The Kenai Peninsula Food Bank will host the Spring Festival on Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. to connect their community to a variety of organizations.

Lilly Murray, the food bank’s donations and communications manager, said Monday that this year’s Spring Festival will be the largest the organization has put on — with 15 booths set to offer services.

“Giving our neighbors a day to look forward to, to celebrate, to learn more about other nonprofits in the community,” she said.

There will be a petting zoo put on by 4-H, a space by PenDOG with free clothes, food and treats for dogs, infant learning programming by Frontier Community Services, and other services run by groups including Kenai Local Food Connection, the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska, Odom Corporation, Change 4 the Kenai and Cook Inletkeeper. Murray said the event is sponsored by Central Peninsula Hospital and that Walmart was also making a donation for the festival.

The event will be hosted at the food bank itself, which Murray said eliminates a lot of logistical hurdles — she described making connections with folks in need of aid at other community events and having to direct them to apply at the food bank another time.

It also means that head chef Stephen Lamm will have access to all of his equipment — to better prepare the free food that is set to be distributed at the event.

For more information about the Spring Festival or the Kenai Peninsula Food Bank, visit facebook.com/kpfoodbank.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.