We have decided to do a chili supper for the first time at our school. I have no idea where to get started!!! I am chairman of this event and I would like to know if anyone has done this before and if so, do you have a "plan of attack"? :confused:

You need some chili....just kidding, take deep breaths.

We are rural and small, we have a ham supper at our Fall Festival and the head cook likes to take care of that. Here is what I would do: I would ask the cooks the price on the school chili or find a local resteraunt that serves chili. Toss that around to see what is better or cheaper. If those didn't pan out I would get a few parent's together to fix the chili in some large pots. You could even have a chili cook off. What else are you serving? If you serve pimento cheese and pb sandwiches you could probably get enough bread donated through a local store. If you live near a Wal Mart Super Center they have bulk things. They may have large containers of pb. You could probably get those things donated too, along with crackers. Our lunch lady would probably order the crackers for us, they are pretty cheap. We had a hot dog supper one time. We got nearly all that donated. Drinks too. If you live near a bakery perhaps they can donate some dessert.

Are you going to presell tickets or sell at the location you are serving? Another thing to think about. Also make flyers to send out. Are you feeling better about things yet? Ask your committee to have ideas and put your heads together. Best of luck.

I don't have personal experience with this, but it seems that someone mentioned last year that Wendy's was good for chili for schools. Either free or discounted.

See if any of your parents either own or have an in with a local restaurant. Even if they don't offer chili, they may be able to get some in bulk from a supplier. Dunkin Donuts had great chili - it was prepackaged frozen stuff but everyone loved it (if they knew it was there ).

Whatever you do, find professional help. Bulk cooking is not my favorite pass time. Do that a few times and you're on the road to burn out goin' 80.

I think we are just sending home sign up sheets for families with a count of how many are going to attend, to get a general idea. We are also going to ask for volunteers then. We are planning on collecting the money, like a lunch line at the supper. I am trying to figure out how to make chili for so many people.
Thanks for hte suggestions, and I welcome any more.

when our local firhouse had this same type of thing, everyone involved agreed to make a big pot at home and bring it in. they were labeled mild, hot, atomic. anyway there were tons of people there and plenty of food. maybe this will work for your group also.

Years ago, our church did a 'chili dump'. A recipe is sent home with everyone who is going to participate, so that everyone has the same stuff coming in to 'dump'. If you got, say, 25 people to make 3 gallons of chili each, you'd have 75 gallons of chili (that's a lot of chili) to 'dump' into a community chili pot.

Now the problem: you don't know what everyone's kitchen looks like, so cleanliness might be an issue. You won't know the quality of the ingredients either. One person may purchase 95% fat free hamburger, while another may purchase 50%. If you can find a way around those two issues (all the food is prepared at the school, the group buys all the ingredients and divies them up... etc.), you should be okay.