Downtown’s spring festival season began Saturday at the Landing with the 7th Annual Parrot Heads in Natural Settings Gumbo Festival.
The local Jimmy Buffett fan club gathers each year for some friendly culinary competition and to raise funds for Gleaners Dispatch Inc., a nonprofit organization that collects fresh bread, fruit and vegetables from grocery stores and wholesalers and distributes it free of charge to people in need in Duval, Nassau and Putnam counties.
It’s the third year PHiNS has supported Gleaners Dispatch through the festival.
Tasters purchased wristbands that allowed them to sample 18 gumbo entries and prizes were raffled with all proceeds from the festival given to the nonprofit.
Gleaners founder Dave Fountain said the donation is used to purchase gasoline for volunteers who deliver the food and to cover the organization’s minimal expenses.
“It’s our biggest fundraiser of the year,” he said.
For more information about other PHiNS activities and events, visit phinsjax.org.
356-2466