Last year, we decided to have a teacher dinner during teacher conferences. The teachers hardly had any time before to run out to eat, so we made sure we had something nice for them. We purchased nice linens and set up in the cafeteria w/ our new tablecloth, dimed the lights, light candles and had Mums set up on the tables, for door prizes. I made a huge batch of homemade chicken & noodles, had fresh garden corn, and about 20+ donations of desserts & salads. Other PTO members did garlic bread, mash potatoes and more! The teachers were beyond pleased. We had so many volunteers wanting to help feed our great teachers, we had to turn some away! We also had York Peppermint Patties at each of the place settings to kill the bad breath due to conferences after the dinner! Yes, we had table set waiting for them, along w/ serving their drinks for them, they didnt' know what to do!
For the day teachers came back to school after Christmas break, we had a nice breakfast buffet for them. We had sausage, turkey sausage, hash brown casseroles, egg casserole and a few other items, along w/ OJ and coffee. Again, teachers RAVED at the attention we gave them. We again had center pieces of Poinsettias (got them dirt cheap) and used the linens and had mints at their place setting.
For appreciation week in May, we had a full luncheon buffet w/ chicken lasagna and Italian lasagna. Two of us made all the lasagnas and the other PTO member did garlic bread, huge salad bar w/ all the fixings and we had about 15 donations of desserts. Once again, we had so many wanting to donate desserts, we had to turn several away. Again, had the place settings and linens and had Extra Gum w/ a quote attached saying "Thanks for going the Extra mile". Had pretty potted plants to give away too for centerpieces and had so many business donations for the year, we raffled those off while everyone had their dessert!
At the end of the year, to feed 55 teachers for the conference dinner, then 70 for the breakfast and 73 for the luncheon, we spent roughly $300 on ALL 3 meals to feed 198 people!!! The year before, they had lunch catered in for close to $1,000 just for 1 luncheon! Teachers did NOT miss the fancy catering what so ever. They loved our spreads and it was a neat recipe swap btwn everyone too! It was great and all our food was made with L-O-V-E and the teachers knew it and very much appreciated it! If you aren't a perfect cook, not a big deal, just go with something easy for the main course and reply upon other PTO members and volunteers to fill in for everything else! It was great seeing that many people wanting to help and we're just a small little rural community!
What we did was send out a little flyer several weeks in advance telling about the conference dinner, how the teachers have a short time to eat, and you will be VERY surprised how many can donate something, whether it be a pie, something homemade or a quick salad! The desserts were the best and everyone was fighting over our chocolate fountain a Mom donated for the hour w/ a huge tray of things to dunk under the warm, melted chocolate!
Good Luck!
