PTO Today

Has anyone out there had a chili or spaghetti supper at the middle school level? We are trying to promote community at this school and also fundraise at the same time. Has your event been successful? Everyone in our town is spread pretty thin and extremely busy.

Well, our school is Pre-k through 8th grade. 2 weeks ago we had a spaghetti supper along with Family Portraits. In just this one event, we made almost $1,000 after our costs were taken out! A spaghetti dinner is the cheapest dinner you can provide - we've never done chili but we did noodles, meat and meatless sauce, salad, dinner roll and dessert and pop and coffee for 100 people. I cannot emphasize enough what a success this was.

Last year we sold pizza, pop, and baked goodies before our talent show and we did really well. With a little more promotion, we probably could have done even better.

I would think it would be more of a success if you tie it with another event, but if you don't have that option, then advertise the dinner community wide. There are lots of people who don't want to cook and don't mind throwing a few bucks toward a good organization if they can get a convenient meal with it. Also, make sure you wait until the time of year when it's going to be cold, so that the chili sounds good to people. Nobody wants chili when it's 80 degrees outside!

Another thought: does your middle school have a cooking segment in their consumer science program? Maybe you could do the supper as a chili cook-off with teams of students(with parents helping). That could help get your students interested in the event and in turn get their families to show up.

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Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat.

Can you tell me a little more about the family portraits?

Sure - we found, through this website - a company called ENFOCUS photography. You decide on 1 or 2 days to photograph. They prefer 2 days but we are too small and had 1 day. You can choose family portraits or glamour portraits. The cost per family was only $19.95 and the family got to keep a large 11x14 free. You also keep $14.95 from every purchase and send a deposit of $5 each per family to the photographer. Of course everyone must pay up front and no shows do not get their money back. We did not have this problem.

When the photographers got there, they had props, backgrounds, etc. Then, you were able to view your photos right then and there on the computer and choose from a ton of backgrounds because they use a green screen when they photograph you. And, for every family that you sent a deposit for that shows up, they give you the $5 back - so, you're really making 100% of the $19.95 from each family they photograph.

It is a win-win - You hardly need to put any effort into it and if you have a large school it's a no-brainer. If you want to buy the portraits, I would say they cost around pretty much the same as an outfit in the mall like express portraits or glamour shots.

But, the guys are great and the pictures were beautiful.

We had a spaghetti dinner along with a silent auction and faculty/student basketball game last school year. It was our best event of the year, we are a school of 1,100 5th & 6th graders. One of our local restaurants gave us a great deal on spaghetti at $4.00 per person, so we charged $6.00 a person and that encluded spaghetti, bread, dessert & drink. The desserts were donated by parents ( we did have to buy a few ). We got alot of donations for the auction plus each class created a basket.
Good luck with whatever you do! ( Our profit for the night was aruond $4,000)