A summertime effort to feed the children of Butler is returning for a second year.

Aiming to restock empty shelves and extend expiration dates heading into the upcoming school year, organizers expect the event to likely surge past 2018's numbers.

The second annual Stuff A Bus arrives in Butler at 10 a.m. Tuesday with hopes of rolling away at 2 p.m. with enough donations to keep needy children fed for the first few months of the upcoming school year. The event resupplies the Kid's Weekend Backpack Program sponsored by the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation.

At the end of the school year, the backpack program sends its remaining stashes of food home with 360 kindergarten through fourth grade students in the Butler Area School District. The program was founded by a teacher, Kim Thomas, and Stuff A Bus is chiefly organized by another, Meghan Lucas.

“A lot of these kids do not have enough food items at their homes,” Thomas said. “So Stuff A Bus is aiming to gather donations to get our cupboards full for the start of the year.”

One month of the program costs about $5,000 and is able to provide local at-risk youth with nine food items once a week throughout the school year. They're funded through donations and grants only and take donations of both food and cash.

Last year, the event filled one small bus quickly enough that a second was called in. This time, they're planning ahead.

“Now, we're bringing the biggest bus they have,” Lucas said.

At the end of each school year, pantries supplying the program tend to empty out. Organizers load kids up with food to take home because much of it will expire during the summer, Thomas explained.

Stuff A Bus solves the problem, while providing a bit of summer fun for Butler children.

Butler's Bureau of Fire wheels out a hose to keep people cool. The Butler YMCA provides sports equipment and free lunches to children under age 18.

Children are encouraged to attend several stations set up around the event to get a punch card. If they visit all 13 stations, they get a free T-shirt. The stations include such activities as face-painting, a petting zoo and a fire prevention trailer.

About 30 businesses are lending a hand and donating food to the program, Lucas said, and they're already in the ballpark of last year's drive even before the event happens Tuesday. Last year, the event provided about two months' worth of food for the backpack program.

“I'd love to hit three or four months,” Lucas said. “You can't go much further than that because of expiration dates.”

All the fun takes place on the 300 block of North Washington Street, which will be closed to traffic.

Donation drop-offs will still be easily made by car this year, however, as organizers have added a donation drive-through lane. Head south along North Washington toward the event and follow signs for the drive-through lane in front of Emily Brittain Elementary School.

Donated food items should be easily prepared and require only easy heat sources, such as a microwave. The only extra ingredient they should require is water.

“They're usually the kids that are taking care of themselves, and lots of times these are elementary-age students,” Lucas said. “We don't know that they'll have other ingredients at their home.”

Some ideas are individually wrapped granola bars, cups of ramen noodles, applesauce or cups of soup.

People stopping by to donate will likely be met and helped by a boy wearing baseball garb. They will also likely be spotted around the community picking up donations from various businesses.

The children are members of the Potter Baseball Tour, a group that for 10 years has spent the summer helping at community events and charities. They've visited Butler the past nine years and are excited to return to Stuff A Bus, according to their leader, Jeff Potter.

“It was awesome last year,” Potter said. “Our guys really liked it 'cause they got to bring all the food in, get stuff out of cars. With 20 kids, you can get a lot done.”

Lucas, who is the head coach of Butler's volleyball program, said she'll also have her team on hand to help out. She's a teacher at Center Township Elementary, and Thomas is a special education teacher at Center Township Elementary.

Thomas said she hopes they can repeat last year's success, but this time with a bigger bus.

“Hopefully, we'll get to call in another bus again this year,” Thomas said.