The Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce has raised more than $10,000 for Feed the Need, a regional initiative aimed at alleviating hunger.

The 10-week fundraiser, which kicked off Aug. 4, is an expanded version of the Community Coin Challenge, which has raised $60,000 in the past three years for the 13 food pantries that serve the chamber’s 10 towns.

Instead of using coin jars as the primary fundraising tool, “Feed the Need” also calls on businesses to raise money with private events, such as “Jeans Fridays” and guided moonlight canoe paddles.

The fundraiser will culminate this year with an Oct. 17 Octoberfest Family Festival at Camp Hinds in Raymond. The event will feature a yard sale, pancake breakfast, horse and buggy rides, tractor rides, canoeing and kayaking, helicopter and seaplane rides, guided nature hikes, and tomahawk-throwing demonstrations.

In the past, the Octoberfest event has been held on Turning Leaf Drive in front of Bucks Naked BBQ on Route 302 in North Windham. The chamber’s executive director, Aimee Senatore, said Camp Hinds provided more safety and more reliable electricity.

“We just look at it as an opportunity to expand,” Senatore said. “We look at it as an opportunity to provide more safety.”

Senatore said she has high hopes for this year’s total.

“We raised about $18,000 last year so we definitely hope to raise more than that this year,” Senatore said.