300 mouths to feed

Hi!

I am in head of my church's block party ~ this is my second year doing it and last year I just went with the flow to see how it went before I started making changes.

Last year we bought 2 hogs and one church family smoked them, pulled the pork and made sandwiches. It was seriously good and the two hogs provided enough meat for the 300 people who showed up. We also had hot dogs, beans, coleslaw, sauerkraut, fruit and desserts. I have been told that it was the best block party the church has had in 10 years.

The problem? I shot my budget and those 2 hogs took up about 2/3 of my budget ~ last year was about $1000 and the hogs were about $700. Doesn't leave much room for other food costs, moon bounce, marketing, etc.

This year I am looking at costs of pork butts to smoke ~ either from places like Restaurant Depot or Costco or even ordering already shredded pork in bulk.

Like I said, this is for a church and there's no charge to come out and enjoy the afternoon. It was fantastic last year and I don't want a decrease in quality, but want to cut costs where I can.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

I think some people were a little put off last year that the ears and snout were sitting on the table in case some people wanted to pull meat off of them. :laugh:

What the ratio of usuable meat to unusable on a pork butt? If I need 75lbs of meat (roughly 4 oz. per person), how much in whole butt would I need?

Thanks... the two hogs last year were $700 so that's a fairly significant savings.

I also found a place that farms hogs (thanks for the idea, Wheels61) and sent them an email. Whole hogs are costing $2 a pound through them.

Thanks a bunch for all your help.