LisaKinVA Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 I've had a few frustrations recently (mostly with volunteer commitments), which I've vented about here. Well, something went RIGHT. I was so blown away (sad, that I'm blown away by people actually showing up to volunteer to do stuff for fundraisers, isn't it?) I prepped all of the food I could prep, food donations came in as promised, as well as some monetary donations to offset food costs. In two hours, my group of 8 kids (all about 12+) and 4 adults (including me) finished the filling, wrapped and chilled 275 breakfast burritos -- that includes all of the clean-up time. The following morning, we started re-heating the burritos at 0530. We finished reheating by 0700. We sold out by 0830, and all of the stuff got loaded into my van by 0900. We had 6 adults and 6 kids show up for the sale day (2 of my kids, and me). We netted just over $1100. And, I did it and passed a surprise inspection from Preventive Medicine (kinda like the Navy's health department). Talk about awesome. This was an absolute dream event. Always room for improvement, but still -- night-and-day difference from what I've faced in the past. The most stressful thing for me in all of this was the highway being shut down at 0430 and I had to navigate on local roads to the base (in the dark, without a working GPS). This was our Swim Team. And, by far, our most successful fundraiser to-date (if you go by net per hour, and number of volunteers needed). I've told my husband that if I could just get rid of the push back from the Boy Scouts, and could just get 10 people (in addition to 2-3 people from my family), for 6 hours (2 hours one afternoon, and 4 hours either in the morning or afternoon), and families who couldn't be there would DONATE at least half of the food we needed, It would be nearly stress-free for me. My son (also), was in shock. My husband and 3 younger kids even got to sleep in and not attend (which was a first). Ahh, the sweet success of fundraising as it was meant to be...with help :D 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted August 7, 2015 Author Share Posted August 7, 2015 Oh, and I taught cooking/nutrition as I worked with the teen-age girls, and amazed everyone with my mad egg-cracking skills (hahaha). I got the, "how do you know so much?" questions....when I was explaining how butter does not cause diabetes. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawana Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 It sounds like you had a great plan! I like helping with well-planned events, but hate to be involved with poorly planned ones. Is this the fundraiser that you bought too much chicken for? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted August 7, 2015 Share Posted August 7, 2015 it is nice when things go according to plan! Congratulations on a fantastic fundraiser. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted August 7, 2015 Author Share Posted August 7, 2015 It sounds like you had a great plan! I like helping with well-planned events, but hate to be involved with poorly planned ones. Is this the fundraiser that you bought too much chicken for? No, that was our "Chick-fil-A" Day. We grossed about $1200, and have enough chicken left for another one (which my son has to get approvals/dates for...and he hasn't. It's his money tied up in chicken at the moment). The buzz before and after that event has been awesome. We usually sell by "donation." -- When we do that, we usually average 5x our costs. But, that is from the people who usually buy lunch at the working base. We sold at the housing base this time, and should have put up a suggested donation amount. We had way too many people donating $10 for 3-5 meals (a meal was a sandwich or 8 nuggets, fries, a drink and a dessert). It was a very popular event, but not as profitable. Next time we will ask $10 as a suggested donation for the meal. This event was a breakfast burrito sale (I modified Ree's recipe for our needs... and have my shopping list down for this.) We've done this fundraiser about 8 times in the past 18 months. I know exactly how many to make to sell out in 2-2 1/2 hours, how many people we need, how many we'd like, and how many is just too much. This was the first time we had how many people we'd like :D I do really like selling food as a fundraiser here...because the competition from what's being sold at the food court is really, really bad (and I don't mean bad for you, I just mean tastes bad. Subway is the best thing going). The first time I do one, it is a bit less efficient -- mainly because there is only so much I can plan for until we actually get in there and do it. Since I'd worked in this kitchen before, I knew how to set it up to work well. The next time we do Chick-fil-A Day, it will be similar. It will be much easier. I have years of managing limited-menu kitchens, some of this is just modifying how to prepare/sell in an outdoor environment with limited equipment. You get better each time. I'm writing things down though, so people can continue after I leave. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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