Another thread…food fun-raisers for schools?
Our school had Spring carnivals that were put on by the exhausted parents club members. Besides the usual diversion booths of chance there were cakes, cakes and more cakes and cake and pie walks. They were the good kind that let YOU choose the cake or pie when you won, not the one the mother running the game handed you. A separate bake sale booth introduced me to ‘Secret Recipe Lemon Cupcakes’ and ‘iced brownies’ and 17 different kinds of chocolate chip cookies! Oh my! Frankfurters with or with out sauerkraut, burgers, sandwich plates (ham & cheese on light rye, chicken salad on a little oven roll, etc.) all with a scoop of potato or mac salad or cole slaw). Snow cones, ice cream truck treats, etc. Home made bags of popcorn, sticky popcorn balls, candied and caramel apples, all made at home. The parents club also sold a little photocopy cookbook of submitted recipes. Lots of ‘hot dish’ and lasagna recipes in there. Only one teacher’s recipe: Lamb Meatballs submitted by our 5th grade teacher from India. You could tell who the boozer parents were by the recipes submitted for ’ Budda’s Punch’, ‘Whiskey Sirloins’ and ‘Tipsy’ this or that. I don’t know how they did it, but they made beaucoup bucks every spring. My first cookbook. Now, this was waaaay before health department inspections and safe home preparation guidelines. We never had fundraising candy sales but my kids did (in preschool of all places !) and then in their private school for 2 years. They were big candy bars from See’s Candies.
A regular village fete for all the Midsomer Murders, Father Brown, et al. watchers !
We didn’t have buy-other-people’s-cooking, but we did sell these one year:
It was terrible to have these in my bedroom, like the marshmallow test but for a whole week.
Kids from other schools would hit us up for this candy maker. We had a snarky nick name for that chocolate’s name.
I only remember bake sales when I was in school. But later on when my daughter came home with those Fall fundraising catalogs I always ordered a bunch of Xmas gift wrap. It was good quality and I felt like I was at least getting my moneys worth since I’d actually use it. Unlike $15 for 3 oz of pecan turtles or $22 for a 1/2 lb of smoked meat.
The gift wrap fundraisers were good, good quality as you mentioned. Still have some. Some service groups out there sell a variety of peanuts (a pass for me) and popcorn (another pass). The incentives are ridiculous, I’d rather just hand the kid a $5 bill and let the troop use it directly for troop needs. I have a soft spot for Girl Scout Cookies having been a GS, but I no longer feel I need to contribute to what scouting does not support. I hand the leader a ten spot or more with the understanding it will not go through the cookie sale fundraising. There are other ways to teach money sense and entrepreneurship skills to children.
In my area, Girl Scouts sell from a card table set up in front of grocery stores. I do a whole thing with them to make sure they earn their money learn stuff. Every year, for every Girl Scout that approaches me.
First they try out a sales pitch; I ask, “What will your troop do with this money? Are you going to camp this year? Which one?” and of course, “Tell me about each cookie, which is your favorite, and why?”
Next, they look at it from another person’s perspective; I ask, “If you did not have enough food to eat every day, which would be the best cookie?” This one always gets fascinating answers, as they explain their reasoning.
Then math: “I have $25 to spend on cookies. How many boxes can I buy with that?” And then of course, “Here’s a $20 and a $10, how much is my change?”
Last, I give them the gift of giving: I ask them to put the cookies in the red barrel (these are at the front of all grocery stores, it’s for food donations for food pantries). Especially the ones they thought would be best for food pantry guests. But whichever they said was their personal favorite, I usually keep for myself or a friend.
I was a Girl Scout. I love Girl Scouts! …and thin mints from the freezer…!
I was at a craft fair last year and towards closing time ran across a Boy Scout troop selling popcorn. The troop leader was complaining saying it wasn’t worth their time or money to set up there since they hadn’t sold anything. $25 for a bag of popcorn…
GSA - I’d rather not go there again.
I sold cases of chocolate almonds and cases of kettle chips to fundraise my senior year. I ate a lot of those chocolate almonds ( I probably bought a carton of 12 boxes or more) and I never really acquired a taste for kettle chips.
Remember these?
