My friend, Allison, and I worked together to serve dinner for our Youth Group's monthly combined meeting for our high school and middle school students. The free dinner right after the evening Mass makes it very easy for the kids to stay for the youth group. The kids really enjoy being served dinner and eating with their friends at church. Parents rotate the duty and provide the meal. Allison and I take our turn one month per year. Working together is MUCH more fun and we enjoyed it. We planned for 65 youth and 10 parents and that estimate was right on. We bought jumbo stuffed shells from a local wholesale food service provider.
We picked up 8 large jars of sauce on sale, from my favorite grocery store.
Eight loaves of garlic bread, mozarella cheese, 2 large bags of salad and dressing were the main meal which we cooked in large foil pans at church. I forgot to photograph the supersonic sized sheet cake which was probably 32 inches x 24 inches long that was also bought on sale and tasted great. Another Mom helped us in the kitchen for the evening and she became oriented as to how to do this dinner (you can serve whatever you want to cook) .
After dinner, while we cleaned up the dishes, the Youth Group team did fun ice breakers with the kids and presented their message. At the end of the evening, we were able to divide the leftovers up for another meal at home for each of our families. I really enjoy doing this kind of service work because I have experience in cooking big meals and it makes me happy to see other people enjoying my food!
