ROCKLAND — Innkeepers, restaurants and business members who participated in the 11th Annual Pies on Parade Pie Tour presented a check to the Area Interfaith Outreach (AIO) Food Pantry and Fuel Assistance Program for $25,695 representing all ticket, auction and oil donations from the event.

This brings the total donations for AIO's food and fuel assistance programs from the 11-year tenure of this event to $109,285 and sets a record for the largest single-year total raised in any of the 11 pie tours to date.

Included in the donation total is $4,289.20 raised specifically for the AIO Fuel Assistance Program, which further includes a generous match for the donations raised during the tour by Maritime Oil.

For the first time this year, donation cans in the shape of oil drums were distributed at the Historic Inns of Rockland and other businesses prior to the event and during the tour. All monies raised will be specifically earmarked for fuel assistance during the upcoming cold winter months.

This donation translates into more than 56,000 meals for hungry Midcoast Mainers, which means the donations from Pies on Parade will feed the more than 700 food-challenged people served by AIO Food Pantry in the 17 Knox County communities served by AIO.

The 2015 Pies On Parade Rockland Pie Tour set records for both ticket sales and attendance. More than 650 people braved the windy weather to consume pie at 23 different venues serving up more than 800 pies and 11,000 pieces of pie.

All participating businesses donated more 400 estimated hours of time and thousands of dollars in products and services to ensure a sizable donation could be made to the Area Interfaith Outreach Food Pantry and Fuel Assistance Program this year (100 percent of proceeds from the ticket sales, oil can donations, and Silent Auction were donated to the AIO Food Pantry and Fuel Assistance Program).

More than 41 donations from additional businesses throughout Rockland were offered for a silent auction which took place the night before the Pie Tour at Trackside Station Restaurant in Rockland, helping to boost the donation from the 2015 Pie Tour.

Linda Pieper, volunteer for the AIO Food Pantry, in a news releaseoffered these comments to those involved in the 2015 Pie Tour on behalf of all those at the Food Pantry: "AIO is so grateful for all that each of you do for us every year. When we work together we demonstrate what the word "community" means, and here in Rockland it means a whole lot to the people and families who come to AIO for help.

“Some have shown their gratitude by acting as volunteers at Pies on Parade to pay you back for help they have received in the past. We can only imagine the amount of time and effort you put in each year, but we do see the results of your labors every time we can help someone keep warm, or have a few days' worth of food to help them through a difficult time. If only you could see what a difference you are making in peoples' lives! Thank you again and again."

Already planning ahead, the 12th Annual Pies on Parade tour will be held January 31, 2016. Pie Tour lodging packages are on sale now and sell out quickly. Pie Tour tickets go on sale immediately after Thanksgiving. Contact LimeRock Inn, Berry Manor Inn, or Granite Inn to book a 2016 Pies on Parade lodging package.