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Italian
Dinner
What could be better than an
authentic Italian Dinner? Imagine walking in as the smell of pasta sauce
flavorfully lingering in the air. Combined with that the savoring scent of
fresh bread hovering over the red check table cloths glowing dimly in the candle
light. Who wouldn't want to go? Even if you don't like Italian food
the fresh bread, romantic ambiance, and a shake-up from the ordinary sounds
appealing enough! Sign me up!
Ingredients for an Italian Dinner:
Venue
So you want to pull off a
great dinner, so where do you start? Well, think about your
facility. Does your church have seating, dishes, tables, and a
kitchen? Many churches do, even the conservative churches have added
kitchens over time to help meet the churches communal needs. If your
church does not have a kitchen or dinning hall there are a few other options for
you. Remember you want to keep costs down so that it is actually a benefit
dinner. If you need a separate building consider renting a plain-Jane
hall. No frills, just the kitchen, dishes, chairs, and tables. A
good place to check is a local VA Hall. Most communities have one and they
offer discounted rates to veterans. Check with someone in your congregation
or you local VA for prices. Expect the cost to vary on size.
Theme
After you have selected a
location plan the theme of the room. Themes are an important part of
making the evening truly fun and memorable. Have the children take an
active part in planning the decorations and setting up. Even little ones
can help set the tables. The planning is an important aspect of the fund
raiser since it will build excitement and foster a sense of community between congregants.
If people offer help, accept it. Usually people do, and some times it
isn't really needed or wanted. But this event is dual purpose and
including all those who want to contribute is an important part of this
event.
For the theme we suggest that
you use everyday items to make it look like an authentic New York Italian Restaurant.
An easy, inexpensive, eye appealing theme is red and white. You can use or
purchase inexpensive red check table clothes. The Oriental Trading Company
sells these for ~$1 each in packs of 12. They only come in an oblong size,
so if your tables are round, cut them to fit. Next plan what else is going
to be on the tables. Do you want a sit down dinner or a buffet style
dinner? Paper plates or dishes? We suggest you use what you have to
cut costs. If your church has dishes, use them. If you have a closet
full of paper goods, use those. Make sure you have napkins and silverware
(or plasticware) for each place setting. Even if its buffet style...The
tables look nicer. Another item you will want on your table is a center piece.
Here you need to watch your costs as they can shoot through the roof. You
don't want to skimp, but you don't want to splurge either.
Decorations
 
We suggest that you buy tea
candles and a hurricane glass to put over it. Remember there will be
children at your dinner and flames and kids just seem to attract each other.
So we suggest that there are NOT any open flames. So you have a little
candle and its in a red glass votive...goes with your theme, too. Check
local craft stores for these items. When they are on sale you can get a
dozen for $4.95. Also, don't be afraid to ask for a discount. Some
stores will automatically give it if they know it is for a fund raiser or for a
church. Since it is for both open your mouth and
ask.
After you have your centerpiece
it may seem a little too small. Try taking some local vegetation and just
lying it on the table. You can use floral wire (~99 cents/ spool) to hold
it around the votive or to make a sprawling vine going down the long table with
the candle containers accenting it. The photos above show examples with
simple sprays. Either way, its just for looks. Finally sprinkle the
table with glitter confetti. They help reflect the light and add an extra
fun touch to each table! They come in all shapes colors and sizes.
Look at these cute hearts and stars. Spread them around the centerpiece
for extra oomph!
 
For light you are going to
want to dig out your Christmas lights. What! Yeah, you got it.
String up those white lights everywhere. Especially in the eating
room. You don't want to have the harsh overhead lights on, so these will
be all the light for the evening. You can put them on those fake fichus
trees littering the hall ways. Drag them into the dinning room and make a
tree lined terrace feel. Or buy some lattice (~ $9.99 a sheet) at a home
improvement store and string it with lights. After it is light hang it
over the tables or make a room screen by joining two screens together.
Attach them with your floral wire and stand them up into the corners of the
rooms. Use your imagination and remember, its like Christmas time, the
more lights the better! If you don't have them ask congregants to lend
them to you. Put a little tag on one end of the string of lights so they
get their set back.
Okay, you have a good idea
about the room. Red and white everything with red candles and white
lights. Looks good...but how do you make that smashing entrance? Go
to Oriental Trading Co. again. See those red balloons and red metallic
fringe curtains, streamers, ribbons and more? All that stuff will cost you
about $30 and it is well worth it. You can reuse those curtains and they
take up so much space and can nicely drape your entrance. Bunch red
balloons together and hang them with curling ribbon. Use lots and curl the
ends loosely. Put streamers everywhere. For an extra effect double
the streamers...put a white streamer back to back with a red streamer and
twist. You get a bunch of alternating red and white streamers! Put
them everywhere! Use your imagination and go nuts.
Why are we spending so much
time with decorating? Decorating is a big deal. If you want
something to turn out smashing it better look smashing. We think OTC
(Oriental Trading Co.) lets you do so much for so little. Skip the party
store and just order the stuff.
Menu
So what's next? We
suggest you plan the menu. Can you cook? Will there be 30 people or
3,000 people? Pick a number to expect to be in attendance by poking around
to see who likes Italian food. Others will come anyway. And if you
want to skimp on food costs this is good way to get a feel for things.
We suggest that you kick up
the food a notch from the plain old spaghetti dinner. Most people can cook
that...and most Italian food, although it looks complicated, is boiling water
and throwing noodles in a pot. We suggest manicotti, lasagna, cannelloni,
or fettuccini alfredo. They are all easy to make and cost for ingredients
is around $1/ plate. There are recipes for all these at the bottom of the
page. Click recipes...you will find the from scratch version and the where
do I find the can in the grocery store version. Either way, it looks good,
it tastes good!
Add salad with Italian
dressing in a huge bowl and fresh bread...you can use our recipe or cheat and
buy a bump of dough at the bakery. Either way the smell is fabulous and is
one of the highlights of the meal. Do consider skipping the Pillsbury
bread for this event. Most people have it regularly with dinner.
Look in the freezer case for frozen dough. Let it thaw and rise, then bake
according to directions. Need it to be cheaper? Bread is easy to
make and Sam's Club is cheap. Get your ingredients there and make it ahead
of time. Refrigerate or freeze until the morning of the event.
Dessert? Make cookies,
pies, cakes and a buffet style selection. We included an easy cake recipe
for chocolate chip devils food pound cake...It is as good as it sounds and you
make it with a box mix! Shhhh! It's a secret. If people wander
over and ask if they can help with anything as them to bring something.
That way if they do, you have more and if they forget it is no big deal.
Ticket Sales
Okay, you got your place
settings, a hall, a centerpiece, and the menu down. Now what? Well
start selling tickets. Seriously encourage ticket sales prior to the night
of the event. You may even want to close ticket sales two days prior so
you can go buy the correct amount of food. When we did this dinner we had
2x as many people buy tickets as expected. If we sold them at the door,
there wouldn't have been enough food. You can buy paper tickets at WalMart
or all most any store. It comes with a template and you fill it in.
If you want the easy version, go and buy raffle tickets at WalMart. Sell
those as your tickets. Use the other half to keep a tally of how many you
sold.
Incorporating the Generations
Well, you are almost done. One
last thing before the day of the event...book a clean up crew for the next
day. Let everyone go home that night and come in the next morning and
strike set. On the night of the event you can do things several different
ways. We suggest that you use the children's ministry with the guidance of
the youth ministry. In other words you tag up a teenager and a toddler and
tell them to put the salad out, or help sister Kathrine to her seat. By involving
other people it connects them to your ministry. So try to find a place for
the teens and your older folks here.
Try to give parents of the
children a break. If you can do the whole thing without any parental help
kudos to you. Parents usually do everything and are burnt out and burnt up
long before we ever knew them. You will find the teens and the elderly an
invaluable volunteer source for this kind of thing. Old ladies enjoy
cooking as much as they do complaining about it...Its part of the fun.
Notice who like to cook and who doesn't. Those that don't may like to
decorate or take coats. This will connect the generation gaps between the
teens, children, toddlers, and seniors in your congregation. That is
something not easily done. And remember to make everything low pressure
and highly voluntary. If they need to back out, let them. That way
they are more likely to volunteer for you more often. You will notice who
the questionable folks are by the 2nd time and you will also notice who are your
die-hard highly committed folks.
During the Dinner
At the dinner we suggest that
you play instrumental classical music in the background. Keep the lights
dim, make sure nobody is cooking during the dinner. Serving only, then
everybody eat dessert at the same time because of the dessert buffet
spread. Set up this table before hand. As people come in tell them
to put their dessert on that table.
Extra Fun and Extra Funds
To add extra funds to this
event and to double as entertainment set up a silent auction. Call around
town and see who will donate. Many places will give free movie passes,
food, and coupons. During the advertising before hand congregants may
inquire as to the auction items. They may also offer to contribute
some. We suggest you accept with a few ground rules. All items are
new is the main point you want to state. This shouldn't look like someone
cleaned out their basement. It should be stuff people want.
Auctions
Make a list of the items on a
sheet of paper and number them. Include the description and donor.
Put a bowl in front of the item and people can bid. During dessert review
all bids and seek out the highest. Another fun take could be alive auction
with an auctioneer. And one must have auction item is the MYSTERY
AUCTION. Take an item and put it in a box. OTC sells really pretty sparkling
star boxes. Put the box on the table with all the other items. Just
write MYSTERY ITEM on the table tag and on the item sheet. Put a PLEASE DO
NOT TOUCH note next to it so no one can tell what it is. Basically, they
will be bidding on a surprise! You can do a couple of these, but don't do
more than one gag item.
Freebies
We also suggest that the
children and anyone that is volunteering as a server or as a baker be exempt
from purchasing a ticket. If they choose to buy one anyway, good for
you. If not, this gives those in your congregation that cannot afford the
dinner a way to be involved without announcing their lack of funds to
everyone. Basically they get to work for their dinner.
Babysitters
Make sure you book babysitters
for your younger kids, toddlers and infants for the dessert and coffee part of
the dinner. Lingering adults and running children don't mix well.
Allowing them to go play toward the end will help them unwind while the adults
unwind over their coffee.
Sifting the Kinks Out
You will need all the items listed above. We suggest you
use what you have or order from OTC. Purchase food at a whole sale club
and bake as much as you can. Prefab food is more $$$.
Set up varies by church and number attending. A benefit to selling tickets
prior to the event is that you have most of the funds to purchase the food and
supplies you need so you can make the dinner without additional funds up
front. An Italian dinner with the decorations we suggested is ~ $2.99 a
person if you use the church facility and the recipes we provide with the ingredients
purchased at Sam's Club. To determine the per person cost add all your
supplies and divide by the number of tickets sold. Ticket sales for the
dinner can vary between $8.00-$15.00 a plate. It depends on your congregation
and your expenses. We suggest you look to see how much this dinner would
cost at the Olive Garden or Spaghetti Warehouse. The main plate is ~
$10.00, plus a $2.00 drink, a $4.00 dessert, tax and a tip. Trying to stay
around the same price is a good rule of thumb.
Go to Sam's Club, or BJs, or Cosco or whoever your local wholesaler is.
They sell those really huge tubs of spaghetti sauce in a can for $4.00.
They sell 20 pound bags of flour, eggs, 10 bags of pre-grated cheese, ice tea
mix and soda at very low prices. This is your grocery stop. Check
prices before you sell tickets to determine your ticket prices.
No problem. It will cost you a little more, but you can make the same
tasting dinner with pasta bake sauces. They work great, taste good, with
little prep and no know-how. Just make sure you use the noodle type they
indicate...different types of noodles absorb more or less water. We
suggest the baked ziti!
Common problem...too much to do and not enough help. Well, you can cheat
and order the dessert from a bakery, but you would really like everyone to chip
in and pull together. Well, this worked well for me, although it seems
like it wouldn't. I attempted to keep everything very simple and do it all
myself with one helper. When people asked about who was helping I told
them just us. They immediately jumped on the band wagon and insisted on
helping, whether I needed it or not. Reverse psychology?
Maybe. I call it low pressure volunteering. More people creep out to
help when there is no pressure.
Have all the children learn a prayer to lead at dinner together. It is a
chance for them to show off and a chance for the church to see what they have
learned and recognize the importance of the ministry.
YES! Getting the word out will raise excitement about this event.
Make posters with pictures of the kids and photos of the food and sample tickets
on it. Send out post cards and announce it in your newsletter. Make
it sound like too much fun to miss (it will be). You can also state that
tickets will be limited. You don't have to say why, but if you are short
on volunteers it is a good reason too. Don't overbook yourself or sell
more food than you have. Advertising will allow you to keep ticket sales
and your volunteer base proportionate as well as ensure you buy enough
food.
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