Our Story

The story of the Sauce War begins with two friends and a simple disagreement over whose home town had better ravioli. It was decided the only one reasonable way to settle the disagreement was to throw a party and add a little friendly competition. The first event consisted of a blind taste test, and a group of completely unbiased friends and family voted to determine the better ravioli. Thus began the annual event centered around pasta and sauce, held each year in December.

As the event began to grow, and as the crowd increased, we decided to adopt the Backpack Buddies program to enable the participants to give back to our community while also enjoying the fellowship. Delaney’s Irish Pub got on board to provide the venue, and the First Annual Spaghetti Sauce Throwdown was on. At our first Delaney’s event, we collected carloads of food, and the generosity of our guests was more than we could have ever imagined.

Over the next five years, the Throwdown grew in popularity and grew to become an important source of food and donations for the Backpack Buddies program, a source that St. John’s Lutheran Church began to depend on to bridge the crucial 2-week period of time wherein Backpack Buddies provides a Christmas ham for over 95 families, as well as a 2-week supply of food for the children, who through no fault of their own do not have enough food on a daily basis. 

Last year, we formed a small committee to determine a way to open this event to the public, and it was in this 6th year, the event adopted its official name – Sauce Wars for Backpack Buddies! Through the hard work of the organizers, a tireless group of volunteers and the outpouring of support from the community, we raised thousands of dollars and collected tons of food donations that went directly to the Backpack Buddies program at St. John’s Lutheran Church. This event enabled the church to add 20 additional children from Pine St. Elementary to the existing 75 children at Mary H. Wright Elementary served weekly by St. John’s. 

The 7th Annual Sauce Wars is set to go down on December 2nd . Again, we will feature 3 local chefs to compete for the Sauce War Championship title.  We will have dozens of raffle items donated from community businesses, as well.  This fundraiser guarantees the donors that 100% of every single dollar donated goes to the Backpack Buddies program and is 100% tax deductible.  With participating sponsors like Delaney’s Irish Pub, Titos Vodka and Sysco Food Suppliers, we are able to provide a fantastic event free to the public and utilize none of our monetary donations in doing so.  

Again this year, we will advertise on WSPA, ESPN radio, Fox Sports Radio, the Spartanburg Herald-Journal and through extensive social media.  We make sure that our donors and sponsors are featured in all of these mediums, as well as posters throughout downtown and dozens of banners at the event.  Please visit Sauce Wars for Backpack Buddies on Facebook, as well as SauceWars.com as we begin updating with this year’s donors and participants.