Ideas for quiz night food

[Theoldwrinkley]

First time posting. Grateful for any help/ideas.
Close friend recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. Feel I need to do something. We (hubby and I) love quiz evenings and thought we could organize one in the village.
Has anyone done this? We used to be involved with PTA but there were helpers and a larger number of quizzers. The hall we are thinking of is small, maybe max of 45 people. I think best way of making money is to offer a 'meal' as opposed to snacks.....charge eg £15 for jacket potato plus filling plus salad. Bring your own booze and could sell tea/coffee. Or previous thread suggested help yourself ploughmans, but would you pay £15 for that? Grateful for any insight. Or tell me to not be so stupid and let someone who knows what they are doing do the organising.

I wouldn't pay £15 for a jacket potato or a ploughmans in a village hall tbh.

I think your best bet is to charge say £5 per head (or maybe £25 per team) for entry. Plough about half the takings into prize money. Buy simple snacks (crisps etc) and hall hire with some of the other half, with the remainder becoming the charitable donation. BYOB.

I think £5 per person is a lot for a quiz. I'd have thought £10 per team of 6 to be more appropriate.

And people can just bring their own booze and snacks. Keep the cost down and more people are likely to attend.

If you're doing a meal, you'd have to stop the quiz for people to eat it. Snacks would work better.

If you can get a temporary alcohol licence you will make your money there tbh. I would get a local indian restaurant in to do a curry night or something similar. They would charge a pph and you charge a bit more for the profit. Have a raffle as well.

How does your ill friend feel about this idea?

I agree, but OP says hall only holds 45 people, so it's not going to be worthwhile for less.

So say 45 people at £5/head = £225
Minus say £50 for hall hire =£175
First prize £50, runner up £25 = £100

Even at £5/head it's only going to raise £100.

I'm not sure it's worth it tbh. For all the hassle, you may as well just donate £100 instead.

We did fish and chips for a PTA quiz which worked well. There isn’t a massive profit in food though so would suggest the alcohol license and having a raffle or tombola instead. You could start a bit later and sell snacks like crisps at a good mark up.

Definitely get a temporary alcohol licence - that is where our school quiz makes most of its money. Biggest seller is usually cheap fizz - we generally sell out of that. As mentioned by pp, we get a local chippy to provide fish and chips and a couple of other options for vegetarians etc. Just remember to have a load of extra ketchup etc (or warn people to bring their own if the are ketchup fiends) Another way to add extra income is to have an optional "tops" and "tails" round with a small prize, a raffle and an auction (to be held once drink has been taken - always a better result then!). DO NOT hold it during Lent if you have a large proportion of Catholics (I am one) - we had our lowest profit the year we did that since everyone bought soft drinks!

Chip buttys.

Huge tray of chips. Bread and butter (you can have different types or baps/bread rolls/barms) and salt and vinegar and ketchup.

Really simple as a snack.

Most quiz nights I go to, the food is included in the price, or there’s no food and it’s bring-your-own snacks. I prefer the latter, and having food makes it so much more complicated and harder for the organisers. By the time you’ve paid out for food, plates, cutlery etc, there’s probably not much profit left, especially with all the extra work involved, so keep it simple, charge per person for the quiz, and have extra raffles, head or tales etc game on the night.

If your friend lives in the village or is part of your community for another reason, I would ask whoever owns the village hall to donate the hire free of charge as a kind gesture for an ill community member. It’s not like the usual party or hobby group hire. Then You won’t have to charge £15 😳for a jacket potato

Does the friend want their business spread around the village because you feel the need 'to do something?' Is the money for them or for charity? I'd be mortified if it were me. Especially at a 15 pound spud.

If the person concerned is ok with the idea approach a local bakery for slabs of pasty or hotpot. Serve with it up with cheap mushy peas or baked beans from a slow cooker. Soup and a hunk of baguette maybe Bring your own booze. Do a raffle. People pay £10.00 a head for that kind of thing here. Good luck.

^^^
This, I would hate the attention and a future of well meaning but pitying looks every time I was out and about once recovered.

Your friend might be quite happy for you to raise money for a cancer charity, it's a lovely thing to do, but please make sure you have permission before you do it in their name.

Friend doesn't live in the village and has no other connection here.

I am used to paying £5 for a charity quiz where everyone takes their own drinks and snacks so no time or effort taken up by catering for the organisers.
Usually also a raffle and a Heads or Tails game to raise extra funds for the charity. Prize is often a bottle of wine per person on the winning team.
Keep it simple!

I have made quite a lot from quizzes for charity. Talk to a local fish and chip shop and they will usually do you a good deal. People are willing to pay up to about 12 or £15 if a meal is included. Also it is pretty easy as long as people buy tickets up front. Other good money spinners are a raffle with prizes donated from local businesses etc. You can also sell tickets before the quiz. Selling soft drinks will probably make a bit as well.

That's good.

I presume you're trying to raise money for a registered charity (100% no go otherwise for obvious reasons).

How much profit are you trying to make out of a (max) 45 attendees?

Genuinely, I think it's better you make a personal donation of £100 or so, rather than all this effort to maybe raise that amount, with the risk you'll put a lot of effort in and raise next to nothing.

Regular pub quizzer here who also happily will fork out for charity quiz night. £15pp round here would fly and the meal would be provided by the local chippy.

Alternatively the local church does quiz nights for £5pp to raise funds for their local causes. For that price the deal is bring your own drinks and everyone brings a plate of food which is put out on a buffet. Usually the church wardens provide a few trays of sandwiches. Then people add crisps, sausage rolls, cakes etc.

I’ve been to a quiz night and had a cheese board per table with crisps and snacks. Price was per head around £10pp & they got prizes donated from local businesses for a raffle & heads & tails for extra cash. They might have run a bar too but also did BYO.
Think they did fish & chips delivery one but not sure how costly this might be.

You could also have a donation bucket or provide info on how to donate directly to the charity.

It’s a really nice idea and if you can get a free or subsidised venue with prizes donated to cut costs that would help.

Nowadays, , it can be quite hard to get donation prizes from local businesses as every school, sports club, local charity is asking so there’s a lot of donation fatigue. Many companies have a designated charity they’ll donate to and don’t hand out prizes to every Tom, Dick and Harry who ask for them. I’m not saying you won’t get gifts donated, but don’t assume you’ll get something automatically. .

Our pta do a big cheeseboard with crackers, bread, grapes, pickles etc…it’s amazing, can also bring snacks and drinks or buy them - the boards are c.£20 but feed the table.
I’ve also had fish and chip supper, that worked well but took time to hand out/eat

A cheeseboard is a great idea as people can pick at it while quizzing.