HOWLAND — For the past six years, local men have used their cooking skills to come up with unique food items for the public to sample while raising funds to benefit Scouting.

The sixth annual Howland Men Who Cook event took place Sunday at a new location, Howland Middle School, where people could sample smoked BBQ sliders, Cincinnati chili over spaghetti, honey drizzled bacon wrapped water chestnuts, haluski, pork belly burnt ends over pineapple slaw and many other items.

The three-hour event was hosted by Howland Boy Scout Troop 28 and was attended by 350 people. A dozen celebrity chefs participated.

Ruth Rebel, a Scoutmaster for Troop 122 in Howland, said there was a variety of food for the public to sample.

“The money raised from this event allows the Scouts to buy equipment for camping, maintain our tools and other needs. The Howland schools have been asking us to use their schools for this event. They have a nice big cafeteria and nice hallway,” Rebel said.

Celebrity judges also were among those sampling the food items.

“We appreciate the support for the Scouts. This is a fun event in the middle of winter to come to and people get to sample the variety of food,” she said.

Kim Garrett and her daughter, Kylie Garrett of Howland, said they liked the different food choices, including some desserts.

“We have some really great chefs here. I liked the Cincinnati chili over spaghetti and Scout stickers with rice,” Kim Garrett said.

Derek Hartz of Vienna prepared Hunky Hartz Halusky.

“This really brings the public in and shows them what we do as Scouts,” he said.

Josh Rebel, a Howland High School junior, made Dutch oven camp peach cobbler.

“We felt most people would be preparing main dishes so we wanted to do a dessert for people to try after eating the other food,” he said.

Kevin McGee, assistant Scoutmaster, and his sons, Liam McGee and Aidan McGee, prepared smoked BBQ sliders, which he said they knew a lot of people would want to try.

Howland Rotary President Gary Lehman and Anita Brennan, secretary, were among those sampling the food items, while also promoting the Rotary and what it does for the community.

Lehman said the Rotary has helped Scouts with donations of money and bricks for the Yellow House and for Eagle Scout projects.

In addition to enjoying the food, the public also had the opportunity to bid on more than 50 basket raffle items.