Well, the Episcopalians do a Marshall Field sandwich marathon every year....actually twice a year.
The Presbyterians do an Ice Cream social, featuring home made ice cream and hot turkey and pork sandwiches. The Lutherans do a Corn Feed in August, The Pork Producers ( after all this is Iowa!) do several bashes every year, from pork burgers to a brat fest....and the men manning the grills are revered as wizards!!
The Kiwanians do a pancake breakfast on the square, but that is not really memorable but for the fact it's fun to sit in the shade and eat pancakes and chat until you burst!
Linda C

Today we had another Soup Lunch at my office to benefit Cancer Relay for Life. A group plans the day and sets everything up, a bunch of us bring crock pots full of soup (I think we had 10-12 today) and the office employees stop by, have a bowl or 3 of soup, leave a donation and today over $740 was raised in 2 hours. (I asked if I could bring homemade bread next time.)

The Service League has a Holly Day craft festival every year to raise money for their charities. The craftspeople pay for their space, the Leaguers sell breakfast biscuits and lunch - chicken salad sandwich, soup, dessert - and everybody has a good time.

Local small churches have fish fries, BBQ, Ham 'n Bean suppers, and the like to raise money for their mission work, and church programs. The sheriff's department has a sale of pork and chicken barbeque, slaw and hushpuppies to benefit their programs in the community.

Last year, we had a series of fund raisers at work for breast cancer research. We set up luncheons where you contributed a little food AND $5 cash, or if you didn't want to bring food, it was $7. The luncheons were themed - soup and salad, Mexican, BBQ, and just potluck. I brought desserts.

Donna

Our Methodist Church does a couple of things which have been successful. First they have a weekly Community Supper but that doesn't bring in big funds. It does what it says it does, feeds folks who can only afford to pay either a donation or nothing at all. Funded mostly by individual businesses who take turns providing the chow and/or cooking it.

What does make money though are things like the annual turkey dinner plus a new one they did a few weeks ago. To help raise funds for a church member to renew his work visa he prepared with church members assitance an authentic indian supper. It was hot! But great. They sold it at 10.00 per plate and when my husband and I arrived there wasn't a seat in the house. Worked out well for everyone I would say.

Hope this helps.

Kate

Our Methodist Church as an annual Chili Cook-off along with a silent auction. I started this seven years ago and it packed the house. It's always held the first week in March and I think it's so well attended because everyone is so sick of being stuck in during the Michigan winter.

In the past it has raised around $2,500.00 which is a substanitial amount for a small little church. (Only about 80 members.) I miss helping now that I'm spending the winters in Florida.

For years, our volunteer fire department has had a fish fry on Friday nights between Memorial Day & Labor Day. It's open to anybody & is widely attended by both year around locals & our seasonal boating community. There's often so many people they park on our property & walk down to the firehouse for their fish/chips. When we don't want to cook on Friday nights we always know where to get a good dinner!

Our VFW has two fund raising steak feasts during the tourist season. Those guys are great with their grills & every year have something new & fun to go along with the steak.

Our Congregational church is filled with avid gardeners that volunteer time to maintain a specimin garden across the street from the church. Every spring & fall we have plant sales. The sales has become well known & draw people from both CT & RI. Funds raised go to help our sister church in South America.

The Catholic Church holds an annual bake sale on their lawn facing the main drag through town. They draw such a huge crowd you can't get downtown until after the sale is over. DH walks down & brings back a selection of goodies for our brunch. The Church also holds a yard sale mid-summer.

The Episcopalian Church holds a very large dinner on Thanksgiving. It's grown so large that they request help from other local congregations. We've participated a couple years by driving to pick-up people who otherwise would not be able to attend, eat dinner with them, & then see them home safely. Anybody is welcome at the dinner & there's a donation box but I don't think this event is really intended as a fund raiser...more a community service.

Various organization like the Lions, Chamber of Commerce, etc. hold events & proceeds go back to the community in the form of park benches, repainting fences, planting flower boxes, & organizing/conducting our Friday Night At The Movies at the River Walk Park. It's really a fun event with a large outdoor screen & big sound system. People bring blankets, chairs, picnics, & the kids. Great community fun thing to do after you've filled up on fish/chips at the firehouse.

Every week, the Seaport holds some type of event ranging from a Food Fest that takes over the town to an antique boat/car show, lobster bake, a bonfire, toasted marshmallows & singing sea chanties evening, Moby Dick Marathon (community locals take turns reading Moby Dick straight through around the clock...this is an annual & much anticipated event), a ghost ship evening held in October, tug boat regatta that is hugely popular with the kiddos. Many of these events are free to the public but if money is raised part of it goes back into the community so they're not just to support the Seaport although G@d knows our national museums certainly need all the support they can get in this age of electronic entertainment.

The Aquarium also holds almost weekly events...some just for fun & others educational. Like the Seaport, a portion of any proceeds goes into the community.

With two such large institutions it's sorta hard for small organizations to compete. There's literally something happening every weekend that draw crowds. Many of those people also drop by a bake sale, etc. Oh, on most Friday nights there's a local organization selling popcorn & peanuts at movie night in the park...not the same organization every week though.

/tricia

One local church does an annual Pit BBQ. BBQ beef sandwich, coleslaw, beans and a roll. Silent auction.

We used to have a community Turkey dinner and live pie/cake auction. That auction was a big money maker!! An angel food cake once went for nearly $40!!

Kiwanas have a chicken BBQ every year.

We have annual Holiday Bazaars every year the weekend before Thanksgiving and some of the schools, library, churches, etc. rent table space. Not sure it makes them a lot of money, but some. It's a community wide event with a published map.

The fire department holds an open house with dogs and burgers every spring.

Deanna

The only one I know of is the annual Greek festival at the Holy Trinity. There's souvlaki, gyros, patistos (sp?) and all the sides in the food tent, live entertainment with various ages of dancers, and inside is all the baked goods. (I've heard they work on them for months in advance.) Those in the know go first thing on Friday so they can get the best goodies before they disappear. A few years back they built on a huge event tent because it got so busy and popular. I remember going to my first one back in Jr. high because one of my friends was a dancer. Back then it wasn't so big so people could join in with the dancers. Now we hardly ever go because it's so busy, and there are now a few decent Greek places around.

I know there's a few other ethnic festivals around, think they are more about the fest than the food.

Lisa

Here fund raisers are held by all of the local churches and some community services.

The local Senior Citizens Center has a baked potato luncheon every St. Patrick's Day, it's a "big" fund raiser for the senior meals program. You can get a big baked potato with chili, broccoli and cheese with ham or just sour cream and chives, along with a side of cole slaw and a cookie or brownie, $5.

The 7th Day Baptists have Mission Mondays, for $7 you get a meal from 5-7 one Monday a month. Sometimes it's pot roast, sometimes meatloaf, sometimes spaghetti. All proceeds go to pay for their mission trips.

Our church sells pasties and pigs-in-blankets as fund raisers for the food pantry and the Catholic church has a Christmas Bazaar every year but I don't know what the proceeds are intended for.

The Lions club has Friday fish fries and the Eagles have pajama parties but I think that has mostly to do with alcohol, not food, LOL.

Every small community festival around here has a chili cook-off, I think, just like all the volunteer fire departments have pancake breakfasts.

The Cancer Society has Relay for Life and a pop can drive, but not much to do with food.

And every year Newaygo County Community Services hosts "Empty Bowls", started by a teacher in Michigan in the 1990s and it's spread throughout the US. For a specific donation you can get a bowl of soup in a bowl made and decorated by local artisans, sometimes we get some designed by more famous people. You eat the soup and keep the bowl, and the money raised goes to local food pantries.

We also have baby food cooking contests for the annual Gerber Baby Food festival, make whatever you want with baby food as an ingredient and enter it for a prize. We have frozen chicken bowling, ice fishing derbies with fish fries, buffalo BBQs, bake sales and fry bread at the local Pow Wow, lots of things that have to do with food.

Annie