As people dined on local cuisine and listened to the South Coast Musicians play the classics at Turning Point's 2nd annual Taste of our Towns event on Monday, Sept. 16, the organization was raising money to help support struggling families.

According to Turning Point executive director Shirley Santos, the organization is a day resource center that helps struggling people and families across Wareham, Rochester, Mattapoisett, Marion and Buzzards Bay.

Taste of Our Towns featured several different donations from community partners and area restaurants donated food and lent volunteers to help put on the event.

One restaurant present was CoHogs of Onset. Employee Cole Pike was there to volunteer his time.

"What brought us out today is we're trying to support the community," said Pike. "Turning Point does a lot for the people of Wareham so we love to give back. We're just trying to give back as much as possible."

According to Santos, Taste of Our Towns allows Turning Point to raise money for struggling families and support local restaurants. All of the profits raised at the event go directly back to Turning Point

"A year ago we were looking for an event we could have every year, introduce it to the community and perpetuate it over time in support of Turning Point and in support of our restaurants as well because they're very supportive of what we do," said Wareham Turning President and CEO Chuck McCullough.

Garrett Douglas, a Turning Point board member who worked the popular clam chowder station, said that this event “means everything to us.”

"In addition to being a major fundraiser for us it's also a chance to celebrate what we do in the community and share it with everybody,” he said.

Turning Point plans to host this event next year and Santos hopes to see this event grow.

"We would try to have more vendors that might be willing to show their samplings," said Santos. "We hope to have the same number of gift certificates and people making donations and for it to be one of our bigger fundraisers."

Wareham’s Karen Hong said she knows people who volunteer for Turning Point and she wanted to support them.

"One reason [I attended this event] is because I know Marcine Fernandez who is very active in Turning Point and it benefits our community," said Hong. "As an older single lady it's nice to have an excuse to come out at night."

Others like Judy and Bob Avilla of Fall River came out to try different restaurants.

"We camp in Maple Park and we're here for the summer so we try to go out and support the local restaurants and local charities," said Judy.