Beware of health department regualtions - most districts have banned home-made foods at PTO/school sponsored events. Our parents do one event - a lantern walk and potluck (chili) dinner - but it's held at a local city rec center and boldy publicized as a PARENT SPONSORED event. One case of food poisoning is not worth it - even though everyone says they've followed safe food handling practices things can happen that your PTO will be responsible for.

We are looking ahead to a family event in the spring in conjunction with the publication of our first school (K-1)cookbook (thank you PTOToday for the idea). We want to have a "taste-fest" type of event at the school where parents can donate serving(s) of their cookbook creations and everyone can sample. We will issue tickets to control quantities but might not need to charge (if we meet our fundraising goal with the cookbooks). Anyone ever done something like this? I'd love some ideas and ways to avoid pitfalls.