Food, glorious food! Everyone loves to eat—and a food-based fundraiser can whet your school community’s appetite to make donations that support important educational initiatives.
Updated November 2025
Table of Contents
Easy to Implement
- Home Economics Supply Drive
- School Lunch Fund
- Pie Eating Contest
- Hot Dog Eating Contest
- Partner With a Local Restaurant
- Bake Sale
- Concession Stand
- Ice Cream Social
- Sno Cone Social
Moderate to Implement
- Turkey/Christmas Dinner
- Chili Cookoff
- Spaghetti Dinner
- Cupcake War
- Community Cookbooks
- BBQ Grill Off
- Spicy Chili Contest
- Cooking Class
- Food Truck Breakdown
- Taco Bar
- Dinner and a Movie
- Lunch and Learn
- School Dinner Theater
- Healthy Eating/Exercise Class
- Cash Bar Golf Cart
- Apple Picking
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Our team at FutureFund has come up with 24 awesome ideas for food fundraisers. Consider this your recipe for success.
Run Your Food Fundraiser with FutureFund
Our platform is full of tools your school group can use to fundraise more effectively. These include:
- Ready-to-go campaign templates so you can sell tickets or items for different events.
- A built-in messaging system you can use to announce your fundraisers and provide details.
- Powerful financial reporting tools to help you track your earnings, stay compliant, and plan future fundraisers more effectively.
Donation Campaigns
These campaigns encourage parents and volunteers to donate directly to your school group for a specific cause or event. FutureFund makes it easy to collect money online during the campaign, but you can also include an in-person event if you want to make your fundraiser more meaningful.
Learn how to run a donation campaign with FutureFund here.
Tip: Use FutureFund’s messaging system to announce the fundraiser and include a link to the online campaign so that people can still donate even if they can’t attend the event.
Home Economics Supply Drive
| Ease of Implementation | Easy – straightforward contribution-based fundraiser |
| Time to Implement | 1–2 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (no major costs; simply set up a donation campaign) |
| Volunteers Needed | 1–3 (wishlist creation, donor communication, tracking) |
| Ideal For | Fall session to provide for the school year ahead |
Collect proceeds for extra ingredients or special cooking equipment for the home economics class. To incentivize donors, have the class cook something special for the school if they reach their fundraising goal—like a pancake breakfast!
School Lunch Fund
| Ease of Implementation | Easy – straightforward contribution-based fundraiser |
| Time to Implement | 1–2 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (no major costs; simply set up a donation campaign) |
| Volunteers Needed | 1 |
| Ideal For | Year-round giving |
Run a donation campaign to have parents and community members kick in money for a school lunch fund that supports students in financial need.
Cooking Class
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires instructor coordination, food prep, event setup |
| Time to Implement | 4–6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (ingredients, cooking supplies, instructor fee unless donated) |
| Volunteers Needed | 4–6 (registration, prep assistance, setup/cleanup) |
| Ideal For | School clubs, family-friendly events, evening fundraisers |
Is there a popular dish or style of food in your community? Raise money from your school community to bring in an expert chef who can host a special class on how to make it!
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Healthy Eating/Exercise Class
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires instructor coordination and structured lesson planning |
| Time to Implement | 3–4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $–$$ (ingredients for demos, class materials, potential instructor fee) |
| Volunteers Needed | 3–6 (check-in, setup, ingredient prep, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Wellness initiatives, PE departments, after-school enrichment programs |
Accept donations to bring in an expert trainer or dietician for a healthy eating and exercise class! This is a great way to promote healthy eating habits and routines for students that will benefit them throughout the year.
Lunch & Learn
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – finding a topic expert, coordinating dates and availability |
| Time to Implement | 3–4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (speaker lunch, light refreshments) |
| Volunteers Needed | 3–4 (coordination, setup) |
| Ideal For | Educational fundraisers or community engagement events |
Find out what your high schoolers are passionate about and raise money to have an expert come in and teach them about it for an hour during their lunch break!
A-Thons (Pledge Campaigns)
An “A-Thon” fundraiser is a special kind of pledge campaign you can run in FutureFund. Once you create the campaign for the event, students who sign up to participate each get a link they can use to collect donations from family and friends.
Find step-by-step instructions for successful pledge campaigns here.
Tip: The link you’ll share when you create the campaign is what you’ll use to sign up student participants. When they register for the event, they’ll each get their own unique link that they can use to raise money.
Cupcake War
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires baking, storage, coordination |
| Time to Implement | 4–6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (baking supplies, decorations, prizes) |
| Volunteers Needed | 8–12 (setup, judging, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Culinary clubs, family events, or bake-off fundraisers, add-ons to bake sale |
Challenge your school bakers to come up with beautiful yet delicious cupcakes for the chance to take home the top prize. Each student baker will collect donations from friends and family members—in exchange for donating, they can each get a voucher that can be redeemed for a treat at the end of the event!
BBQ Grill Off
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires grilling areas, food-handling plans |
| Time to Implement | 4–6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$-$$$ (sides, plates, utensils, signage, pits/BBQs if not provided) |
| Volunteers Needed | ~10 (food stations, judges, setup/clean up) |
| Ideal For | Community fairs, all-school summer events, add-ons to larger summer festivals |
Allow your teen chefs to show the school their skills with a teen cooking challenge! Feel free to have each teen pair with either a parent or an adult in general just to make sure everyone is staying safe. Have your parent/teen pairs register and collect pledges to support their team.
Spicy Chili Contest
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires safety considerations, contestant screening, and structured contest flow |
| Time to Implement | 3–4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $–$$ (variety of peppers/chilis, milk, gloves, signage, small prize) |
| Volunteers Needed | 4–6 (registration, judging, safety monitors, setup/cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Community festivals, fall events, school carnivals, spectator-friendly fundraisers |
Hold a contest where registered participants eat peppers/chilis that increase in spiciness as the contest goes on. Provide the contestants with milk, which they’re allowed to drink at any time if the heat gets too intense. If they do drink their milk, though, they’re out. The last person standing wins!
Pie Eating Contest
| Ease of Implementation | Easy – Straightforward setup with pies/hot dogs, tables, and a timer |
| Time to Implement | 2–3 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $–$$ (pies/hot dogs & buns, water jugs, table covers, small prize) |
| Volunteers Needed | 3–5 (registration, setup, judges, safety monitors, clean up) |
| Ideal For | School festivals, community events, add-ons for carnivals or other events |
Students register and collect pledges to participate in a pie-eating contest! You can either get the pies by seeking out a local bakery to sponsor the event or have the home economics classes make them before the event. Of course, the winner gets a pie of their choice (assuming they aren’t sick of pie by then!).
Hot Dog Eating Contest
Just like the pie-eating contest, but with hot dogs!
Purchase Campaigns
Any kind of fundraiser where you sell physical items or event tickets is a Purchase campaign. Add each item type to your online store in FutureFund by creating a specific Purchase campaign for it.
Learn how to run a purchase campaign here.
Tip: Always run Purchase campaigns alongside physical events like bake sales, since this allows you to make sales 24/7 and lets people make purchases even if they can’t attend the event.
Community Cookbooks
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – recipe collection + layout |
| Time to Implement | 4–8 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $–$$ (printing or PDF design) |
| Volunteers Needed | 4–8 (editing, design, sales) |
| Ideal For | Online sales, gifts for families |
Have the students or their parents submit their favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas recipes around the beginning of the school year. Leading up to each holiday, have the books copied and bound to sell through your school’s online store before each holiday break.
Bake Sale
| Ease of Implementation | Easy – requires baked goods and easy table/booth setup |
| Time to Implement | 1–2 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (ingredients, packaging, signage) |
| Volunteers Needed | 2–4 (bakers, sales helpers, setup/clean up) |
| Ideal For | All grade levels, PTA events, add-on for larger 4th of July events |
Everyone loves a good bake sale! Have your PTA or home economics classes gather the night before to make the treats that will be sold the next day. You can also sell specific baked goods or vouchers through your online store in FutureFund.
Turkey/Christmas Dinner
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – catering or potluck coordination |
| Time to Implement | 6–8 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$$ (food, serving ware; sponsors help) |
| Volunteers Needed | 10–15 for prep, serving, cleanup |
| Ideal For | Holiday community gatherings; social clubs, sponsor tie-ins |
Sell tickets to be traded for a turkey dinner plate near Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner plate near the holiday. You can hold the event as a drive-thru style event where people can take their plates to go or provide space to sit where people can enjoy their plates on site.
Chili Cook-off
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – entries & tasting |
| Time to Implement | 4–6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (tasting supplies, prizes) |
| Volunteers Needed | 12–18 (judges, ops, concessions) |
| Ideal For | Festivals, carnivals, community events |
This one’s easy to combine with the spicy chili contest (above). Test your community’s cooking ability with a chili cook-off! You can either sell tickets for the event ahead of time that give attendees the ability to taste as much as they want, or sell one ticket per vote and let attendees buy as many as they want—in this case, the winner of the cook-off is the chef who collects the most tickets by the end.
Spaghetti Dinner
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires cooking, serving, food safety knowledge |
| Time to Implement | 4–5 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (food, venue, décor) |
| Volunteers Needed | 8–12 (servers, cooks, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Pre-game or pre-season fundraising dinner, fall fundraisers, community events |
Use FutureFund to sell tickets for an all-you-can-eat spaghetti dinner experience. Include breadsticks, salad, dessert, and drinks with the price of admission!
Taco Bar
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires ingredient prep, buffet setup, and food-safety management |
| Time to Implement | 3–4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$–$$$ (taco ingredients, warming trays, serving utensils, table setup) |
| Volunteers Needed | 6–10 (prep cooks, servers, registration/payment, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Family dinner nights, community gatherings, indoor or outdoor evening fundraisers, school clubs |
Just like the spaghetti dinner, but with tacos instead! Set up an all-you-can-eat taco bar and sell tickets online ahead of time.
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Food Truck Breakdown
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires coordination with vendors and space management |
| Time to Implement | 4–6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (tables, seating, signage; generally low cost as trucks provide food) |
| Volunteers Needed | 3–6 (vendor coordination, crowd flow, event support) |
| Ideal For | Summer evenings, back-to-school nights, community festivals |
Check with a few local food trucks to see if they would share the proceeds and host a few food trucks in the parking lot of the school. Provide a few tables and chairs and even a few games and turn the Breakdown into a full fundraising event that you can sell tickets to in advance!
Apple Picking
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires venue coordination, transportation |
| Time to Implement | 4–6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (venue coordination, transportation, snacks optional) |
| Volunteers Needed | 5–8 (logistics and registration) |
| Ideal For | Fall events, family fun days |
Partner with an orchard in the fall and allow your students to pick all the fresh apples they can carry. Many orchards will allow special rates for the event and allow the school to sell tickets ahead of time—just reach out and ask ahead of time!
Ice Cream Social
| Ease of Implementation | Easy – requires minimum preparation |
| Time to Implement | 3–4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $–$$ (ice cream, toppings, utensils) |
| Volunteers Needed | 5–8 (setup, serving, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Family-friendly events, end-of-school celebrations, sports teams, summer carnivals |
There’s nothing like enjoying some cool, sweet ice cream on a hot summer day! Sell tickets online before the event that can be redeemed for access to an ice cream bar with all the fixings, and allow people a cool space inside or a sunny spot outside to enjoy their treat with all their friends.
School Dinner Theater
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – script and logistics |
| Time to Implement | 6–10 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (props, costumes, dinner supplies) |
| Volunteers Needed | 10–15 (actors, servers, MC) |
| Ideal For | High school drama programs; parent nights |
If your students love to perform, produce a dinner theater performance for them to act out. Sell tickets online through FutureFund so that you can cover the costs of the food and the production.
Dinner & A Movie
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires coordinating meal service, seating, and movie setup |
| Time to Implement | 3–4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (food ingredients or catering, plates/utensils, projector/screen, movie license) |
| Volunteers Needed | 6–10 (meal prep/serving, ticketing, AV setup, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Family nights, indoor school events, community gatherings, winter or rainy-season fundraisers |
Have a dinner option already picked and sell tickets per person for families to enjoy while watching a movie!
Snow Cone Social
| Ease of Implementation | Easy – like ice cream social, requires minimum preparation |
| Time to Implement | 3–4 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $–$$ (sno cone machine rental if not donated, ice, flavors) |
| Volunteers Needed | 2–3 (setup, serving, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Family-friendly events, end-of-school celebrations, sports teams, summer carnivals |
Host an event where the students come and sit and enjoy snow cones! You can sell vouchers ahead of time online that can be redeemed for one snow cone each during the event.
Other Fundraising Ideas
Cash Bar Golf Cart
| Ease of Implementation | Moderate – requires approval from golf course and safety training for student volunteers |
| Time to Implement | 4–6 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (snacks, drinks, cooler supplies; optional cart rental depending on course policy) |
| Volunteers Needed | 4–8 (cart drivers, snack/drink sellers, safety supervision) |
| Ideal For | Schools with strong golf communities, adult-oriented fundraisers, charity tournaments, team sports, school clubs |
Check with your local golf courses and see if they would allow the school to offer golfers snacks and drinks while on the course. Keep in mind that the students might have to do some training on golf cart and golf course safety, but if they’re allowed the opportunity, the event should be a big hit.
Partner with a Local Restaurant
| Ease of Implementation | Easy – simple partnership where the restaurant handles food and service |
| Time to Implement | 2–3 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $ (typically none; promotional materials only) |
| Volunteers Needed | 2–4 (coordination with the restaurant, promotion, optional on-site support) |
| Ideal For | Family nights, community-oriented schools, low-effort fundraisers |
Partner with a local restaurant to see if they would be willing to give the school a portion of the proceeds from having your students and their families all have dinner there.
Concession Stand
| Ease of Implementation | Easy – straightforward food prep and sales during existing events |
| Time to Implement | 2–3 weeks |
| Expenses Required | $$ (food items, grill, supplies, drinks, candy, paper goods) |
| Volunteers Needed | 4–8 (grilling, serving, cashiering, restocking, cleanup) |
| Ideal For | Sports games, tournaments, school fairs, recurring seasonal fundraisers |
Toss some burgers and hotdogs on the grill, stock up on some candy and other treats, and open the concession stand during a school sporting event! Customers will gravitate towards the stand during the game without thinking twice, making it an easy way to earn extra cash during the season.
Put the Cherry on Top of Your Food Fundraiser with FutureFund
The fundraisers above don’t require any special tools, but you can save time and raise more money by using FutureFund to support them. Get started today with a brief discovery call where you can learn more about how our platform works and what it can do for your PTA.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I use FutureFund’s messaging system to promote my fundraiser?
FutureFund’s messaging system lets you:
- Send messages to every parent in your school community or filter your audience to reach specific groups.
- Create unique sender profiles to make sure the message is always coming from the appropriate party.
- Use customizable message templates to save time when broadcasting updates or announcements.
Should my food fundraiser be a Purchase or a Donation campaign?
Use Purchase campaigns to sell event tickets or physical items (like baked goods or pies). You can also create purchase campaigns for vouchers that are redeemable for specific items at in-person events.
Use Donation campaigns to collect money from community members in support of a specific goal or cause (like a cooking class or a lunch & learn event).
How do I sell sponsorships with FutureFund?
FutureFund displays sponsors on your school group’s online directory once they have agreed to make a contribution. You’ll be able to set the price for sponsorships on your own—but our team can provide guidance and support if you’re not sure what to charge.
How can I use FutureFund to track my fundraiser’s success?
FutureFund gives you the ability to generate financial reports for your fundraising campaigns in just a few clicks. To do this, navigate to Store and click the Reports tab near the top of your screen. Then choose Campaign Summary from the drop-down menu and click Generate Report.
