School is in session, extracurriculars are filling up the schedule, and a new season of sports has begun. This can mean only one thing! It’s fundraiser season! Cue the groans and the “You again? Weren’t you just selling something last week?” Yes, it was me, and actually, I was selling three things last week. Heads up, I’ll probably be back next week with two more things.

Believe me, I’m probably more tired of selling things than you are of buying them, but here we are. It’s a fact of life: things cost money. As organizations like our schools and our community sports teams and clubs have to pay more money for things like insurance, and facility maintenance costs and the basics, it falls to the people who want said activity to get more involved in helping to pay for the extras. Sometimes, if there is a “can I just write the check” option, I am happy to take it. However, that isn’t a solution for everyone, and there are legitimate times when I am probably going to spend the money on something anyway, so if an organization can profit from it, everyone is winning.

Food is hands down the best and easiest thing to sell. Food doesn’t hang around. People eat it, and if it’s good, they want more! Even better than food? Coupons or gift cards for food! I will always pick up a few hoagie coupons because I know we will use them for lunches or as a quick bite before a game. Over the course of the next six years, I see myself spending a small fortune feeding my kids between school and practices and games. These will come in handy.

Next up, the dollar items: the candy bars, the bags of penny candy, the meat sticks. While a drawback is that you have to sell a lot of them to make any real money, the plus side is that you CAN usually sell a lot of them, especially if you have a parent who works in any kind of plant or office environment. At $1, many times, your fundraiser is cheaper than a vending machine or a convenience store.

The next category of food is my least favorite, but it too, has a pretty good success rate: the frozen foods. The real pain here? Having to coordinate your delivery and pickup times. That stuff has to stay frozen, or it will end badly! Although these are my least favorite food sales, they add some “real food” to the menu of candy bars and hoagies.

After the food sales, my next most favorite fundraiser is the “show up for a few hours and get it done” style of event. This might be a car wash or a clothing drive. Some of my other favorites are spaghetti dinners, chicken barbecue or platter sales, or a breakfast.

From the side of organizing an event, this kind of thing is ideal, because in the time it takes to sort and distribute several tons of frozen food, you can also sort and distribute a hot meal, or corral some kids into actually doing some work for their money, as they serve or bus tables. A hint to all the kids out there: If I show up at your breakfast and I see you hustling to help people carry their plates or serving people, I’m a lot more likely to throw a few more dollars in your donation can.

I like these events because it pulls the actual kids in to earning the money for their organization. I think it’s important that kids have some gratitude and appreciation for the people who are supporting them and getting some delicious pancakes at the same time. I know a lot of times there are insurance reasons why kids can’t participate in cooking or serving actual food, but there are still plenty of jobs that they can do.

I also appreciate the seasonal sales. Chances are pretty good that I’m going to be buying mums or other fall flowers, a Christmas wreath and some Easter flowers. While the sorting and delivery can be a headache (I’m still cleaning dirt and dried leaves out of the back of my car after our fall flower delivery last week), it’s also the sort of thing that can be done in the course of one morning and doesn’t drag on for weeks.

So that’s the good stuff. But what about the bad stuff? You know what I’m talking about. The bags of “fun shaped noodles” that cost you four times what they cost in the grocery store. The candle that some kid dropped and broke while it was being delivered. The “home goods” that looked great in the catalog but showed up being way smaller and chintzier than you expect for the price. To anyone contemplating that kind of fundraiser, I just beg you to ask yourself, “Do I want this in my house and am I willing to pay for it?” If the answer is no, then just sign up for another round of hoagie coupons.

I would also like to challenge our various organizations to really take a step back and consider their needs. Do these kids really need another T-shirt or equipment bag? Is a big “end of the year” party necessary when they will have another season in six months? My swim team took a long, hard look at what our operating expenses truly are and how many things were “needs” and how many things were “nice to haves.” We then made a concerted effort to have our registration fee cover most expenses. We have food stands at our home meets, which are a necessity, to help raise money to offset the additional expenses, and we have one fundraiser each year in order to purchase or replace necessary equipment that the entire program can use. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s a start.

Finally, my thoughts on fundraisers wouldn’t be complete without my dad’s opinion. “You’re not buying a candy bar, you’re supporting a kid,” he’d growl as he shelled out another few bucks. Paying three times more than retail for a can of popcorn may pinch a little, but knowing that it helped a kid go to summer camp feels pretty darn good.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.