What’s in a name? When you’re talking about the Whole Hog Festival in Spring Hill, the name means a lot.
On Saturday, Oct. 5, John Maher Builders’ Whole Hog Festival comes to the 107-acre Tennessee Children’s Home campus in Spring Hill, TN. It’s a family-friendly festival that celebrates the many wonderful foods that come from pigs, and it’s a community event whose purpose is to raise funds for The Well Outreach, a Spring Hill nonprofit food bank that provides food assistance for schoolchildren and family in Spring Hill and surrounding communities.
The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the admission cost is $5 per person, with children 10 and under free.
“We’re truly going ‘whole hog’ on this festival,” says Shelly Sassen, executive director for The Well Outreach. “In fact, Martin’s Barbecue is donating an entire cooked pig to the festival as a food contribution. And we’ve got more than a dozen food vendors who will be serving various kinds of pork-based foods, including barbecue, ribs, brisket, sausage on a stick, gourmet bacon, pork rinds and more. The food at the festival will showcase pork products in innovative ways.”
She adds, “Everyone who comes out to the festival can feel good, too, that every dollar of their admission cost and every dollar from our sponsors goes toward feeding the hungry in our local communities.”
John Maher Builders’ Whole Hog Festival is an outgrowth of Spring Hill’s former Country Ham Festival, which ran for 12 years.
“We knew that the Country Ham Festival was a much-loved event in Spring Hill every fall,” says Sassen. “It had been discontinued, but longtime festival sponsor John Maher approached us about reviving it as a fundraiser for The Well. That made perfect sense to us. Our motto is: It takes a community to feed a community. We wanted the opportunity to share our story and mission of The Well with our local communities. We want people who might need us to know we’re here to help. And what better way to showcase a food bank than to celebrate food and family fun!”
In addition to a day full of music, John Maher Builders’ Whole Hog Festival will feature:
- Music – Nine bands will be performing throughout the day on the main stage, including headliners High Valley, Herrick, Carrollton, Adam Warner and more.
- Arts and Crafts – Local artisans will have jewelry, clothing, accessories and home décor for sale.
- Kids Zone – For children of all ages, there will be attractions including a petting zoo, photo opportunities with pigs, circus performers, jugglers, stilt walkers, balloon artists and opportunities to “Touch the Truck” with vehicles on site for kids to check out.
- Whole Hog Extras – Who doesn’t love a hog-calling contest? Presiding over the calling festivities will be Mayor Rick Graham of Spring Hill and Mayor Andy Ogles of Maury County. There will also be a “guess the weight of the hog” contest and a dunking booth.
Fireworks – The festival will conclude with a major fireworks display at 7 p.m.
Title sponsor John Maher is proud to be able to help bring back this popular festival for Spring Hill and surrounding communities and for the benefit of The Well Outreach.
“John Maher Builders has been a supporting sponsor of this festival from the beginning,” says Maher. “We know how important this event has been to the community over the years—this will be the 13th festival—and we are proud that we can have it be a fundraiser for The Well, which does such vitally important work for children and families in need in Middle Tennessee.”
Other sponsors for the Whole Hog Festival include Groove Life (fireworks), Kedron Square – SR Residential (stage), DeBerry Insurance (petting zoo), Maury Regional Medical Center (Kids Zone), Tennessee Pediatrics (Balloon Artist), Cynthia Beard Realty (Green Room) and Culvers (food court).
The Well will be collecting food donations at this event with a goal of collecting 10,000 pounds of food. Local schools, Boy Scout and Girl Scout groups, and families are encouraged to rally around this cause.
The Whole Hog Festival is a rain or shine event, and it will take place at the Tennessee Children’s Home campus, located at 804 Branham Hughes Circle in Spring Hill.
The Well Outreach has provided food assistance for families in Spring Hill, Thompson’s Station, Santa Fe, College Grove and North Columbia since 2006. A tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit, The Well distributes food to those in need through three key programs: a central food pantry in Spring Hill that is open five days a week, mobile food pantries that serve those in need outside of the pantry service area, and the JetPack Project, a backpack food program that provides weekend meal assistance to more than 300 elementary, middle and high school students.
Learn more about The Well Outreach at Springhillwell.org.
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