Organizing a Food Event

Students love free food, and events love attendees! This is what makes food events so popular. However, a great deal of work goes into creating a successful food event. You need to decide on a menu, identify and modify recipes to create a shopping list, reserve a kitchen with the tools to execute your large order, and finally, gather volunteers for cooking, preperation, serving, and cleanup! It's a lot of work, but it's worth it when you have 500 or more students coming to attend your event!

The Cultural Meal Support Program is here to help you in your planning. We have trained consultants who can walk you through the process, staff to help serve, prepare and cleanup, a kitchen for cooking, and a van to transport the food.

This webpage offers tools, quotes, and advice to help you get started on a path to a successful food event. Note: you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the following files.

• Successful Planning for Food Events: our starting suggestions
• Timeline for Food Production: this timeline outlines steps to take, starting 4 weeks prior to the event all the way down to cleanup.
• Example Menu: don't forget to think about how many courses you'll serve and whether or not you'll have a vegetarian dish!
• Recipe Worksheet
• Shopping List Worksheet, (view an example)
• Kitchen Rental Pricing and Policies
• Kitchen Event Worksheet: this lets us know who we'll be working with during preparation, serving, and cleanup and allows us to determine what additional staff needs you might have.
• Food Evaluation: how was the quality of the food, were we helpful, and how can we be more helpful in the future?
• Tips for a Successful Self-Produced Food Event