Harvest Bounty fundraiser set for Saturday

The program provides food for district students in need to take home.

Charleroi Area School District’s biggest fundraiser for the Harvest Bounty Program will take over the entire elementary center from 10 a.m to 2 p.m. Saturday.

Harvest Bounty was launched nine years ago and sends food home each week to students in need.

It’s a large effort, operating on donations from the community, that relies heavily on volunteers.

Each week, life skills and autistic support students in three middle/high school help pack the bags.

Ahead of the weekend, life skills and autistic support students at the elementary center deliver them to home rooms where they are given to students to take home.

About 210 students are served at the elementary school each week, with 30 more receiving bags at the middle school and high school.

While organizers take donations all year long and host small pop-up fundraisers throughout the school year, every spring they host their biggest annual event — a craft and vendor show that brings the community together for a good cause.

There are 54 vendors this year, and there wasn’t much space for more.

Organizer Becky Spiker said vendors will be lined up throughout the school.

“We had 50 last year and had them on the hallways, the cafeteria, they were everywhere,” she said. “And so with 54 this year, it’s going to be pretty big.”

In addition to vendors of all sorts, a concession stand will sell soup, nachos, walking tacos, hot dogs, pepperoni rolls and other refreshments.

A basket raffle with items donated by each vendor and others from businesses and residents in the community will feature more than 70 baskets.

New this year, a presidential raffle will feature items worth more than $50.

Not only will the raffles help to earn money for the food program, this year they will honor the legacies of two Cougars — teacher Paul Simpson and long-time president Ken Wiltz.

Both men passed away last year.

“They both made a big impact for our students, and we wanted to do something in their memory,” Spiker said.

Thanks to a donation from a district family, there will also be a Harvest Bounty Dollar Store set up during the event selling cleaning products and other household goods.

“We received a large donation of items from a family, so this will be a one-time thing but it was such a blessing,” Spiker said. “We’ve raised about $600 from that so far.”

Each year the vendor show brings between $5,000 and $9,000 to the Harvest Bounty Program, which costs about $1,440 each week to run.

More than $42,000 is spent annually to supply bags for students in the district who depend on the program.

“There’s no way we could do what we do without it,” Spiker said. “It’s been such a big hit.”

Donations for the program, in the form of money or nonperishable food items, can be dropped off at the elementary center at any time when school is in session.

Fruit cups, ramen noodles and individual servings of Chef Boyardee microwaveable meals are most needed.

“We don’t turn anything away and really appreciate all of the support we receive,” Spiker said.

The Harvest Bounty Program does not accept personal hygiene items or toiletries.