ANAHEIM – The money came from piggy banks.

Gigi Castaneda, 10, and her brother Sammy, 8, had wanted to buy books or toys, but their father told them that not all children have warm homes or hot meals. The pair decided their holiday savings would be best used to help such kids.

“Because it’s really nice to help people,” said Gigi, whose parents, Sam and Veronica, accompanied their children from Whittier to the daylong PastaThon sponsored by KFI-AM and the Anaheim White House Restaurant.

Hundreds of visitors dropped off cash, uncooked pasta and tomato sauce, making the restaurant’s front lawn look like a stuffed grocery aisle.

The event benefits restaurant owner Chef Bruno Serato’s nonprofit foundation, Caterina’s Club, which prepares hot pasta five to seven days a week for more than 1,800 children in Orange County and Long Beach.

“I would have never thought that by feeding one kid a hot pasta dish 11 years ago that it would grow to this magnitude,” Serato said. “This event just gets bigger and bigger.”

His mission to feed children from low-income households came about after an April 2005 visit to a local Boys & Girls Club with his mother, Caterina. She saw the boy with only potato chips for dinner and pleaded with her son to make him a fresh meal.

As of 10 p.m. Thursday, the event had raised $291,310 and collected 90,200 pounds of pasta and tomato sauce. This year, the goal is $325,000 and 70,000 pounds of pasta and sauce.

Producer Michelle Kube was quick to add, “In years past, donations have usually continued to trickle in through the week, so the final numbers will probably be a little higher.”

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KFI, which broadcast live from the event, joined the Anaheim White House’s effort in 2009. Since then, entering this year, more than $1 million and 155,000 pounds of pasta and tomato sauce had been rounded up.

Servite High seniors Brian McGee, 17, and Tyler Black, 18, rolled up to the restaurant’s driveway in an SUV with their campus’s donations.

McGee said he heard about the event and encouraged the 200-deep senior class to contribute.

“This goes along with our school’s mission to be servants of Mary and be Christ-like to our neighbors,” McGee said.

Sam Castaneda, the Whittier father, said he wanted to teach his children the importance of helping others.

“Children are sponges,” he said. “If they see good, they become good.”

Staff writer Joshua Sudock contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2443 or jpimentel@ocregister.com or follow on Twitter @OCDisney