We hosted a Spaghetti Dinner Theatre this year, and it was a tremendous success. The menu consisted of spaghetti, garden salads, cookies and a drink. The school cafeteria manager ordered the food items in bulk so our costs were minimal. Teachers donated paper products (plates, cups, napkins etc...) The dinners were priced at $4/adult and $2/child. Tickets were offered both in advance and at the door.
For the theatre part, the Kindergarten classes performed a musical entitled "We Like School". The response was great -- we ran out of sitting room. We are a small school with less than 500 students but this event raised over $1,000 for us!
Every year our 5th graders put on a Spaghetti dinner, it has grown into quite an event. They don't have purchase much, as we are a town with an abundance of Italian restaurants and pizzerias, everything is donated. I know that they ask each restaurant for one can of sauce(the big #10 can). Each bakery for 2 loaves of bread. Grocery stores for the pasta, etc. It's great, when you only ask for one thing from each place, they are more eager to help. Also, they tend to give a little extra.
They presell and offer limited tickets at the door, and usually hold it in the cafeteria on the same night the school board meets in the gym. As I mentioned, its gotten bigger every year!
We have a family at our school that prepares the meal with help of other volunteers. They purchase the ingredients and show up early in the morning to start giving the volunteers directions on cutting and dicing the fresh veggies. We've also used the catering route and it works fine too, just not as tasty.
Pre-sell your tickets so you know how many to plan. Use a pre-sell price and an at-the-door price to discourage the at-the-door sales. We price ours $6/adults $4/children and $6.50 adults at-the-door/$4.50 children at-the-door. We include salad, bread, pasta and meat sauce, iced tea and a dessert item. Usually we purchase four large sheet cakes from Sam's as the dessert item and the cub scouts handle the serving.
We enlist Girl Scouts to take up tickets or serve tea. All other volunteers help prepare, serve, and clean (unless of course you cater). Post flyers in local stores to advertise and in your school bulletin and local church bulletins. Get it on the marquee if your school has one.
My PTA was given an idea to hold a SpaghettiDinner Night. I think it is a great idea but wanted to get some ideas to make the night a success.If you have any ideas please post!!!!!!
