After a three-year gap between albums, Guster has decided to return to Iowa and join the fight against hunger.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve played in Iowa,” says Guster percussionist Brian Rosenworcel. “We used to play all the time at this place called Gunner’s.”

Rosenworcel says Gunner’s was one of the band members’ favorite places to play because they enjoyed hanging out with the owner after shows.

“The place was owned by this guy whose name is Gunner,” he says. “He used to lock the doors after the show and open the bar just for the band. That was the one time we got hammered on tour. It was pretty cool.”

Saturday’s show at the Embassy Suites on the River, 101 East Locust St., Des Moines, will mark Guster’s awaited return to Iowa. The show is being sponsored by radio station Star 102.5, who is helping to “Combat Hunger” by raising food donations from local residents. All food donations and admission proceeds from the show will go to Combat Hunger.

This isn’t the first time Guster has helped support a good cause. Rosenworcel says the band tries to play a few charity events when the schedule permits.

“We do a few charity shows per year,” he says. “We try to do a few each tour. It’s hard to do a lot of them and still make a living at the same time.”

Guster has performed in venues both large and small. The band has also been on the bill at a few large festivals. Rosenworcel says a few of the band’s bigger gigs were not particularly enjoyable.

“In 1999, we played this alternative radio festival with Kid Rock and bunch of other bands like Kid Rock,” he says. “We were playing to a bunch of kids with shaved heads who were giving us the finger before we even started the first song.”

Guster has made appearances on popular late night television shows, but the appearance they liked the most had a more intimate feel.

“We’ve done Letterman, Leno, Conan, Kilborn and those shows,” he says. “‘Austin City Limits’ is the best. Instead of playing your radio single and then leaving right away, you play an hour and a half set. Then you can go in and choose the six songs you liked the best and have those played back-to-back on the show.”

Rosenworcel says he is most impressed with the show’s layout and thinks more music shows should follow the same format.

“‘Austin City Limits’ is more focused on the musician’s art than on getting ratings,” he says. “They broadcast live music the whole 30 minutes of the show.”

Guster started when Rosenworcel and guitarists Adam Gardner and Ryan Miller met during their freshmen orientation at Tufts University in Boston. Rosenworcel says he never imagined himself being in a legitimate band.

“Even when I got to college, I brought my bongos and figured I’d keep them on the shelf in my dorm room and play if somebody brought over a guitar,” he says.

During their junior year, the trio began to promote themselves to a greater extent.

“We would have friends buy our CDs and then sell them to their friends,” he says. “We would go out somewhere, open the guitar case and charge people money for them. We were basically street musicians.”

“We played in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts,” he says.

“It’s a big tourist spot and people usually come and draw a huge crowd. We would amp a couple guitars and have the amp hooked up to a boat battery. It was pretty sweet.”

While the exposure was good for Guster, Rosenworcel says they eventually quit playing there because of run-ins with the local police.

“We kept getting in trouble for violating the noise ordinance,” he says. “They would give us $75 tickets for violating the noise ordinance. Finally, we just decided not to play there.”

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Who: Guster

Where: Embassy Suites, 101 East Locust St., Des Moines

When: 7 p.m., Saturday

Cost: $10 and one canned food item