How Cooking for 100 is Similar to Cooking for a Family

Life is hard; food doesn't have to be #133 [vol6, 4.5]

Apr 29, 2025

But first…why am I cooking for 100?!

If you’ve been following since September, you know that I’ve been cooking for 80-130 people on Wednesday nights at church. People sign up electronically by Monday night. Pay on-line or at the door: $7 for adults, $5 for 10yo and under, caps at $25 per family. Wednesday night suppers are a long standing tradition at our church. The church celebrated our 85th anniversary last summer.

I love this space for people to connect and be encouraged.

Before September, I’d cooked for crowds but not this size. Never in a commercial kitchen. My experience came first from cooking for my family. Then a few years ago I branched out to sell meals from my home (max about 60 people/portions).

Last year I dipped my toes by coordinating the salad bar on spaghetti night, making homemade ranch (received with rave reviews! One lady told me this year, “Store-bought ranch hurts my stomach so much I don’t eat it. But I eat yours. It’s so good!”)

I wasn’t alone in the jump to a commercial kitchen. Boy howdy! There’s a learning curve! There were helpers along the way. Two team leaders who had been doing Wednesday suppers for years; one whose business is catering. Plus a handful of volunteers who knew the ropes.

In August I met with the two team leaders and shared how I wanted to increase the nutritional offering to our church. It needs to be said that I’m the wife of the pastor so I had a bit of leverage for making this change.

I love the idea of people eating together! My heart is to disrupt chronic disease with food as medicine. Specifically I went to the School of Lunch Training Academy in July 2022, details about my experience at the training here. Hilary and Chuck, as well as the other attendees, have been a huge source of encouragement. If you want to grow in your understanding of how to traditionally prepare food —for yourself or a crowd— I highly recommend their training.

How One Nutritious Meal a Day Matters

Julie

Feb 20

Ever feel discouraged by what everyone else feeds your kid? Maybe it’s more fast food than you prefer or allll the sweets from school…and you wonder, “Does it even matter what I’m making at home?”

Read full story

Budget

For a variety of reasons, there have been years at our church where Wednesday night supper didn’t break even.

It was surprising to more than one person (particularly the accountant!) that highest quality food can be cheaper than convenience foods. Just add time AND volunteers.

I am thrilled to report we ended in the black!!

We provided high quality, nutrient dense food to the masses under budget!

There was occasional donated garden produce from church members as well as some donated fruit and veg from Kroger. A local garden center donated a truckload of pumpkins in November. The majority of food was purchased — meat and eggs locally, organic and conventional from Costco, hefty weekly haul from Aldi, and bulk organic grains from Azure.

Deacons Keith Voelker and Larry Breeding donated tomatoes on separate occasions. I’ve asked Keith to grow jalapeños for the church this summer.

How cooking for 100 is similar to cooking for a family

The most popular meals are ones with a bit of autonomy.
Specifically, the taco bar was the most popular for our Wednesday night suppers at church. I think that was because people could choose their meat and toppings. We aimed for variety.
Volunteers served for portion control: local beef or mostly local chicken (sometimes it was organic from Aldi), pinto and or black beans, rice, and tortilla chips (all organic!). Self-serve topping choices: shredded cheese, house made pickled onions and pickled jalapeños, chopped green onions, house made salsa, shredded lettuce.
the first taco night in September 2024
Live and die by the plan. Fail to plan? Plan to fail.
It is impossible to shoot from the hip and make a quality dinner happen (for 100 or 4 people). It doesn’t have to take hours to make quality happen for 4, but some planning is required.
Ways to plan: menu, sourcing food (stock your pantry with nutritious options), prep by chopping or thawing.
It worked for us to do a bulk of prepping on Tuesdays. There’s a homeschool group that meets at church for a time of open play in the gym. A handful of pre-teens and some mothers joined me in the kitchen.
I made many lists. And used post-it notes. Wrote about being a recovering control-freak + leading volunteers here.
Don’t work alone. Just add volunteers.
There’s no way in heck I could have done this by myself.
Volunteers become more efficient with time. Some of the most stressful prep days were the ones where the number of pre-teens were greater than adults. Pre-teens can be loud and definitely messy. They WANTED to help. They WANTED to learn. They WANT to be with friends. By the end of the year, they knew what to do and how to do it. They made the difference…eventually!
All is to say: ask your family to help in the kitchen and have a proper perspective. They might be loud complainers, they will be messy. Eventually they will be a huge asset (preaching to myself here! I need to continue to train my family.)
Highest quality food can be cheaper than convenience. Heritage pork bulk sausage from a local farm is cheaper per pound than chicken sausage links at Costco. You do have to form the patties of bulk sausage.
The first night of tacos we underestimated the amount of tortilla chips. Someone ran next door to the Dollar General and more grabbed bags. Per ounce these chips were almost twice what I paid for organic ones at Costco.
locally sourced meat for chili
At the same time, whole pastured organic chickens are much more expensive than lesser quality conventionally raised, GMO-fed chicken.
You have know where to source food for the best price and quality.
It helps to provide inexpensive fillers: mashed potatoes, rice, dried beans, bread.
I aimed to have highest quality protein and in sufficient amounts. Meat and eggs are more nutrient dense than a truckload of produce.
Everybody wants dessert. All the time.
Every. Single. Week. Someone would ask, “When are we having desserts again?” It’s a Baptist church, where desserts are the star of every meal. I’m not exaggerating when I say at some potlucks I’ve seen obese people carry plates of dessert with as much on it as their main meal.
One lady even volunteered to make brownies for everyone in her home. She was insistent. I asked her please don’t.
Annabelle has been an incredible help this year. She’s homeschooled and has taken on the task of preparing fruit on Wednesdays.
My responses to the dessert question:
- Not offering dessert this year is a trial run.
- We have fresh fruit! A single lady told me, “This is the only fresh food I eat all week. Everything else is from a package or fast food.”
- We’re spending our dollars and time focused on nutritionally dense foods. I don’t have the margin to make anything else from scratch. I can’t remember exactly, but maybe this is when the lady volunteered to make brownies.
- Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, not one person in this room needs empty calories.