How do you estimate the amount of food to buy for 2300 students attending a choral festival over 3 days?

Question

We will be selling pizza, hotdogs, water and soda. Out of those 2500 students, we're really not sure how many will eat. Are there any good ways to guess how much food to buy??

Thanks

This festival has 770 students on Friday, 1021 on Saturday & 680 on Sunday. The festival is held in a Jr. High & our "food court" is the only means of eating (unless they bring their own food). The groups perform every 20 minutes, and arrive at different times of the day. I've noticed from previous years that it can be hit or miss with these groups, you're never sure which ones are going to eat. We want to hit the stores only once, if possible, to get the majority of stuff.

Answer 1

Yes there are some ways but you would have to know who else will be selling food, what will they be selling, what are the prices compared to yours, and who will have the shorter lines.

Two ifs:
1) If you can serve them quicker you will get more business.

2) If you give them a good hot dog on day one they will be back for day two/three.

You will have to factor in that some will not want junk food.

Answer 2

Pizza and hot dogs sounds like lunch only ,
No breakfast , no dinner . . . correct ?
You are just selling for the lunch period ?
And are there other food service places close by ,
that they might be heading off to ? Burger places ?
Or , are you going to be the only food option ?
If you are the only food option just figure on 2300 servings total of pizza and hot dogs . . .
If there are other food service places , divide that by 2.

FYI - if you are the ONLY food option, you should have some option for the vegetarians . . . maybe 10% could be vegan . . .

Answer 3

I guess that with regards to the hotdogs I'd calculate 1 or 2 per person. With regards to pizza, I'd work it out by the weight - say about 250 grams (= 8.8 oz) per person as a main.

Answer 4

five dollars per student.