At the end of the grains, pasta, and rice unit we usually do a pasta fundraiser. This chicken, broccoli, fettuccine Alfredo is a popular choice among the faculty that can purchase this for lunch or as a take home meal.
Prepare this delicious pear, gorogonzola, pecan, chicken salad as a fundraiser or in your student restaurant. Tips on how to make this fundraiser a success and a profit spreadsheet to get you started.
I stumbled upon cake pops a few years ago and decided to give them a try with my hospitality students. We were making food to sell as a fundraiser at the prom fashion show. These are delicious and genius creations sure to be a crowd pleaser.
“Empty Bowls is a grassroots effort to raise money and awareness in an effort to end hunger and food insecurity. Each group that participates in the Empty Bowls project works with their community to create their own event.” If you’re…
Another great way to earn some money is to put on dinner and movie nights for your school. The culinary students can prepare the food and price out the cost per ticket. Have a class discussion to decide what students…
Last year my students did a Thanksgiving pie fundraiser-selling pumpkin and apple pies. I used Libby’s Pumpkin Pie recipe found here. I purchased my containers at Ocean State Job lot because I could not find them in mass quantity at…
If your school is lucky enough to have an on site restaurant it is probably the best way to give students the most practical experience and raise money. Usually culinary program run restaurants are only open for breakfast or lunch and offer a lower cost menu for the community.
By law culinary programs cannot compete with their local food service, however this does not apply to faculty and staff. Some schools have their students take lunch orders from faculty and deliver their lunches to their rooms in a boxed lunch fashion. Another way to do it is to host the lunch in the culinary or faculty room itself and have faculty and staff pay at the door. This gives the students the opportunity to practice both the front and back of the house.
Another great way to teach students how to bake in mass quantity, maintain quality control, and market food attractively is to sell boxes of several kinds of Christmas cookies. My students made boxes of 3 dozen Christmas cookies including peanut butter kisses, chocolate crinkle, Russian Tea Cakes, gingerbread, sugar, raspberry thumb prints and coconut macaroons. The community generously supports the fundraiser often profusely thanking me for making their holidays easier.
A great way to raise money for a big trip is to sell food during sporting events or other after school events. Culinary students can actually make the food and decide on a menu and pricing. This allows students to taken ownership for trips that they go on and learn business skills. It is best especially for high school students to show them how to price things and allow them to come up with ideas to market their products. I view it as first a learning experience and secondly an income generator.
