On Sunday, Oct. 8, at 7 p.m., award-winning Nashville songwriters will once again grace the stage at James River High School for a benefit to raise money for the Buchanan Area Ministerial Association (BAMA) Food Pantry.

The event is being sponsored by the James River Key Club. The show will be performed as a Nashville-style song writers round, where each songwriter will take turns singing the songs they have written, and explaining the inspiration and process behind the songs.

This year five songwriters will perform: Matt Ramsey who is originally from Buchanan, Trevor Rosen from Detroit, Matt Jenkins, from Texas, Josh Osborne from Kentucky and Shane McAnally from Texas.

Each has written songs recorded by artists such as Kenny Chesney, Chris Young, Jake Owen, Dierks Bentley, Band Perry, Luke Bryan, Kelly Clarkson, Keith Urban and Sam Hunt, along with songs for Old Dominion that includes two of the songwriters—Ramsey and Rosen.

The songwriters have songs that have climbed to No. 1 on the music ratings charts, are recipients of gold and platinum records, and Grammies.

In addition, there will be an opportunity to donate for chances to win autographed memorabilia from country artists through a silent auction.

This year tickets are $30 and will go on sale Saturday, Sept. 9 at 11 a.m. at Purgatory Emporium on Main St., Buchanan.  No phone, email or Facebook orders will be taken and there is a limit of 8 tickets per person.

Doors will open at 5:45 p.m. on October 7, and babysitting will be available at no charge by the Key Club.

This year there will be an added entertainment pre-show.  JRHS student Bailey Marshall will perform from 6-6:30 p.m. for early arrivers.

Since it began in early 2010, the BAMA Food Pantry has distributed at least $250,000 worth of food to over 5,000 clients.  This amount does not include hundreds of turkeys donated each year by the Botetourt Longbeards, venison donated by Hunters for the Hungry, and other meat items donated by churches and individuals.

The pantry serves approximately 35 families at each distribution, and each family receives enough food for 18 individual nutritious meals. BAMA anticipates the need to increase as the weather turns colder, and will see a total this year of around 850 families with a dollar total of around $40,000.

All of the staff is volunteer.  The food comes from monetary donations and food donations from Buchanan area churches, individuals, civic organizations and businesses.  Some of the items they regularly distribute are:

100-percent juice

Canned fruit

Canned vegetables

Dry Cereal

Canned Soup

Pasta and Sauce

Peanut Butter

There are only two criteria to be able to receive food, and they are that you are a Botetourt County resident and that you come to collect the food.

Food distribution is the second and fourth Saturday of every month at Buchanan Presbyterian Church on Main Street in Buchanan.

This year food pantry is accepting food donations at the concert.

For every donation, your name will be entered in a drawing for $100 donated by the Bank of Botetourt.

Ramsey, Rosen, Jenkins, Osborne and McAnally donate their time and talent, and they will accept nothing from their performance in order to support this mission.