We have had two spagehtti dinners and made a profit of $1200 & $1000. Our school is small only 100 students but what helped our dinner to be a success was we got a lot of our supplies donated by local grocery stores, Sam's Club, Walmart etc... We also held the dinner from 3:00 to 6:30 and offerred "To-Go" orders. Many of our customers came from parents who came to pick up their children after school and just got dinner to go. We offerred a salad, rolls (donated from Bob Evans, Texas Roadhouse and Golden Coral). Homemade cookies were donated by the parents for dessert. Ice tea, milk and water were offerred for "eat-in" orders only. I don't recal at the moment what we charged exactly but I think it was $6 adults, $3 children and additonal tips/donations accepted. Many just threw in $20 for a families of 3-4. Hope this helps.
Hi! That's a lot of events going on on one night. We have a pasta dinner (ziti holds up way better than spaghetti - you can precook it and then just dip it in boiling water for a minute at the dinner before serving. We presell tickets ($5.00 for adults and $3.00 for students) but we also sell at the door for $7.00 and $5.00. We try really hard to get people to buy ahead of time so we can try to plan. We are an elementary school. Last year, we had about 350 people at "Pasta Night." We did the majority of our shopping at a warehouse store. We actually had enough volunteers this year willing to make a tray of meatballs that we had enough for everyone. We served salad and Italian bread and butter. We finished the night with about $700 profit this year, the most we ever have. We usually come closer to breaking even. We also put together centerpieces (12) for the tables and pulled tickets at the end of the night to win them.
As far as the silent auction - we ask each family in our school to donate a $25 basket, whatever they choose. We usually get about 75 baskets this way (out of about 375 families). We also ask for a $5 donation from each student to put together baskets for each classroom. We do better with this and get several $100 baskets. Then, we solicit the local businesses and work from a huge list of donors around the country - museums, resorts, restaurants, major companies, etc. and send out a mailing asking for donations. These mainly result in gift certificates that we either auction off alone or as part of a bigger basket (a snack food basket with a Blockbuster gift card). We also sell different levels of tickets. We give everyone who buys a ticket to the event one sheet of regular prize tickets and one ticket to win the grand prize. For large baskets, special baskets and the grand prize we sell additional tickets. You can also reach out to your parents to ask their companies to donate. I personally do web design in my "free" time. I have asked all my web design clients to donate and they have been more than happy to do so. You may have parents like that.
If you decide to pre-sell tickets, some people do not plan very far in advance. I, personally, would plan for a 100 more than tickets sold. You can always offer seconds to get rid of the food.
Here's a tip I am in the middle of learning the hard way right now. When you pre-sell the tickets, make sure you make a big deal of the tickets are being presold ONLY. This this isn't like all your other events where you can pay at the door and expect to get fed.
Great advice from all of you! Yesterday I prepard my letters to teachers for the themed baskets. (never would of thought about that with out your help!)I will deffiently try to get committee's going ASAP. Keep it coming, I've been active in PTO for 5 years now and always look to this site fore advice and guidiance!
I think I would pre-sell tickets for the dinner if you are charging-- this is give you a good idea of how many people are coming-- otherwise you'll have no idea how much food to have on hand-- hit up the local bakeries for rolls-- Good publicity-- I'd also use the cafeteria kitchen-- best way to serve all the food- even if you have to pay a union kitchen worker-- check into this-- this would be the case for us.
I agree with picking themes and asking parents to donate items that fit those themes... but I would send a letter that has all themes that were picked out--- maybe you'll get some parents that will donate to more than one basket choice-- make the baskets up and sell tickets the night of the event-- just like a chinese Silent auction-- See if you can get a committee for decorations... one for food and one for donations- this way you are not so spread out, but each group works on a specific detail-- I'd also get someone that can work on your fliers-- You for basket themes to teachers, then a flier to the whole school-- ticket flier- master list for door- if you pre-sell-- Fliers to the 4th graders in the other schools-- Big project for just a short amount of time, but if you have te help doable. Good luck!
