Story By Sam Knee

Clanton, Ala —The annual Taste of Chilton is a food tasting event that was held on Oct 6th. It was organized by the Chilton County Senior Connection and hosted in collaboration with the Rotary Club of Chilton County. The event is a fundraiser for the two organizations.

The event is a basically a giant buffet. Pay for a ticket and you’re able to visit and get food from any of the booths as many times as you want as long as the booths still have food. This year, the event raised around $13,000, which is significantly less than 2024 when the event earned $17,000.

The participants at the event consists of many vendors who are local to the the Chilton County area. The event is not exclusive to just small businesses, but also larger franchise chains like Whataburger, Domino’s Pizza and Shoney’s. Some of the local businesses that participated were Peach Park, GeMa’s Cupcakes Plus and Pies by Mike.

In addition to the food vendors, two radio stations appeared at the event. WKLF Radio announced and played music for the event, while the second station, Piper Peach Radio, reported live on their online platform. I was even pulled onto the broadcast for an interview after I had interviewed the Senior Connection Director, Debbie Loftis.

I thought it was better than compared to last year.

Pam Marcus, Taste of Chilton attendee

This year’s Taste of Chilton had to adapt to a change of venue compared to previous years. The previous venue, the Clanton Senior Center, was recently sold to relocate the Liberty Christian Academy. As a result, this year’s event was held on the Clanton campus of Jefferson State Community College.

Though the event was held on at a new venue, Pam Marcus, an attendee who had attended at the previous venue, says “Last year, you know, we were at the Senior Connection. And to me, there wasn’t that much space. A lot of people, and there just wasn’t no way to move around as well.” Marcus continues, “I thought it was better than compared to last year.”

When Loftis was asked if Senior Connection would use the Jefferson State campus again she said, “Most likely we will. We haven’t really talked about it again this year. We want to see how it came out and everything because it’s been new to us this year.”

Though the previous senior center was sold, there are currently plans to build a new senior center near Goose Pond Park in Clanton.