If engaged in a bidding war for a bag of kettle corn at the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale, Jalyn Sneary knows how high she would go.
“Probably $10,” the 11-year-old Harrisonburg resident said.
Meanwhile, if it’s Laotian egg rolls on the block, Tanna Meadows, 45, of Elkton, is convinced the outcome has been decided before the first bid is made.
“I would definitely win,” she said.
While the big auction bucks are spent on quilts inside of the Rockingham County Fairgrounds exhibit hall, relief sale food seems to get everyone reaching for their wallets.
If it’s not kettle corn, Brunswick stew or homemade pies, it’s doughnuts — about 12,000 are sold a year — international fare or an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast that gets dollars exchanging hands.
And it adds up: The 48th annual sale, held Friday and Saturday, raised more than $340,000 for Mennonite Central Committee, which provides natural disaster response, community development and peace work in more than 50 countries.
“They’re really trying to help [people] change their lives, not just imposing their agenda,” said Jerry Holsopple, noting how the committee will buy animals for communities to raise.
Holsopple, 57, of Harrisonburg, might have been as well traveled as any attendee at this year’s sale, having visited 32 countries. Many times, he produced videos to document relief efforts.
He joined others from the city’s Immanuel Mennonite Church on Saturday to serve 460 tamales, which were on the fast track to being sold out just after noon.
The Laotian offerings, as usual, were also a big hit, led by the egg rolls.
“They’re so good,” Meadows said.
With Mennonite relief sales, you never know what you’re going to get.
Sneary’s mother, Shannon, grew up on one in Kansas, where she took a liking to veranika, a German cottage cheese-filled dumpling treat.
Others tout the relief sale in Indiana, a larger event that lists a fried dough treat known as Elephant Ears among the food choices.
But there are no losers, especially since you don’t need to bid on the food.
“You see a lot of people from your community, and it’s a great cause as well,” Meadows said.
Article courtesy of the Daily News Record, Oct. 5, 2014. Eastern Mennonite University editor’s note: The chair of the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale is 1999 EMU alumnus Dave Rush. Grounds chair is David Mininger ’74. Dozens of other EMU staff, faculty and alumni volunteered their time to make the sale a success, including Jerry Holsopple, quoted in this article, who is professor in EMU’s Visual and Communications Arts Department.
Waynesboro Mennonite Church has volunteered for flipping pancakes for at least 20 years and we never have a shortage of volunteers! As an employee of EMU I wish it was promoted more on campus so as to involve the next generation and also to help fulfill students community service hours as a way of getting their toes wet so to speak.