I'm holding a charity tournament at my school and we have run into a problem, we are trying to find a cost effective, but accurate way of weighing bass in the tournament. Would a food/kitchen scale work? What would work that's cost effective?

Just get an easy to read digital scale, it does not have to be anything fancy, Wal-Mart brand or something of that nature should do just fine but you left out your price range.

Use a total length format instead of weight.

if this is a small time charity event I would use a total length format also... some club tournaments weight the fish by laying them in a clothes basket on top of a digital scale also.

cabelas/rapala/berkley digital scale.

I wouldn't hesitate to contact a local club to see if they could donate a member or two, and a scale for the day. Sometimes clubs like a little extra exposure, plus you'd have people at the weigh-in to make it go smoother, thus better for the fish. The worst they can say is no.

Use a total length format instead of weight.

Thats what me and my buddies do in our mason jar tournaments. Take a cell phone pic of the fish with the tape on it.