Snapshots of the Greek Food Festival

There are few leftovers from the  held annually at the .

An average of 11,000 people show up to enjoy Greek food, music and dancing at the largest and only fundraiser for the church. 

"Everybody thinks we just do this for the money but really it's third priority," said Jim Arthur, who has co-chaired the festival for 14 years. "You're sharing your culture."

Some fun statistics about this year's festival:

This year the church made an estimated:

• 2,800 meatballs
• 290 lbs of stew 
• 1,800 chicken halves
• 165 pans of spinach pie

The church begins working on the festival six months beforehand in January. 

Out of the 250 members of the church, around 45 percent of the congregation helps with the festival. All other staff are completely volunteer and include parishioners from other churches or random volunteers. 

If there are any leftovers—according to Arthur there rarely are—they're donated to the Salvation Army. 

The festival usually grosses $180,000 to $200,000 each year. 

Anyone interested in volunteering for next year's festival call the church's secretary, Claudia Nicholas at 412-828-4144.

Did you take photos at this year's festival? Show them to us by clicking the 'Upload Photos and Video' button.

________________

Plum-Oakmont Patch is on Facebook and on Twitter. Don't forget to sign up for our daily email newsletter by clicking here.