned most of it himself, from the flyers and phone calls to the event’s schedule and press release. He’s also performing at the event in hopes of collecting more donations.

When Wyatt approached his mom Syreeta with the idea for a benefit concert, she was game.

“Finding the balance between making sure that he’s taking the lead on stuff, but also guiding him through, has been really cool. I’ve been really impressed with how much I’ve been able to kind of step back,” Syreeta says.

Syreeta hopes her son will collect as many donations as possible, and she notes that community care and mutual aid are important, especially when things can feel destabilizing. “Even if it’s a small thing that you can do to help your community, it can have a really big impact,” she says.

There isn’t a setlist for the big day, only performers playing from the heart. “That’s what we do in this family mostly,” says Wyatt.

Attendees can expect performances by Kenny Neal, The Neal Brothers, Lil Ray Neal, Syreeta Neal, Scenic Highway from Baton Rouge Music Studios, The Juke Joint Juniors from the Blues After School program, Rockin Mozart and DJ Von. Other musicians are welcome to bring their instruments and join the performance list day of. Along with music, attendees can enjoy different art vendors, jambalaya and other fun to-dos. 

“It’s going to be a big jam,” Kenny says. 

Wyatt is following in the musical footsteps of many generations of his family. His late great-grandfather Raful Neal was a blues singer-songwriter who had his children performing and traveling at an early age. Kenny, Raful’s son, says he is excited to bring in some of his family and friends to play in the concert. Kenny’s daughter Syreeta is a singer-songwriter who teaches voice, ukulele, guitar, piano and group music lessons. And now her son Wyatt is getting on stage for a good cause. 

Despite growing up familiar with musicians, Wyatt has only been playing drums and bass for less than a year. He grew up in Los Angeles, California, and moved to Port Allen last spring. After the move, Wyatt became involved with the Blues After School program at the West Baton Rouge Museum’s Juke Joint, picking up skills and confidence in playing music.

“It’s good to see him as a young kid growing up, wanting to give back to the community and help out,” Kenny says of Wyatt. Kenny has hosted Kenny Neal’s Family & Friends Blues and Southern Soul Festival for many years in the Capital Region and says he always had an area set up for people to donate non-perishables. He told his grandson about this, and then they pieced together the bones of what would become the Feel Good Food Drive.

The Feel Good Food Drive will take place Sunday, November 23, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Nealville, Kenny Neal’s longtime property at 5251 Evangeline St. Admission is free with a non-perishable food donation, and representatives from the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank will be on site to collect donations and share information about their programs.