Prom And School Leavers Catering: The Budget Is The Brief

Start with the number

Nearly every prom we are asked to quote has already had its budget set: a figure per head, agreed by a committee, often months earlier and usually from what last year cost. So rather than describe menus, here is what each number actually buys.

£5.50 a head

Buffet 1. Freshly prepared sandwiches, eight fillings, mixed selection. Plates and napkins included.

For a prom this is the floor, and it works if the evening is mainly about the disco and the photographs with food as a supporting act. For 150 students that is £825.

£7.70 a head

Buffet 5. Everything above plus savouries: sausage rolls, pork pies, quiche, pinwheels, samosas, falafel and bhaji.

This is the one we would recommend for a leavers event, and the jump from £5.50 is where the money does the most work. Hot-looking savoury food is what a hall of sixteen-year-olds actually eats. For 150, £1,155.

£9.40 to £11.00 a head

Buffet 8 at £9.40 or Buffet 9 at £11.00, the full spread with hand cooked crisps, fresh fruit, homemade cakes and juice.

Worth it for a smaller sixth-form leavers do where the meal is the event rather than the interval. For a 150-person prom it usually pushes past what the tickets will carry.

Where the money is best spent

If the budget is tight, and it always is:

• Spend it on savouries before anything else. Buffet 5 over Buffet 1 changes the evening more than any other single decision.
• Do not spend it on drinks you can buy cheaper. We can supply cans at £1.35 and juice at £2.75 a litre, but a school with a cash-and-carry account will beat that. Ask us for food and sort your own drinks.
• Do not over-order. Students eat in a twenty-minute burst when the food appears and then ignore it. Order for the headcount, not for the fear.

Practicalities in a school hall

Most school halls have a serving hatch and a kitchen that is either locked or in use. Nothing we deliver needs heating, plating or a kitchen at your end. It arrives on platters, covered, ready to go straight out. Disposable plates and napkins are included, and our driver collects the platters and cool boxes the next working day, so nothing lands on your site team.

Tell us where the van should come to. School access is often a specific gate at a specific time, and after three o’clock the car park is not the place it was at eleven.

Dietary requirements

A year group of 150 will contain every requirement there is. Every buffet is 30% vegetarian as standard and vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free and halal portions are prepared separately and labelled. Ask the students rather than estimating: schools consistently under-count, and a labelled tray that somebody can actually eat from matters more at this age than at any other.

Booking

Prom season is late June and early July, and it is concentrated into about three weeks. Demand starts in March, which is when to have the conversation.

Ordinary lead time is 4pm the day before, delivery is free, and there is a £20 minimum on the order value. For a July Friday, do not rely on the ordinary lead time. Get the date in the book in the spring.