Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and while some Americans may have food and family to look forward to, others are not as lucky. Hunger Is Not A Game, a benefit concert that took place this Thursday, brought together Grand Valley State University students who are passionate about ending hunger.

“Hunger is Not a Game seeks to capture the excitement surrounding the premiere of the Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, to mobilize our generation to fight against hunger and the global food crisis,” Caleb Munn, the senior club service chair of Diagon Alley, said before the benefit. “Our concert will feature a variety of local independent singer-songwriters who have agreed to volunteer their time and talents to promote our cause.”

The concert was put on by GVSU’s chapter of the Harry Potter Alliance, Diagon Valley. The main purpose was to function as a food drive, and all collected items were sent to the GVSU Women’s Center student food pantry.

Diagon Valley at GVSU is an organization that is based around the Harry Potter series and other books, and it does service work that is constructed around the stories told within these series.

“Diagon Valley is GVSU’s Chapter of The Harry Potter Alliance, an organization that has over 300 chapters nationwide and is a coalition of fandom leaders and members who feel passionate about the power of story to inspire and affect social change,” said club member, Aleia Wright. “We use parallels from the Harry Potter books and movies, and also other fandoms such as Doctor Who and The Hunger Games, to fight inequality, illiteracy and human rights violations.”

Hunger Is Not A Game was Diagon Valley’s own imagining of of the first campaign launched by the HPA’s Imagine Better Project, which seeks to unite fans to work together toward a certain social justice goal.

The organization also put on another food drive last year when the first Hunger Games movie was released. The success of the food drive last year prompted the club to do another for the upcoming sequel.

“While we want everyone to have a fun time and enjoy the music, our main goal is to get as many donations as possible,” Wright said before the concert. “This can be a really hard time of year for families, and the point of this event is to raise as much money and food donations as possible so we can help as many people as possible.”

The concert featured several GVSU musical talents, including Diagon Valley member Patty Pierzchala, who is working on her first album.

“I did a couple of shows with Patty, and it’s cool to see her grow and mature,” said student Rosie Cusack, who attended the event.

Overall, club members were satisfied with the success of the concert.

“The concert went really well,” Wright said. “Everyone who came and played were spectacular, and we couldn’t have asked for better talent.”

The club also met its donation goal.

“We didn’t get a lot of monetary donations, but we received over a hundred food items and a lot of non-food donations, such as toiletries and other items for personal care,” Wright said. “Overall, it was a very successful night.”