Our school does this each year and it's a nice gesture. Ours happens to be sponsored by the school, not the PTO, but it could go either way.

In our case, it's a Tuesday and Thursday morning around the 3rd week of school from about 7:15-7:50. Children can bring their parent (Tuesday, Muffins for Mom and Thursday, Donuts for Dad)to the Library where we have a orange juice/coffee/muffins or donuts. We have as many teachers available as possible. The principal and vice principal serve refreshments and network with the parents.

You could make it be longer, more formal, whatever you wanted. Ours is just a little social networking.

Our PTO is really focusing on providing Family events. We recently had our Back to School BBQ and were pleased with the turn out. Along those lines, I remember reading about Mom's n Muffins & Dad's n Donuts on this website somewhere. Of course now that I brought this suggestion to our board meeting and it was liked,I can't find it. I'm trying to find out how any other groups succeed with it or any suggestions anyone has. Thanks