Bouncy Castle Hire Event Catering
After our epic inflatable fun day in Welling earlier this month we had a chance to reflect onwhat worked and what could be improved. In truth, we're over the moon with how it went, but we're always looking to improve and do better.
At our own events we always offer some basic refreshments. We always offer bottled water as an option, along with two flavours of slush drink. For food options we tend to always have hot-dogs in fresh buns. Sometimes depending on the venue we might offer tea and coffee (although we don't always if it's an indoor venue where space is at a premium due to potential hot spill accidents) and we often offer popcorn, candy floss and packets of crisps. Being a small business we have access to wholesalers, so we tend to buy a few different items, but offer them in bulk. We can't really risk storing perishable goods if they are not sold at the events, so we generally have plenty availability, but fewer choices.
At the last event we have 31 inflatables and it felt much more like a fun fair rather than a fete. We have over 450 bottles of water and every single last one of them went! People enjoyed the hot dogs and we also had tea/coffee available as well as candyfloss and popcorn. We had an awful lot of positive feedback about the event and the number one question everyone asked was "when is the next one?!", but a few people also suggested that they would loved to have seen a burger van available.
In truth, we had considered it. We do not own a burger van so we could have asked someone to come and provide catering. With so many people in attendance a burger van man would have actually paid us to be present, as long as he had exclusive rights to sell food. We may have been able to charge him £100 for the pitch. However, as a charity event, our main objective outside of providing a good time that was safe, was to raise money. Despite only offering hotdogs, water, slush and some other snacks, it helped contribute to the staggering £5064 profit that was raised for the child cancer ward (Tiger Ward at Queen Elizabeth Hospital). It made much more than we could have charged a burger van man for the pitch.
It was a calculated decision, while it meant we couldn't offer burgers, chips and sausages, it did mean we was able to raise more. It was a compromise and one we was glad we made. However, it's deffinately an area we could try and improve for next time... And that's exactly what we're planning already!
Not ones to rest on our laurels, we have started our food and hygiene level Three, enabling us (amongst other things) to become supervisors of food management and we've requested quotes for catering insurance! It may take a while, but we will be doing it the right way!
We've already purchased a large commercial burger griddle as well as deep fat fryers, fire blankets, timers, food probes, temperature probes, gloves, hats etc and already have a wholesale account. We've used the equipment at home with great success and are currently putting lpans together and taking action to enable us to offer a much wider cooked range of food at our own events. Who knows, we may even start offering event catering to a wider audience!
The results from our home attempts where actually pretty amazing, we invited family round and served everyone a range of bacon quarter pound burgers, chicken nuggets, jumbo sausages and chips! A pretty nice evening and very nice food!
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