Scare Away Hunger doubles food target

Scare Away Hunger, a family-run haunted house on Cedar Bay, attracted more than 1,600 visitors this year, bringing in more than 3,000 food items along with $600 in cash donations for Samaritan House in its 2025 campaign.

What began as a spooky community tradition has turned into an act of generosity that will help feed dozens of families, organizer Carla Mitchell told the Sun on Sunday.

“This year’s event was the most successful yet — drawing more than 1,600 visitors and doubling our target food items for Samaritan House,” Carla Mitchell said.

“We set a goal of 1,500 items, which was what we had last year and this year, we’ve collected just over 3,000 items and $600 cash for Samaritan House. We had a whole bunch of visitors, which was great.”

The Mitchells’ haunted house has become a Halloween staple in Brandon — a place where families can enjoy scares while contributing to a good cause. Carla said the response this year exceeded all expectations, with both brave visitors and trick-or-treaters stopping by to show support.

“It’s great,” she said. “We love Halloween, and we would have done our haunted house anyway. But knowing that we can combine something we love doing with helping others makes it even more special. It’s really heartwarming.”

Mike echoed her sentiments, describing the outcome as a reflection of the city’s giving spirit. “We are really proud of everyone in Brandon who came and donated,” he said. “This is a community effort, and these are community results. This represents what Brandon is.”

The family’s children were just as enthusiastic about the campaign, racing each day to check the donation bin after school.

“Every day we’d come home, and there’d be new items in the bin,” Mike recalled. “People dropped off food even before we opened or in between our scare days. That was amazing to see.”

While the spooky display and hundreds of visitors made for a thrilling few days, organizing an outdoor haunted house comes with its own set of challenges.

Carla said the wind tested their decorations and setup this year.

“We had a couple of days where we needed to replace tarps and fix things up,” she said. “But thankfully, the actual days we were open, we had beautiful weather.”

Samaritan House is expected to pick up the donations today, which will go toward stocking food hampers as the need continues to grow, especially leading into the holiday season.

“There’s lots of need, growing need,” Carla said. “We hope this will carry Samaritan House for a while.”

Looking ahead, the Mitchells say they are already thinking about how to make next year’s haunted house even bigger — and scarier.

“It gets a little bigger every year,” Carla said with a laugh. “That’s a good excuse to buy more Halloween decorations.”

She also extended gratitude to everyone who donated, volunteered or helped enhance the display.

“We received not just food, but also costumes, a portable garage, and other things that really added to the haunted house,” she said. “We just appreciate the support of our community and look forward to doing it all again next year.”

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