Our school hosted a chili supper last year that was a huge success. We had a veterans day program featuring our students (to get people there). We also had a silent auction. Each class put together a basket with different items and we raised $900 from just the baskets. As far as the chili itself the school cafeteria ladies took care of cooking/serving and cleaning. This was by far the cheapest option as it came out to be $2 per person for the food. We charged $5 for adults and $2 for students. Our biggest problem was underestimating the turnout. This year we plan to have more serving lines and several tables set up with the condiments and drinks. Hope you have a great event!
Oh, I forgot to let you know. We also took reservations. We put a label on the front of a small envelope (English and Spanish).
Event/Date:
Family Name:
Total attending:
Total amount:
We took the envelopes and put in alpha order once returned by our deadline. When they came to the dinner we used this to determine if they had reservations. We did have some that got missed placed prior to the event, however we took their names and found their reservations/money later. At the end of the event we took the money out of the envelop and totaled.
This year we asked our cafeteria staff to help us out with our General PTO Meetings. We also serve dinner (Spaghetti, Chili, Pizza, etc.) They purchased some items, and we donated some items. We paid them by the hour to cook and clean-up, however the PTO Board also helped out. We charged $2.00 per person, and these funds are designated for a specific purchase for our school. Hope this helps!
Don't forget to get a health permit if you cook the food. When we did a spaghetti dinner we had to cook ALL the food on the premises according to the permit requirements. Always make more than enough (people get crazy if you run out) and you can sell left over food but be sure to have containers or zip lock gallon bags to send it home in.
We had the teachers and PTO board make chili. We then sent out a flyer saying that they needed to sign up before so we would know how many would be attending. It worked out great. And having more than one person make it means that there will be many different kinds to choose from.
