How Much Per Person?

I regularly work with caterers. All planners do. Throughout the years I have tried to get my clients the best price I can by meal-sharing,* booking a caterer for multiple events, and even offering a caterer the chance to partner with me as the exclusive provider for a period of time. And yet, I find that the prices we originally agree upon somehow manage to increase for a myriad of reasons: the price of milk, the price of beef, the price of oil, you name it. Mind you, I work with nonprofit and faith-based organizations. They’re not selecting prime rib for lunch. It’s “how-many-ways-can-we-cook-up-chicken” here.

Each time I think I’m selecting a cost-effective meal option, I am surprised by the quote. When meal planning, you would think something like tacos or hamburgers would be a reasonable alternative when we’re chicken’d out. However, the cost of beef (for the ground beef or to make hamburger patties) in 2018 was $3.73 per pound, and now that same beef is $5.35 per pound (a 43% increase).¹ Likewise, in the same timeframe, it now costs 46% more to make the corn tortillas and 26% more for the tomatoes in the salsa. Even now, the “cost-effective” chicken option costs 66% more than it did in 2018.²

I would recommend we all eat vegetarian, however, romaine lettuce also costs 46% more today than it did in 2018 so we might as well keep doing what we’re doing because meat or no meat, the cost increases are the same. To me these rates feel a bit high when you compare them to inflation year over year. By way of comparison, the combined rates of inflation from all of the years between 2018 and now, is less than 23%.

I did my due diligence and interviewed and taste-tested different caterers in our area to see if I could coordinate a better deal. Nope. All the same. I discovered another contributing factor to the increasing bill. Labor. The cost for someone to set-up, stand by and refresh the buffet, then clean-up has also increased exponentially. The latest trend for saving money in this area is working with a caterer for drop off service. They drop off and set-up meals for very little cost, then come back and pick up their equipment a couple of hours later. They must find it more cost effective to send someone back and forth rather than stay because it’s what all the cool caterers are doing these days.

At least by having done my research for this blog, I know that I can expand an “economical” menu from “1001 Ways To Cook Chicken” to other dishes like pork chops or Italian beef. Next on my list is to train a few volunteers to help with buffet management after the caterer drops things off.

Have you experienced an increase in your catering food or labor costs? What solutions did you come up with? I’d love to hear from you, please send me an email!

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1.Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/236776/retail-price-of-ground-beef-in-the-united-states/
2.IBIS World. https://www.ibisworld.com/us/bed/price-of-corn/4559/

*Meal Sharing: When an organization coordinates with a caterer or a venue to plan the same meal as another organization on the same day to save on costs.