We usually have a Ham dinner at our Fall Festival, despite my protest. We do make good on it though. I think its $3.00 per plate, we serve mashed potatoes, rolls, and green beans. How about veggie soup? I am partial to soup.

Here's a compromising solution for you that we use for our annual Welcome Back BBQ. We make BBQ brisket, bread, cole slaw and drinks. Everyone else provides a dessert. We do this for a group of 300+ for under $500. :cool:

Sorry, our teachers do quite a bit. But that's a great idea; dividing the food up is the best way to go. Pure potlucks end up with 4 rice dishes, 2 jellos, 5 salads and 1 lasagne...

Oh, duh...
How about a cookoff? I think I've seen or suggested that before.

Does anyone know if Honey Baked Ham or Boston Market would help out on something like this? Maybe the local grocery store deli would give the school a discount so they could make money.
Didn't I see that Wendy's does something that helps schools serve a fundraiser dinner? Maybe a start up restaurant in the area would donate some of the prepared food.
Oh I saw a cool idea in an archive thread - make a 40 foot hotdog or banana split. Line up tables and string hotdogs (regular ones) to make your "40 ft" dog. That seemed fun.
I know you're looking for healthy stuff, but a chili dog sounds very good right now.
I think it's time to go to bed. I don't know if you appreciate my brainstorming. Only trying to help.

I only suggested the teachers because so many groups complain of little teacher involvement.

Have what ever group doing the potluck sign up for their part, i.e. 5 members bring sides, 5 members bring breads, 5 bring salad, 10 bring an entree, 5 bring veggies, etc.

One really easy and cheap dish that works well for Dime A Dip is baked spaghetti. It is delicious, easy to make, easy to travel with, easy to serve and best of all, it is oh so cheap. Have a local restaurant donate the dessert.

Good Luck!

TheMetzyMom, the teachers at my school are already so busy their heads are spinning. What if the PTA/PTO members do the pot luck? Some areas don't allow pot luck or homemade food to be served at school. Check that out first. But my experience with pot luck is you get lots of sides and very few main dishes.
Momto4j's, yep, tacos are expensive. There's a reason everyone goes for spagetti and chili.
We had a soup potluck for a church carnival and that went very well. We've also done a salad and potato bar (with bread). Those are inexpensive and fairly easy.

Taking the potluck idea and going outside the box, but what about a Dime A Dip Dinner? Use the teachers at your school for this one! Have each teacher sign up for and then bring a dish that would serve about 25 portions. If you have 30 teachers, that would be 750 regular sized portions. Using a tablespoon as your 'dipper', you could serve yourself up an easy fundraiser! Who is just going to want one 'dip' of lasagne? Of course they will want a dollars worth! Money gets made, you don't go in the hole as a group, everyone has fun...And the best part is that the teachers take their own left overs and dirty pans home!!!