Cedar Hollow scares up food donations

The Cedar Hollow Scare Away Hunger haunted house continues to grow in southwest Brandon as it returns for its fourth Halloween season.

The hosts, Mike and Carla Mitchell, have secured almost double the number of scare actors, added four new “chambers” of horror, and have set their fundraising goal at 3,000 donated food items to meet or surpass last year’s total.

“We have really expanded — we are much bigger this year,” Carla said.

“It’s nice. The more you get, the bigger you grow, the more you can do.”

A spider-themed chamber, a pet cemetery and a butcher chamber are new to the haunted house on Cedar Bay this year. A total of 15 scare actors have signed up for the event, as the parents recruited music and drama students from local schools.

Entry to the haunted house is by donation of a food item, which goes to a downtown food bank after Halloween.

“We are hoping to beat last year’s total of over 3,000,” Carla said.

The haunted house has experienced rapid growth in Brandon since starting four years ago. Last year, the Mitchells recorded 1,608 visitors, and received 3,013 donated food items — up from a little over 1,000 visitors and 1,500 food items the year before. It received fewer than 750 items three years ago.

Mike said the family’s enthusiasm comes from a love for Halloween — but also a desire to make more of an impact on hunger in the city. The growing food bank donations serve that purpose, he said.

“Our main thing is supporting the food bank and having a good experience for everyone,” he said.

“That’s out of the fact that the food banks need this — the need is bigger than it’s ever been,” Carla said. “We always say meet or beat, and hopefully that will happen every year.”

The haunted house has been redesigned again this year, they said, in order to keep it fresh and scary. A host of animatronics, dolls and live actors will be used to scare guests this season in a sheltered trail in their driveway and garage.

They have also made it as “weather-resistant as possible” by building the haunted house under shelter of tarps and their garage.

The couple, along with their three daughters, grandma Jo-Ann Mitchell and friend Trevor Ellis, were looking forward to their opening night on Friday when the Sun visited.

They said Halloween will open early this year because it falls on a Saturday, with “mid-level” scare hours starting the day at 2 p.m.

The haunted house is open to the public from Oct. 23-25 and Oct. 30-31. No-scare hours, mid-level scare hours and full scare hours are available for different guests. For a full schedule of the hours, see Cedar Hollow Scare Aware Hunger on Facebook.

The donated food items will be given to Samaritan House Ministries, which annually accepts the donations and finds them to be “very helpful,” executive director Heather Symbalisty said.

“It’s very beneficial because we are seeing a decline in the physical donations that we do receive at the food bank, and so this initiative has been very timely and extremely helpful,” Symbalisty said. “We’ve grown really attached and are kind of reliant on it, to be honest.”

The food will immediately go into monthly hampers that the charity provides to people in the community facing food insecurity, Symbalisty said.

“As soon as we get them — we won’t be holding on to them or stockpiling anything. It’ll go. It’ll go directly to the clients as they come in.”

The food bank makes sure it has enough staff on hand when the donations arrive, so they can unload the truck, Symbalisty said. She added that the food bank lends its support to the event each year, sharing posts and trying to promote it to help the success of the haunted house.

The Mitchells have painted decorative tombstones for their front yard that detail the food items needed most. They include canned fruit and vegetables, dry pasta and pasta sauce, canned soup and stew, canned fish and meat, beans, oatmeal and cereal, diapers, baby formula and hygiene products.

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com