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Church Dinner.... Need help
We are going to begin doing a Sunday dinner once a month as a fund raiser for our Music Department. I have taken the responsibility of coordinating this each month, the more I think about it the more I feel overwhelmed about it, so I'm looking for some advice.
We run about 250-300 on Sunday mornings (I'm sure everyone won't stay, I hope everyone wont stay:runhills) we may be able to seat 100 people in our fellowship hall. I have about 65 people in the Music Department that I can use as rotating staff to facilitate the event and to bring food. I plan to get a committee together of about 5 people to help me over see things and delegate the work. So I need some ideas on how to do this, from menu ides, serving ideas, should I have people bring food or just donate money for food to be bought, what's a good price. Those of you that have done this before or seen it done at your church please let me know how it works best for your church. I would like for this to be as organized as possible, but nice and simple is what I'm going for. |
These are some of the menus we've used with our Young at Heart dinners-
Turkey (or chicken) and dressing Mashed potatoes Candied Yams Green beans Corn Rolls Choice of drink Choice of dessert ~ BBQ Potato Salad Baked Beans Slaw Buns/Rolls Drink Dessert ~~~~ Spaghetti Potatoes Green Beans Slaw or salad French Bread Drinks Desserts ~~~~~ Boneless Ham Scalloped potatoes Choice of beans Slaw Rolls Drinks Desserts ~~~ Chili Homemade Vegetable Soup Crackers Cornbread Drinks Desserts ~~~~ Hamburger steak Baked Potato Salad Texas Toast Drinks Desserts ~~~~ Chicken Strips Mashed potatoes Green Beans Corn Slaw Rolls Drinks Desserts |
some questions that might help us offer reasonable suggestions....
a) does the church have full kitchen? if not, whats available? b) what kind of tables are available (long-tables, round, etc)? c) what basic design of room (square, rectangle, kitchen attached, etc) |
oh... and you could always buy a carton of the take out trays... and just sell dinners to go- then you wouldn't have to worry about seating people.
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I have done many.
cost depends on what your market will bare. :) We get as much donated as possible for the desserts and salads. The main ingredients like meats we usually buy and cook in the kitchen. Spegatti is the most cost effective. Also Chicken Spegatti is good. |
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We have had buffets set up in there in the past and it is always so crazy trying to get all those people through a buffet line, so we thought about having servers. Since we are going to do it that way I think the Menu should be simple so that there are not any choices except dessert and drink, they will get everything on the menu. The suggested menu for November is Turkey w/ dressing and gravy, Mashed potatoes, green beans, roll, dessert and drink. I want the cost to be cheap enough so everyone can come but I don't want it too cheap. Maybe $5 or $6 for adults and $3 or $4 for kids 3-10, 2 and under free. What do you think? |
When we did dinners in the past, we usually made more money if we did it on a donation basis. That way, folks who might not have the money will come and give "something" but there were always some that would throw in anywhere from five to twenty to even a hundred bucks. Just something else to consider......
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I'd suggest that you set up a donation jar instead... and have the minister announce that all proceeds go for the music dept. In our church, if people know in advance what the proceeds are going for, they will give an extra donation in support of the cause into the jar. We didn't charge per plate.....
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Had the "Dinner" Yesterday after SS, everything went very smoothly. We only freaked out a little when someone ran up and told us that the Pastor decided to dismiss 30 minutes early........ :reaction At that time that left us 30 minutes to finish preparing everything!! Aaaaaaauughhhhhh!!!!:aaa
But we threw it into high gear and got it done!! Whew........... I'm tired!:spirit |
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sounds good here now I am hungry |
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Ya'll did a GREAT job! The food was very good and the service too! Within a couple minutes we had 4 different people come to our table to see if we needed anything....Nathan and I never get that kind of service.:) |
Ok here are just a few suggestions from the peanut gallery (or a former assistant pastors wife who did these stinkin dinners about every month for 3 yrs!!!!) GRRRRR
Ok first of all the menu's that were posted are wonderful and actually all but one of them are identical to ones we have used. 2. The idea of the takeout boxes is wonderful and it is something we did because we had a lot of elderly families that just couldnt handle standing and waiting so we had about 30 of the takeouts ready at the end of service and then the rest we made as we went that way we wouldnt lost out on much food. 3. We did the majority of it by the main course asking all of the ladies to donate 5-10 dollars each and either bring a dessert or bread and one can of the selected veggie for that dinner. This makes the veggie about the only thing that has to be made right then... You heat the rolls up right at the end and you can actually have most of the main course finished by the time you head off to church. Set it in the oven on low and it will be nice and ready for service at the end of church. It is really best for 1 or 2 people to prepare the main course and we either met at the church or sometimes at each others home and did the majority of the prep the night before or sometimes if it was something that would refridge good we actually made it the night before. Tooooo many cooks in the kitchen is never a good thing and especially if you have a small work area it is very hard on the day of right before to be preparing all of this food. 4. As for charging for the dinner. This all depends upon the demographics of your church. We did the donation thing for a long time but then we ended up buying a building in a very poor part of town and (disclaimer I am not trying to sound rude as our church had a ministry that did nothing but feed homeless every week and also a halfway house ministry but this was not that) word ended up getting out that we were having dinners at the church and it ended up being a free for all... we spent 350 one day and made 85 dollars!!! It killed us! It was all funded by the youth dept and we didnt have a lot of funds at that time and so we ended up even deeper. It is best to set a charge for the dinners if you have any chance of these things happening. 5 dollars was the perfect amount and as long as the dinners are announced in advance everyone should be able to afford that as it is being done as a fundraiser. Now for an actual church dinner thats another story.. we never charged for our thanksgiving and christmas dinners just because that was dinner for the church... so depends on the reason you are having the dinner and the demo of the dinner. Hope some of this has helped you and if I think of more I will let you know! God bless you in your adventures! I can gladly say I will NOT be doing the church dinner this year!!!!!!! :shockamoo |
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Menu was Turkey, dressing w/gravy, mashed potatoes (real, not instant), green beans, roll, peach cobbler or choc cake, tea or lemonade. When all was said and done... we had enough turkey left to fix 15 take home boxes which were sold at the end of the evening service. So that was cutting it close!! whew....:hanky |
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He said I stressed him out!!:woot |
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