Despite the blustery conditions outside, inside the State College Area High School cafeteria, smells of homemade food and sounds of laughter warmed the air.

More than 500 people came out last night to celebrate "A Taste of India," an event filled with Indian culture and food to benefit India's less fortunate.

The Association for India's Development sponsored the seventh annual event, which featured food, costumes and stands with everything from homemade jewelry to Henna, an Indian art, on display.

Uma Asher, dressed in a beige sari, which she described as a long drapery worn by Indian women for everyday occasions, came to help out at the traditional Indian garb station.

"Some of the volunteers brought in their traditional clothes, and people can try them on and get their picture in them," Asher (graduate-history) said. "This entire event is based on the donations of community members from all over the area."

Sameer Marathe (graduate-mechanical engineering) said Indian families made all of the food for the event.

"Everything we have today was donated by members of our community, which means it's all home-cooked," Marathe said.

"All the proceeds from the tickets can go directly to help out people in India," Marathe added.

Sonia Shah (junior-biochemistry) helped out at the Henna station, and said she thinks it is important for people to recognize diverse cultures.

"Henna is an art drawn onto the body and used for decoration in weddings and festivities," Shah said. "Today people can come here and get exposed to different customs and traditions and cultures."

While many of the children could be seen playing dress-up in brightly colored silk garments or watching videos about India, many college students braved the snow for some homemade Indian food.

"The food is amazing," Sima Patel (sophomore-premedicine) said. "It's great to learn about all of this, but I'm not going to lie, I can't wait to go in and eat."

Patel also helped out with the jewelry stand, which featured homemade Indian jewelry made by women in India.

"These women work so hard to learn how to make jewelry and things like herbal medicines," Patel said.

"Then they ship them here and we sell them and ship the money back," she said.

Patel added that she thinks it is important to make any contribution possible to help those who need it.

"This is one day out of my year," she said, "but the money we'll make today will help them for years. They have nothing so they appreciate everything."

Asher said the contributions will go to help the poorest of India's poor.

"This is such a huge community event," she said. "Almost every Indian family in town pitches in to help those who are less fortunate."

Last year the association raised almost $5,000 to help people overseas and Asher said the group raised at least that much this year.