If you’re trying to stretch your food dollars lately, tonight’s spaghetti dinner may be just what the wallet ordered — a hearty, cheap meal that also supports a good cause.

For only a few dollars each, diners can not only enjoy plenty of spaghetti, bread, salad and dessert, they can help sponsor local sports teams.

Last year, South Kitsap Fire and Rescue’s Volunteer Association (SKFRVA) reported that it used feed funds to help build a shed for a little league team in Manchester that needed a storage facility, and provided new bleachers for the South Kitsap High School tennis team.

This year, the SKFRVA sponsored the Diamond Dusters, as well as the Puget Sound Swim Club.

Organizer Mike Smith, a lieutenant with SKFR’s Volunteer Association, described the spaghetti feed and other fire district events that he helps put together with his wife, Debi, as “tremendous successes” that grow each year.

For example, Smith said 2006’s event attracted 360 diners, a number that is nearly three times the amount of people that came for the first “feed” in 2004.

Every year since then the event has grown by approximately 100 hundred people, as organizers reported 125 diners the first year, 260 the next, and 360 last year.

Of course, organizers can never predict exactly how many people will come to each pancake or noodle feast, and Smith said sometimes “we get mobbed and have to make a mad dash to Costco or something for more food.”

But no matter what problems crop up, organizers seem to go with the flow and put on a successful fundraiser each time.

Local businesses that contributed to the event this year include Farmer George, Morning Side Bakery, and Supreme Bean.