Here's The EASIEST Way To Provide Food At Your Carnival
Updated April 12, 2023
Food trucks are the "in" thing and have been increasing in popularity since about 2010. There are several benefits to having food trucks provide the food and drink catering at your carnival. We have found this to be a win/win strategy where carnival planners work with small business owners to simplify things for their festivals while simultaneously helping small businesses!
We have a few suggestions to ensure all parties feel like this was a worthwhile partnership - so please see our six tips below!
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Negotiate Your Rates
Typically, carnival food trucks operate by giving back a percentage of their total sales to the organization hosting them. Many food trucks are willing to give back 10% of their total sales: remember, this differs from their profits! However, try negotiating for more than 10% of total sales by telling the food truck companies that you'll have pre-sale food tickets for guaranteed sales.
(We'll explain further at point #3.)
One school negotiated a 20% rate with a food truck that typically gave 10%. They even found a smoothie food truck that offered 25% back on total sales for the event!
Have Food Pre-Sale Tickets
Having pre-sale food tickets will allow you to accomplish two main things.
First, pre-sale tickets let the food truck owners plan for their food sales. This will prevent them from running out of popular food items, as they know how many food items they have sold before your event starts!
Second, when families have spent the money to buy their pre-sale tickets for food, this ensures that they "saved the date" and will attend your event! And, at the end of the day, getting folks to attend your carnival is the primary goal of any event, but it is essential for fundraising carnivals!
Map Spaces In The Parking Lot
Most food trucks are huge! Plan for plenty of space for parking so all of these restaurants on wheels have a fair shot at selling their goodies! Find out the general size of the food trucks you'll host at your carnival, and map out approximate spaces they'll need in your parking lot. Keep the food trucks near each other, but ensure you have enough room for carnival-goers to form lines that won't become too crowded.
Choose A Variety Of Foods
You certainly don't want two different ice cream trucks, especially if you have a total of 4 or 5 food trucks. Food trucks may choose not to come back if their competitors take away potential profit! Be sure to offer a variety of foods, and try to include both healthier and less healthy (traditional) options to meet your carnival-goers needs.
To determine how many trucks you'll need, ask each owner how many meals they sell in an hour. About 1/2 to 3/4 of your guests will eat from the food trucks. If you expect to have 600 carnival guests, your food trucks will sell about 50 - 75 meals an hour, and the carnival is 3 hours long, so you'll need at least four food trucks. Use this estimation as a rough guideline, and feel free to ask for the opinions of the food trucks attending. Ask how many customers they can serve in an hour.
Plan for a Seating Area
Remember that you'll need a designated area near the food trucks with tables and chairs so your guests will feel like they have a place to sit and rest while eating if they choose. Adding table clothes with simple weighted decorations in the middle of each table also makes the area inviting!
We suggest having about 10 - 20 seats per 100 people that you anticipate attending your carnival. You will find most kids eat on the go, and this area is generally used for a short time, and then the seat is ready for the next carnival goer. However, having a seating area is especially important for adult guests who may want to sit and enjoy a bit of eating without balancing their drink and food while standing.
Also, don't forget to include nearby trash cans and recycle bins. And consider having a few extra napkins and plastic utensils in containers that the wind will not toss around!
Finally, Consider Inviting Your Neighborhood
We know of one school that put out local flyers and had yard signs throughout the neighborhood inviting everyone to their carnival and to enjoy food trucks right in their neighborhood.
This school found out that they had homeschooled families enjoying the fun, and some families without school-aged children came by to skip cooking and choose their favorite meal from the assorted food trucks! This school made a nice profit and found a way to simultaneously include all members of their community. In addition, it helped to increase the sales for the food trucks, ensuring that those small restaurant business owners want to come back next year!
In most cases, the neighborhood will notice all the fun taking place at their local school carnival on the day of the carnival, but they may not feel welcomed and keep driving and will not participate unless you invite them.
One more benefit... If you have a silent auction, your neighbors may be tempted to see what goodies they can bid on and this helps to raise the prices and the profits for your fundraising part of this event!
Thanks for reading the Carnival Savers blog! We have many helpful hints and tips to help all types and sizes of carnivals. Check them out by clicking here, and we wish you all the best with your carnival planning!
