We’ve communicated our numbers to many vendors in state, not enough for them to come out, or they are not interested in the effort to obtain permits from Wall Twp for one event. We even explored doing a pre-pay, but then were in a situation where we are shelling out for all the food ahead of time and having to issue tickets to be redeemed at the cart to keep track of the volume. More overhead to manage. We could ask the fire department back if they are amenable. The other option is to keep doing it the way we are, which at least is staffed by volunteers and requires minimal certification for the food handlers. We can’t sell fresh made (non-prepackaged) food directly to the public without multiple, onerous certifications. The best option is if we can move the venue to a hotel/conference center with food options. It would solve many issues, but that would mean charging a lot more for admission. On Thu, Dec 7, 2023 at 12:23 PM Jeff S via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
Take pictures of the crowd. Show them to the vendors. Then show them on a map how inconvenient it is to go off-site for food. If they can't see the kind of crowd we get, we don't need their business.
Perhaps they can have a runner that takes orders down the Consignment line and bring food to those people while they wait. LOL
Jeff Salzman
On Thu, Dec 7, 2023, 12:02 PM Ethan O'Toole via vcf-midatlantic < vcf-midatlantic@lists.vcfed.org> wrote:
I wonder if that's something to do with the NJ shore area? Around here in PA I've seen some people get a food truck for a graduation party or something like that with < 100 people.
Probably garanteed money or income from the party. I think a lot of them use a commercial kitchen somewhere else to prep the food in the morning then bring it in the truck to serve.
That being said, they are kind of dumb for missing out on VCF. It's the perfect opportunity. Large captive audience + hungry. I hope the fire truck museum does well at the next VCF, they seemed cool at the last swap meet and it benefits another tenant of infoage.
- Ethan