Culinary Fundraisers

“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 a school that is interested in doing a fundraiser to benefit...
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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 can afford and would be willing to pay for a ticket then chose your...
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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 Restaurant Depot. Last year they were $.22 ea. I bought boxes to transport the pies...
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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.
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Hospitality students cater district wide events and charge a fee to purchase food and supplies. This helps the district because they are paying a fraction of the price compared to local food services and students are learning from the process.
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One way to teach students about mass quantity, quality control, and portion control is to sell take home meals to faculty and staff. My students have sold stuffed shells, lasagna, stuffed pork chops, shepherd's pie, chicken pot pie, apple & pumpkin pies, quiche and coffee cake, shanghai chicken & rice, and burritos. Shopping at...
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