We used it as a social event for the dads and moms and it really did go over wonderfullly. We had dads in suits and dads in uniforms, dads in gear to work in their garages and dads who took the day off. We did the dad event on a school half day with the hope that they might just take the day off and spend it with their families...which many did.

Yes coffee separate and games. People come amazingly early and you need a parking plan. Donut holes are good along with donuts and dads event seems to go through more so be prepared to sell leftovers for them to take to the office. Have a backpack plan so they are not all over the place and a release plan at the end of the event so the children can be released in an orderly fashion back to their classrooms. We also had music and did most of the set up the night before (not the donuts of course) and asked the janitors to hit the coffee pots at 6:30 so it would be ready to go. We did 2 coffee stations and one refill station at the other end of the room. Make sure dads and moms know the children are their responsibility up to the point that the children are released back to their rooms. We had close to 500 folks attend. HUGE and very happy events. Children with their daddy's or other important men...well they just shine!!!
d

This used to be very successful when we held them. We kept ours very simple - coffee, orange juice, and platters of donut holes. The juice was the industrial size frozen containers that mixed up 3 gallons at a batch.

We had staff serve the orange juice and stand by the donut holes sort of in a friendly hostess role to prevent the kids from taking too many at a time.

Like you discovered, the coffee does become a bottleneck. It was self serve and on a separate table.

I have been wanting to do this and have read many posts. I wanted to do the Donuts with Dads around June (before Fathers Day) and Muffins with Moms for Mothers day.

Krispy Kreme has a fundraising card so you may be able to get some and use it for your event and making money for your group or even sell some at your Donuts with Dads.

I suppose you could also do Muffins with Moms for the first day of school for new Kindie parents or just new parents. This gives people an opportunity to meet each other.

Having said all the above.....I still have to ask, what is this for? we've never done it in our school. is it a social event or a Thank you event? is this a give back to the community? do you charge or is this a free event?

do you try to recruit volunteers at this event? I'm envisioning Donuts with Dads and a table for dads to sign up for various PTO events?

our cafeteria is tiny and our parking lot is even tinier. our before and after care program uses the gym and the cafeteria is used for kids eating breakfast. one of our teachers mentioned doing it outside since we have no room.

anyone tried a pancake breakfast on the weekends maybe?

d

congrats on your success- we also had our first Donuts with dads this year. I have cut and pasted my post from the Fall.. here's how ours turned out, and the advice I gave for future event planners:

Well, we are done. We served over 500 people and it was a smashing success. The first volunteers arrived at 6:45 am, we served from 7:45-8:45 and Our gym was cleaned up and ready to go by 9:15 ( school starts at 9:00.)

We did not have ANY problems! We have never run an event that has gone so smoothly- and had so many wonderful compliments!

The ONLY thing we did not anticipate is that guests actually started arriving at 7:15.. we did not expect such early birds!!!

and.. for anyone that does this in the future.. we also bought some decks of cards and puzzles at the dollar store and had them on every table, along with white copy paper and crayons. It was great to see people coloring, playing tic-tac-toe, doing puzzles and playing cards! We actually saw Dads introducing themselves to one another, and then dads and kids who didn't know one another ( but sitting together by default at the tables) actually talking and playing cards or doing the puzzles.. it was just awesome.

Another hint is that we got our milk and juice through our cafeteria, so that whatever we didn't use, they COULD use.. and they only billed us for what we used. Having single serve cartons may be a little more costly, but MUCH easier than pouring cups of milk and oj and making pitchers of OJ at 6:45 am.......

Any questions, I would be happy to share more..

THANK YOU to all here that have done this event before, and whomever started this idea.. our school had a great morning thanks to all that have posted about their Donuts with Dads events!! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Nice job pals. I brought the same idea to our group for the first time this year (I can't say it was my idea, but I got the idea from my son's preschool). We decided that February was a good time to do it as it's usually a fairly non-eventful time in our school.

However, the first week we did Muffins with Mom and I had an all-Dad volunteer team to work it. We guessed about 300 attended as well. The week after we had Donuts with Dad where I had an all-Mom volunteer team. Both events were very well received. We had it from 7:30 - 8:30 (our school starts at 8:40a) and provided a parapro childcare for those parents that have to be at work at a certain time.

We learned that muffins go a lot further than donuts. We had Krispy Kreme so it was easy for kids and adults alike to put down 2-3 donuts. The muffins were normally split and each would feed 2 people. We'll probably go with different donuts just for that reason --- heavier cake ones maybe.

We also provided little cinnamon rolls and bananas. Coffee, milk, and juice to drink. It was a great success and I think the moms really appreciated seeing the dads put some time in.

Congrats on your efforts!

Steve

So the moral of the story is 'donut' put mix the hot and cold foods on the same table?? :eek:


Congratulations