In celebration of its 25th anniversary, Golden Harvest Food Bank will have a benefit concert at the University of South Carolina Aiken Convocation Center on Oct. 9 featuring the Charlie Daniels Band and Augustan John Kolbeck.

"We wanted to have some type of public event, so we decided to have a benefit concert," said Armen Boyajian, the food bank's director of corporate relations. "Charlie Daniels has given to many organizations, so we approached him about doing a benefit for us. He said yes, and that's how it all came about."

Proceeds from the concert will go to operate the food bank's programs, which are now helping more people with the recent addition of more South Carolina counties to the service area, Mr. Boyajian said.

"We have Augusta and Aiken food banks, but the face of our food bank has changed dramatically with the addition of new counties. It's going to be a different service area," he said. "Our goal is to provide as many services as we can to our counties."

Through the benefit concert, Mr. Boyajian thinks the food bank will achieve that goal.

"Concerts are sometimes a chancy endeavor, but we have already received a lot of interest from people here in Augusta and in Aiken, so we are very confident that it will do well," he said. "It'll be a good opportunity for people to come out and become introduced to John Kolbeck as well."

As the opening act, Mr. Kolbeck, a guitarist and singer, will perform songs from his latest album, Songs for the Pretender.

The opportunity to help out a local nonprofit makes performing in the concert more exciting, he said.

"I'm glad that I was asked to perform, not for me but because it's for a good cause," he said. "I'm really looking forward to it."

Reach Nikasha Dicks at (706) 823-3336 or nikasha.dicks@augustachronicle.com.