Hi we always do something special for staff on "Staff/ teacher appreciation day" but I read all the ideas about having a meal during parent teacher conferences and I took it to the PTA and we offer a "mini dinner" this year , nothing spectacular but it was a big hit. We got thank you emails before they even took one bite. If you have not done it , try it the teachers really appreciated the fact that we thought about them on those long days/evenings.
We also provide dinner. But this year we went about it a little differently. We ordered boxed lunches from our local grocery store. The teachers then got to pick what they wanted to eat. None of this we pick it out and they eat it. We have some that are on diets so they got to pick the menu. It had a choice of one of each of the following 10 different sandwiches, 8 salads( potato ect.), 4 fruit choices, 4 deserts, and a drink, they also got a bag of homemade potato chips. The store was so nice they even put names and room numbers on each of the boxes. All we had to do was pick them up and deliver them to the rooms. There was no set up and no clean up. They really liked this idea and it was super easy. The cost to us was the same as doing it the other way and you did not have to have someone cleaning it up! Everyone got to eat and didn't get the end or what was left at the end of the evening.
Our school is doing a Salad Bar dinner. We sent a list of ingredients to the teachers to pick what they wanted on their salads and the PTF Officer's will be going in this Thursday to prepare the salads, add a roll and dessert to the plate and will then deliver them to the teacher's classroom. This is our first year doing anything for them during Parent/Teacher Conferences and the teachers are all super excited about it.
On Meet the Teacher Night @ Bonham in Bryan, Texas we have an afternoon snack for the teachers to enjoy about an hour before the doors open.
We email out a sign up sheet ahead of time and we have a lot of parents that are willing to get in the door a little earlier than the rest of the crowd.
Our conferences in November are held after school. The PTO provides a dinner and dessert for the teachers. This makes it easy for them to grab a bite on a very long day.
Our PTO organizes a luncheon for all of the faculty and staff on the day of conferences. The parents bring in salads, main entrees, desserts, drinks and we serve them buffet style. The room is decorated according to the season with tablecloths, etc., and we have a piano player throughout the luncheon, chair massages offered by a local licensed masseuse. The teachers do not schedule conferences during the lunch hour and they come and have a yummy lunch and respite for the busy day. Any leftovers from the luncheon are then donated to our local Homeless Shelter.
