How do you deal with kids?

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E & D's BBQ

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I catered a church event last weekend that was supposed to be for 90 people. The church told me not to worry about the kids, because they were going to have hot dogs and chips for the kids.

After we opened up the serving line, the kids went staight past the hot dogs and dove into my food. (Evidently they didn't get the memo) I thought for sure I would run out of food. Thank goodness I always tend to overcook. I think we fed closer to 110 with the kids.

There was enough food for everybody, but I don't want to deal with this in the future. How do you guys deal with this problem?

Thanks in advance.
 
E & D's BBQ said:
I catered a church event last weekend that was supposed to be for 90 people. The church told me not to worry about the kids, because they were going to have hot dogs and chips for the kids.

After we opened up the serving line, the kids went staight past the hot dogs and dove into my food. (Evidently they didn't get the memo) I thought for sure I would run out of food. Thank goodness I always tend to overcook. I think we fed closer to 110 with the kids.

There was enough food for everybody, but I don't want to deal with this in the future. How do you guys deal with this problem?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Wait, was your event priced per person or by the dish/lb. if by the person, you have to charge by how many people are there not how many the host "thinks will eat," for the reason you saw first hand.
 
Kids! OTHER peoples kids! I suppose shooting them is out of the question...



Seriouslt though, TailGateJoe makes a good point.
 
Sounds to me like the church made an assumption that didn't hold up.
 
LOL! AMEN! I cooked for my church last summer and was told that ALL THE KIDS would be eating hotdogs and chips while the adults would be eating burgers and hotdogs. So I got the number of total people with a breakdown of number of kids compared to adults. I bought accordingly. Showed up that Saturday afternoon, fired up the grill and began to cook. About an hour later the people started showing up, the blessing was said and the eating began. As I was finishing up the last round of hotdogs I had someone come out to me and tell me we were out of burgers and half the adults didn't get a burger.

I was floored. So after I pulled the last of the dogs off I went inside only to find a lot of the kids not only had burgers but had put TWO patties on their burger. :doh:The people that headed up the function came to me and asked me what happened and why I didn't buy enough burgers. I had to remind them that they specifically told me the kids would not be eating burgers. :hand: So IMO that was the fault of the people running it.

So if you ever run into something like that all you can do is point to or refer back to the agreement then point out how the agreement wasn't carried out as first agreed upon.
 
I've never seen kids stick to their menu in a group, if adults are eating something they tend to want it too, it has to be better after all... Even in large family events I've watched the kiddies, nieces and nephews belly up for the 'good' stuff.

I'd tell the client based on past experience it usually doesn't work that way and ask how they plan to handle it?
 
TailGateJoecom said:
Wait, was your event priced per person or by the dish/lb. if by the person, you have to charge by how many people are there not how many the host "thinks will eat," for the reason you saw first hand.
Click to expand...

I priced it to them per person, for 90 adults. There was close to 90 adults there, like they said. The "problem" came when the 20 kids didn't eat what the church intended them to eat.
 
In my experience kids ALWAYS go for the adult stuff and tend to either consume (or waste) twice the expected amount. They also are the first in line. Ultimately, what people remember is that XXX catered the function and they ran out of food. If the organizers are convinced the kids will eat hot dogs, I would serve the hot dogs 10 minutes beforehand.
 
Bamabuzzard said:
LOL! AMEN! I cooked for my church last summer and was told that ALL THE KIDS would be eating hotdogs and chips while the adults would be eating burgers and hotdogs. So I got the number of total people with a breakdown of number of kids compared to adults. I bought accordingly. Showed up that Saturday afternoon, fired up the grill and began to cook. About an hour later the people started showing up, the blessing was said and the eating began. As I was finishing up the last round of hotdogs I had someone come out to me and tell me we were out of burgers and half the adults didn't get a burger.

I was floored. So after I pulled the last of the dogs off I went inside only to find a lot of the kids not only had burgers but had put TWO patties on their burger. :doh:The people that headed up the function came to me and asked me what happened and why I didn't buy enough burgers. I had to remind them that they specifically told me the kids would not be eating burgers. :hand: So IMO that was the fault of the people running it.

So if you ever run into something like that all you can do is point to or refer back to the agreement then point out how the agreement wasn't carried out as first agreed upon.
Click to expand...

I agree with you on pointing out the agreement to them. In this case, the church apologized to me about what happened with the kids. Luckily I overcooked, but if I hadn't, the majority of the people there would have blamed me because they didn't know the agreement.

That's what bothers me about this business, if the people that hire you miscalculate, you're the one who looks bad in front of all the guests. Sounds like that's just part of the game.
 
Bamabuzzard said:
So IMO that was the fault of the people running it.

So if you ever run into something like that all you can do is point to or refer back to the agreement then point out how the agreement wasn't carried out as first agreed upon.
Click to expand...

yeah I hear ya but the problem with that is people are almost NEVER their own best critic. Its much easier for folks to cast blame on someone else most of the time. I have had this exact issue and no matter how you try to gently redirect people toward the initial agreement, it still may leave some impression that (you, me, caterer) did not have their act together to some degree regardless of how well prepared it might have been.

so short of plating everything yourself, I see this type of thing as a potential risk.
 
E & D's BBQ said:
That's what bothers me about this business, if the people that hire you miscalculate, you're the one who looks bad in front of all the guests. Sounds like that's just part of the game..
Click to expand...

yes thats pretty much what I was trying to say. THats just one more reason we are planning on opening a restaurant and if we do any catering it will be just delivery/drop off.
 
E & D's BBQ said:
I priced it to them per person, for 90 adults. There was close to 90 adults there, like they said. The "problem" came when the 20 kids didn't eat what the church intended them to eat.
Click to expand...

Right, that's my point, you have to price for everyone there when charging per head. Sadly, I have also been finding that people increasingly are lying about the amount of guests.

Also, when doing discount pricing for kids, I find they may eat less, but waste a lot more. I did a kid's tailgate party where I just kept throwing away opened but undrank soda cans, and half eaten plates of food. They also tend to break stuff. A group of them were opening bags of chips and dumping them into the soda coolers and then broke the tops off the coolers, expensive marine coolers.
 
My policy is children under 8 years old are half price, that said if I'm catering for 100 people and there is 4 little ones there I don't charge at all. If a client told me not to worry about the kids that there would be hotdogs and stuff there for them I would tell them to re-read the catering agreement which states no other food can be served at events we are catering and if they would like hotdogs I could add them to what we are catering.

In your case here you had 20 kids it sounds like, and after they load plates with way more than they will eat and spill it on the way to set down your costs can run up. I would have charge half price for the kids and told the client I would cook 2 dozen hotdogs for the little kids at no extra charge but they would be billed half price. At least this way you get them in your food figures and break even on them vs feeding 20 kids on your dollars.
 
HBMTN said:
If a client told me not to worry about the kids that there would be hotdogs and stuff there for them I would tell them to re-read the catering agreement which states no other food can be served at events we are catering and if they would like hotdogs I could add them to what we are catering.
Click to expand...

thats a smart policy. Any chance you might forward me a copy of your agreement?
 
TailGateJoecom said:
Sadly, I have also been finding that people increasingly are lying about the amount of guests. .
Click to expand...

havent had that myself but I have found that people want to order less and eat more fairly regularly if we don't plate it ourselves.
 
It seems if you want to get into catering, you need to be
strict with the terms.
It's all fun and games until this happens and ruins your reputation.
 
On the flip side, last years Troop Feed, we had hot dogs for the kids, and we ended up short because the adults took the hot dogs. Not going to do that again.

My take is similar to was was stated above, kids below 8 eat at half-rate and half-volume, adults all get charged and estimated as adults. A 10 year old boy will eat as much as an adult woman.

Also, self-serve is a recipe for disaster. If at all possible handle the portioning yourself, you will almost always end up short of meat, and with pounds of waste in the garbage, as many kids and too many adults over-serve.
 
HBMTN said:
My policy is children under 8 years old are half price, that said if I'm catering for 100 people and there is 4 little ones there I don't charge at all. If a client told me not to worry about the kids that there would be hotdogs and stuff there for them I would tell them to re-read the catering agreement which states no other food can be served at events we are catering and if they would like hotdogs I could add them to what we are catering.

In your case here you had 20 kids it sounds like, and after they load plates with way more than they will eat and spill it on the way to set down your costs can run up. I would have charge half price for the kids and told the client I would cook 2 dozen hotdogs for the little kids at no extra charge but they would be billed half price. At least this way you get them in your food figures and break even on them vs feeding 20 kids on your dollars.
Click to expand...

I have an upcoming event in July that I priced that way. I priced 70 adults full price, for ribs and pulled pork with two sides, and I priced hot dogs for the kids with two sides about half price. Usually I let the client decide whether I serve or not, but because of the ribs I plan on serving.

I see what your saying about breaking even on charging for the kids, but I don't see how to keep the kids from eating ribs and pulled pork. At first I thought the idea of feeding the kids 10 min early would work great, but if all of the kids aren't there before the picnic starts, that won't exactly work.

Then I thought me serving would solve the problem, but what am I supposed to tell little Johnny that's coming through the line, with his parents, that he can't have the ribs, he has to have a hotdog?

I wish I wouldn't have priced the damn hotdogs, next time I think I'll just tell clients I don't do kids meals, just cut the price for the kids. Seemed so simple at first.
 
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