Don't forget to vote for LiveFeed to win $10,000! Do it by Saturday!

If you happened to visit cnn.com Monday afternoon, for a brief time our country's hunger situation took the front page. There was a look at the changing face of food stamps, debunking the myths that people who receive federal food assistance are mooches looking for a handout. Does this sound like someone milking the system?

Few are more hopeful the measure will pass than Crystal Sears, a 30-year-old mother in Germantown, Pennsylvania, who said she has been on food stamps for more than three years.

Sears said she sometimes skips meals so her three children can eat. Even with federal assistance, she said, she sometimes has to make a meal for herself out of crackers or food scraps.

In Sears' situation, she's out of work to care for her children who all suffer from medical conditions. Read the article and learn how Sears is forced to choose between food for her family and health care for her children.

Food stamps, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP as it's now called, isn't enough to provide healthy meals for families.

Sears stretches her food budget by buying cheap and sometimes fatty meals. She said she doesn't like doing that but can't avoid it. With food prices high, she said, grocery shopping is stressful.

"We get like the mac and cheese, which is dehydrated cheese -- basically food that's no good for you health wise," she said. "Everything is high in sodium and trans fats ... and that's all we basically can afford. There's not enough assistance to eat healthy and maintain a healthy weight."

What's it like to live on SNAP? Follow CNN 's Sean Callebs as he blogs about funding his food for a month through food stamps.

This is why food banks are so important. With government assistance being limited for food insecure families, neighborhood food pantries stocked by food banks like Food Outreach can make the difference for families who have to choose between health care and food, or where a parent has to go hungry so her children may eat. When you attend a LiveFeed event, you have the chance to give St. Louis' food banks a boost through your donations. And you're bound to get a great show out of it, too. Here's where you can help and have some fun this week.

Tuesday, for $6, you can catch Raven Wood at the Sheldon (3648 Washington Boulevard in Grand Center). The band fires up their strings at 7:30, but get there early and catch "Jazz, Rock and Soul: 40 Years of Music in St. Louis, 1968-2008" in the Sheldon's History of Jazz Gallery.

If it's Wednesday, it's Blue Ribbon Open Mic with Tommy Halloran at The Gramophone (4243 Manchester in The Grove). $1.50 PBR drafts. Start signing up at 8. Fifteen-minute sets begin at 9. Bring your cheering section!

Friday night, prepare to rock out with, um, your LiveFeed donations out to Three Fortys. They've got a new CD coming out next week, so catch a sneak peak at their first all-original show. It's at 8:00 at Playoffs (40 Crossroads Plaza, O'Fallon, Missouri). No cover charge!

If metal's not your speed, Leslie Sanazaro Santi will bring her piano and lyric-driven tunes to Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood), also at 8:00 and without a cover.

Brace yourself for Saturday night. Mike Judy presents February Rockfest at Fubar (3108 Locust in Midtown). Starting at 5:00, come see Full Frontal, Make Me Break Me, Hot Fever, Hold Everything, Renae, and Heist. That's a lot of power-pop fun for just $8.

If that's not enough, Brandt's Cafe (6525 Delmar in The Loop) presents the dueling pianos of The Spinets (Matt Murdick and Leslie Sanazaro Santi). Take a look at their Off Broadway performance from last August. Saturday's free performance starts at 8:00.

Still got some energy? End the night at The Gramophone for some poppy soul with Fundamental Elements at 10:00. Cover's $5.

Oh, and did we mention th $10,000?

Don't forget to vote for LiveFeed to win $10,000! Do it by Saturday!