GUILFORD — Citing a combination of factors, officials with the Guilford Community Church are making 2016 the last year they offer the Strawberry Supper.
The chair of the event, Fred Breunig, told The Commons the main reasons for discontinuing the supper are attendance, the cost of running the event, and a need to pare down.
“For several years, attendance has fallen off,” Breunig said. He explained that before “eight or 10 years ago,” the one-day fundraising event had three separate seatings. In the past decade, when the church had a hard time filling all three seatings, they shrank the event to two.
“Now it's drifting off and we're not filling the seats,” he said. “Also, food costs have gone up.”
“We recently had a fundraising summit at the church, and we realized we're doing almost one fundraiser a month,” he added, noting, “that's a lot for a small congregation.”
Thus, church fundraisers decided, “maybe this is the one we should drop,” Breunig said.
Breunig wasn't able to give exact figures on how long the church has held the strawberry supper, but he said that when he first got involved in the church in the early-1980s, it was a well-established tradition.
“So, at least 40 years if not longer,” he said.
“Things change and people change,” he added, noting he and the other supper organizers have received feedback saying the menu “isn't great for the modern diet, so to speak.”
“We hope to go out with a bang,” Breunig said, noting reservations are still available.