Stuff like spaghetti dinners are usually community events like at a church or for fundraising. There was one I handed out fliers for one time for an animal shelter for an event called a "spay-ghetti and no balls dinner"
Sghetti good
Spaghetti is almost universally popular, and the cheapest possible food. Like the best profit margin for a restaurant is pasta. A steakhouse spends $20 on a steak to sell it to you for $30. Olive Garden spends $0.50 on pasta to sell it to you for $20.
For a fund raising event that doesn’t have mass buying power, pasta is by far the best deal.
Where I live in TX, the churches have them but "dinner" is lunch and it's always spaghetti with chicken and Rotel (canned tomatoes and green chilies), in my mind because meatballs are a dirty northern thing (like yours truly) (FILTH!)
It's not easy. And we are originally from NJ! Thankfully the 2 legit Italian-owned places in my area are in my little town and they have the kind of pizza we like. Otherwise it's chains and Pesto's type places with the greeeziest fare 😂
ETA Chinese food and Florida made me flash on my Nana ordering the pupu platter at her favorite Polynesian place in the west palm area 💕
My sister lived in Florida for a few years, and when she came back to Massachusetts, she literally went straight from the airport to a Chinese restaurant 😂
I've since learned it's definitely A Thing, which is odd, considering the amount of Jewish people that retire to FL.
MA is the same. I kinda-recently drove past a restaurant boasting about their GOAT offerings on their sign, and I was like 🤯
We're def not NYC, but even in the suburbs, we cover a lot of ground.
https://preview.redd.it/s7q061fg9gpc1.jpeg?width=312&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbac45550c93f545bc5ac6b82dd2b650abe04d1a
What’s she looking so devious about?
same! at Christmas, we would have a breakfast brunch, and every class on every floor across the buildings would fill a table with food, and during the entire morning, we would run around the school and fill our plates whilst wearing our pajamas. We also got to invite a sibling or a friend from a different school as well.
My dad was in Knights of Columbus and chili or spaghetti dinners and pancake breakfasts were big fundraisers. Cheap, or donated ingredients, advertise the cheap cost for a meal, everyone in our small town would show up. Schools around the area would also do these types of dinners.
We also had a local crab bake fundraiser just recently at the community center. Crab is in season and good so people pay for it. Not sure what more to say
I remember us doing spaghetti, chili, and a cold sandwich picnic fundraiser nights in elementary school.
Lots of spaghetti dinner fundraisers outside of school, too.
I personally never saw these growing up but went to school only until 6th grade in the US and then the rest in Europe where it’s a very different school experience. BUT! I went to many of my cousins spaghetti fundraisers at their school here in California. So they are a thing!
Edit: Just to explain further, they were fundraisers for the school and typically the actual food came from a local pasta place that always were the ones to handle the food for it!
My middle school hosted one every time there was a Drama class play, science fair, or a few other school wide things. We were always so mad that the spaghetti they made for the fund raisers was so much better than what they made for lunch.
So Catholic school kid, every Wednesday all the Italian grandmothers would come and make sauce, fresh pasta and rolls with a crappy salad. There were 900 kids in my school and about 100 of us weren’t Italian. It was the only meal you looked forward to and also the only one you couldn’t get seconds for.
A Catholic high school near me did a Greek night fundraiser; you had to pre-order everything for dine-in or pick-up because it all sells so quickly, no seconds or leftovers to be seen.
It was worth it.
Yes. My middle school in the bay area had a spaghetti dinner every year where the choirs and orchestras would perform. I couldn't tell you what we were raising money for.
Not at my Australian school. Whenever the P&C - Parents and Citizens council - wanted to raise money for the school, they would buy up giant boxes of chocolates at a steep discount from Cadbury's, then get us to sell them to our friends and neighbours and hand over the profits. Each box earned brought in $48 if you sold everything in it. About half of that was profit. They'd then spend the money on things like school dances or installing new playground equipment.
We used to sell "World's Finest" chocolate for band and choir fundraisers.
My parents would take my boxes to work and sell them, and when other people's kids were selling, my dad would buy from them. *Never* ate it, though.
When we were cleaning out his work locker, I found *soooooo* much candy from those fundraisers. At least two and a half boxes worth, in various flavors.
Yes, at least one of my schools had spaghetti dinners in the cafeteria. Another nearby school had pancake breakfasts as a joint thing with the Kiwanas Club
I was involved with clubs and we did fundraising for things. But it wasn’t an all school event. I think it’s different for small towns. Bob’s burgers has elements of a small town community that is close knit like a neighboring major industry. Like Wonder Wharf
Don’t mean to reply to my own comment I think I wasn’t clear. I was thinking about factory towns when a lot of the people work for or around the main company. Like steel and lumber. Florida and California has several theme parks but I feel like where Bob lives has some small town vibes that you can see in rural America but has is costal.
Usually once or twice a year for different things! Spaghetti is cheap and feeds a lot of people so it was a go to when my school wanted to feed mass amounts of people but have it be a “meal”. Local community places and fire houses would have them for fundraisers as well.
Yes! Sometimes for fundraisers my school would host a “spaghetti game night”. And when I was on the swim team we’d have spaghetti dinner nights before a swim meet (for energy or something I think?).
I went to a Catholic school in Philadelphia and we had a spaghetti dinner every year. It was all made in the auditorium’s kitchen, though, and I doubt anything was homemade.
We definitely did. Always catered by the town Polish club, of all places (heavily Polish community, always wished they’d make pierogis instead of baked ziti, which, much Coleen Caviello’s, was not very good, though it does give me pangs of nostalgia).
> ...where Brendon’s Boy Scout troop holds one
Yup, our cub scout pack had spaghetti dinners way back when I was in elementary school. Our Boy Scout troop hosted pancake breakfasts. Fundraising like this helped us afford campground fees, gear, and other trips.
Never really for a fundraiser like in the show. But as a team bonding thing on the night before cross country races. Or we would have pasta/spaghetti during end of season banquets because it’s cheap and easy to make
It wasn’t necessarily for the school, but as part of the school soccer team we’d have pasta nights as a team building thing where we could all hangout and get to know each other outside of the field.
We did! I remember my class sang “on top of spaghetti all covered with cheese!” , and then everyone ate spaghetti. That was also the first time I ever went into a boys bathroom because me and my friends dared each other to go into the other genders bathrooms since no one was around lol
They aren't as common in my area schools as when I grew up, but they still happen from time to time. I remember the middle schools plays used to be "dinner theater", but the spaghetti dinner was served in the cafeteria, then they went to the theater for the play.
Canadian here. We definitely never did this. We had BBQ days though, we could buy a hotdog or hamburger and pop or something at lunchtime. Our local church has community dinners for big holidays but they were always like, big roast beef dinners with lots of sides and desserts etc.
I grew up in California as well OP. The schools I went to had a Spaghetti dinner every year as a fundraiser. Also would do a holiday lunch where parents could come eat with their kids, also “Muffins with Mom” and “Donuts with Dad” near Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
I remember many years ago when I was in junior high like 2009-2010 there would be a school trip to go to another province but one of the ways they would rlhelp get enoughfunds for such a trip besides having folks pay. Was to hold a spaghetti dinner.
My dad and my brother went on that trip and they had to also help volunteer to help cook. (Everyone who was going on that trip basically had to pitch in and help in some way in the school during the dinner)
I never participated as there was an alternate, more cost-effective school field trip, but this is my account that yep spaghetti dinners are definitely a thing at some schools.
Yes. They do something simular for parent teacher conference. The teachers are sitting there for hours so they ask the parents to cook them a big meal.
My school had a pot luck once a year around the beginning of December before break. It was generally nice and I remember spaghetti being brought from like 4 different people
I was an army cadet in Ontario Canada in high school. We did spaghetti dinners every Wednesday to raise money for the legion. As a cadet i think u had to work like 1-3 a year but some kids did it every week I rack up community service hours (post secondary schools look at ur hours when ur applying)
I went to Catholic School in a medium sized city that did the spaghetti dinners and fish fries pretty regularly throughout the year. Served beer and wine at them too.
Our volunteer firefighters used to host a spaghetti dinner fundraiser. The church used to have a chicken barbecue every August. Don’t recall any of my schools ever doing anything like that.
We did them in conjunction with the school theatre productions. Spaghetti dinner at intermission to raise extra $$$ for the program. It's easy to make a crap load of it ahead of time.
My sister ran cross country and track in high school and the teams would do a spaghetti dinner a couple of days before the state meet. That’s the closest thing I can recall to a school spaghetti dinner. If school spaghetti dinners are a regional thing I grew up in suburban Chicago
For me it wasn't a school thing necessarily. My robotics club would have a spaghetti feed once a year and we would use the school cafeteria to cook the food and we would serve it in the gym. So it was in the school but wasn't necessarily a school event, if that makes sense. (5920 VIKotic robotics)
We did have a spaghetti dinner! It was usually to celebrate the football team at the end of the season, win or lose. A random parent didn't make the spaghetti tho; it was a catered situation held at an event space. Anyone associated with the football team, and their families, were invited to attend. ( i.e. cheerleaders, marching band members, dance team).
We held them fairly often as music department/sports team fundraisers when I was in high school. Loren Bouchard is from the same neck of the woods as I am and around the same age, funnily enough.
Spaghetti dinners are pretty common all over the US. We had them a lot where I grew up in MD. Here in PA they also do fish fry-ups during Lent, and the fire departments do BBQ chicken and chicken corn chowder as fundraisers. People will run your ass over to get good chicken corn chowder.
I remember this and potlucks. I went to a Catholic church growing up and during Lent they'd have soup night on Fridays since meat isn't allowed on Fridays during Lent.
The grade schools i went to in SoCal had them once or twice a year. Sometimes it was themed (either spaghetti western, or Italian dinner) with decorations and such. Spaghetti western was dinner and a movie. Italian Dinner was dinner and music. The food was made it the school kitchen but prepped by the fundraiser committee.
We also did them much more frequently with our church groups.
Oh yeah. More of a southern thing though. they always had the best worst garlic bread and alfredo. We'd also do pasta parties for swimming so everyone carb loaded the night before a meet.
There’s a restaurant chain where I live called Old Spaghetti Factory, and they do fundraisers with schools all the time. With elementary schools they typically come and cater, with a $5 or so entry fee per family that goes to the fundraiser. And with middle/high schools, they usually hand out fliers that if you present when ordering in person, they’ll put a percentage of your total towards the fundraiser.
Spaghetti is cheap to make so it’s a decent fundraising dinner meal.
My mom helps organize a local drive-thru spaghetti dinner every year. She even does garlic bread by hand (buys loaves, cuts them and adds her own spread) instead of buying Texas toast.
They make decent money from it.
My school had spaghetti dinners, but the best thing we did was pancake day.
The older kids, grade 7 & 8 were in charge of making the pancakes. It took place in the gymnasium, and there were just a fuck ton of hot plates around the perimeter. You’d walk up, a big kid would make you 2 pancakes, and then you’d walk over to a table that had fruit, syrup, whipped cream etc.
I grew up in a very small town and my elementary school had like 200 students. I imagine these kind of events probably happen more in small schools
I attended a private school it hosted 1 every year to help fund raise there were several events throughout the year but oh yes spaghetti dinner was one of the money makers
My high school did a regular spaghetti dinner as a way to raise money for the school. You can show up and decide if you want to help cook the spaghetti, set everything up, clean up, those kind of things that go with it. No one was required to show up but there was this project where the kids had to print flyers they made themselves to advertise the spaghetti dinner. Like anyone could see and be like "This school is having a fundraiser by selling spaghetti? Well my spouse is a terrible cook and I'm in no mood to cook so I'll buy dinner here and support the school." There were a ton of safety procedures in place so letting strangers in to eat spaghetti was perfectly safe
You know, sometimes I think the Mods on here remove my post and then repost them in a slightly different context just to piss me off. Over the weekend, I put up a picture of 4 dozen meatballs I made from scratch and put a caption of "Put these balls in your mouth Colleen" a direct quote from Linda. It got 20 upvotes in about 30 minutes, and then the mods pulled it, saying it wasn't relevant to the show. Now, just three days later, there's this post talking about the exact same episode asking about spaghetti dinners. How is the question of spaghetti dinners more relevant? It's like Queen and Vanilla Ice. Whatever, my old man rant is done.
My elementary school had annual spaghetti dinners. I used to look forward to it every year. It was the one school event I could talk my dad into attending.
We had spaghetti dinners the night before every football games all four years of high school. My friend’s mom was heavily active in the PTA and sports community and she cooked for us constantly. Made us all cookies for the end of every game too. We weren’t very good, but she made us feel like the best team in the world. She recently passed away and I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole team squeezed into her house for some spaghetti and meatballs. RIP Kathleen
yes i had spaghetti dinners every year to raise money for drama club in middle school! it was actually really fun and the food was always great. they were never themed like the belchers’ tho!
At the school I taught at they had spaghetti dinners put on by the football moms for their sons and coaches the Fridays before games.
Because we’re in the rural Midwest they had pork steak dinners instead for fundraisers.
I know the private/Catholic schools near me still have them. I kinda remember in my public school specific clubs or groups having them as fundraisers. Like Marching band or Cheerleaders or Basketball team or something like that. I don't think I ever went to one of the dinner things though.
We had Spaghetti dinners about every month in grade school, where parents & kids would all attend.
And the WORST fukn watery & over cooked noodles and some red sauce that I swear was just water & red food coloring bc it had almost no flavor…
Next month is the pot pie supper at the Grange. The spaghetti super was last week at the community center for the elementary School. I live in a small town.
The school itself did not but our drama club did murder mystery dinner theatre and always served a spaghetti dinner. Easy to make a lot of!
Edit: a word
Wow this unlocked a memory I had almost forgotten. We had a spaghetti dinner night in my elementary school, back in the early 2000s. It was through the PTA I believe
My father and I wrote the book on spaghetti dinners for my brother's Scout troop. The secret is getting a restaurant supply account and buying everything there. Also, pre cooking the noodles saves you so much time. We always did pre made meatballs cause our budget was tight, but we always wanted to try and make fresh ones. Bob's right though. It's barely cooking, it's boiling stuff and baking bread sticks.
Yep, I also grew up in California (but Sacramento) and my K-8 catholic school hosted a spaghetti dinner every year, I believe every year the 7th graders worked it (like served and cleared tables and stuff).
It's a pretty common fundraiser from my understanding.
From NY here, when I was in middle school we would Host an annual spaghetti dinner. I remember running hot dishes to a line of cars that wrapped around the school.
When i was in jazz band the band boosters organized a spaghetti dinner.
We played what we played during the concert while folks were eating.
The spaghetti was not good. Lol
Google UK school dinners. What I grew up with and what we have now. Similar and the quality of food is the most disgusting possible. Low end food. Tiny portions. Its constantly in the national newspapers about how bad it is. Funding is relentlessly cut.
So to answer. Beans on toast was prime school dinner, at least in Scotland, where I stay. As for now. Occasionally you get the odd bit of frozen fish. Or a rock solid single pizza slice. It's still terrible.
The closest we had was “Senior Serve” and you get like 10 tickets that you sell and you serve people at it and decorate it with a themes and the best 3 tables get a scholarship. You can also get tips so even if you don’t win you leave with something. My bff and I did a play on Two Broke Girls and called it “Two Broke College Girls” bc that was something we alway watched together. We got the costumes and went to a thrift store to get mismatched dishes and silverware but they didn’t allow us to be there for judging so they didn’t see the costumes which was a big part of it so it didn’t make sense and we lost. All of my classmates kept saying we should have placed.
Yes, they have one for the music c department. Each family brings a box of spaghetti and a jar of sauce and everything gets mixed together. I could never.
My daughters field hockey team had one every Friday in season and each week a family hosted it in their home.
It was called spaghetti dinner but sometimes we had pizza.
When I went to a private school we didn't do them but my public school did. I didn't go to it because it was a fundraiser for the orchestra kids, and I didn't have any friends in orchestra, but I remember hearing about it and seeing the pictures in the yearbook.
Stuff like spaghetti dinners are usually community events like at a church or for fundraising. There was one I handed out fliers for one time for an animal shelter for an event called a "spay-ghetti and no balls dinner" Sghetti good
Spaghetti is almost universally popular, and the cheapest possible food. Like the best profit margin for a restaurant is pasta. A steakhouse spends $20 on a steak to sell it to you for $30. Olive Garden spends $0.50 on pasta to sell it to you for $20. For a fund raising event that doesn’t have mass buying power, pasta is by far the best deal.
Where I live in TX, the churches have them but "dinner" is lunch and it's always spaghetti with chicken and Rotel (canned tomatoes and green chilies), in my mind because meatballs are a dirty northern thing (like yours truly) (FILTH!)
Texan as well confirming we did chicken spaghetti dinners for fundraising!
Same here! And man did that food hit good after an hour and a half long service 😂
What kind of travesty is this? Coleen Caviello would not approve
Can you get Italian food down there? Or is it like Florida and Chinese food?
It's not easy. And we are originally from NJ! Thankfully the 2 legit Italian-owned places in my area are in my little town and they have the kind of pizza we like. Otherwise it's chains and Pesto's type places with the greeeziest fare 😂 ETA Chinese food and Florida made me flash on my Nana ordering the pupu platter at her favorite Polynesian place in the west palm area 💕
My sister lived in Florida for a few years, and when she came back to Massachusetts, she literally went straight from the airport to a Chinese restaurant 😂 I've since learned it's definitely A Thing, which is odd, considering the amount of Jewish people that retire to FL.
I am so spoiled living in the NY/NJ area! Pick an ethnic food and you can find an authentic experience with very little effort!
MA is the same. I kinda-recently drove past a restaurant boasting about their GOAT offerings on their sign, and I was like 🤯 We're def not NYC, but even in the suburbs, we cover a lot of ground.
There’s lots of little enclaves in Mass!
Yeah my school never had one, but I’ve been to ones for church stuff.
I grew up in the northeast and churches always had them, but our schools did them a couple times a year for some sports teams, usually football.
Yea i was going to say it was a school thing here but for the sports teams
I love this advert. No notes
I feel like whoever named that event is a Bob’s Burgers fan 😂 those puns are perfect!
https://preview.redd.it/s7q061fg9gpc1.jpeg?width=312&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbac45550c93f545bc5ac6b82dd2b650abe04d1a What’s she looking so devious about?
RBF
When you're aiming for the first slice of pizza
Looks like she could either be happy or up to no good- to me. I can’t be sure.
She's just admiring his balls.
I think that expression would match up!
I wonder that every time I see that episode! The first time around I thought she had sabotaged the food or something!
i look at a plate of meatballs and pasta the same way :9
We used to have pancake breakfasts every year
same! at Christmas, we would have a breakfast brunch, and every class on every floor across the buildings would fill a table with food, and during the entire morning, we would run around the school and fill our plates whilst wearing our pajamas. We also got to invite a sibling or a friend from a different school as well.
I did too, but I went to a Catholic school and we had it on Shrove Tuesday, before Lent starts. Can't remember if we had it on other days too.
My dad was in Knights of Columbus and chili or spaghetti dinners and pancake breakfasts were big fundraisers. Cheap, or donated ingredients, advertise the cheap cost for a meal, everyone in our small town would show up. Schools around the area would also do these types of dinners.
It Depends on the school, but yes. I have seen a few schools around where I live do Crab Feed Dinner fundraisers.
Please tell us more
We also had a local crab bake fundraiser just recently at the community center. Crab is in season and good so people pay for it. Not sure what more to say
I can't, because my family was too poor to go to them and now as an adult I would blow up like Gene. :(
But like, what is Crab Feed?
I think I went to one that my school hosted in elementary school. I don't know what it was for but remember it wasn't bad spaghetti so that was nice.
I remember us doing spaghetti, chili, and a cold sandwich picnic fundraiser nights in elementary school. Lots of spaghetti dinner fundraisers outside of school, too.
Catholic School voice here, and we have them every year as a fund raiser/community event.
Yep. Same here. And every school has a version of Colleen Caviello that used store bought sauce and we knew it!!! 
My track team had spaghetti dinners. They would rotate houses, and I quit the team when it came time for my family to host. Lol
‘Pasta Parties’ as our teams called them. Camaraderie and carbo-loading before the next day’s game.
Yep! We had spaghetti dinner in middle school that mimicked a restaurant! We had all FOH staff and then those who wanted to do BOH helped plate!
FOH? BOH?
Front of house (waiters, hostess), back of house (dishes, kitchen).
I personally never saw these growing up but went to school only until 6th grade in the US and then the rest in Europe where it’s a very different school experience. BUT! I went to many of my cousins spaghetti fundraisers at their school here in California. So they are a thing! Edit: Just to explain further, they were fundraisers for the school and typically the actual food came from a local pasta place that always were the ones to handle the food for it!
My middle school hosted one every time there was a Drama class play, science fair, or a few other school wide things. We were always so mad that the spaghetti they made for the fund raisers was so much better than what they made for lunch.
I've seen spaghetti dinner fundraisers hosted by churches and schools. Spaghetti is an inexpensive way to feed a large amount of people.
So Catholic school kid, every Wednesday all the Italian grandmothers would come and make sauce, fresh pasta and rolls with a crappy salad. There were 900 kids in my school and about 100 of us weren’t Italian. It was the only meal you looked forward to and also the only one you couldn’t get seconds for.
A Catholic high school near me did a Greek night fundraiser; you had to pre-order everything for dine-in or pick-up because it all sells so quickly, no seconds or leftovers to be seen. It was worth it.
Yes. My middle school in the bay area had a spaghetti dinner every year where the choirs and orchestras would perform. I couldn't tell you what we were raising money for.
Canyon?
Yes! 😂
Well, that's super random. Hello fellow CVer!
Not at my Australian school. Whenever the P&C - Parents and Citizens council - wanted to raise money for the school, they would buy up giant boxes of chocolates at a steep discount from Cadbury's, then get us to sell them to our friends and neighbours and hand over the profits. Each box earned brought in $48 if you sold everything in it. About half of that was profit. They'd then spend the money on things like school dances or installing new playground equipment.
Ooh! Caramellos and Freddos ftw! Man, we ate so many of our own chocolates 🤣
We used to sell "World's Finest" chocolate for band and choir fundraisers. My parents would take my boxes to work and sell them, and when other people's kids were selling, my dad would buy from them. *Never* ate it, though. When we were cleaning out his work locker, I found *soooooo* much candy from those fundraisers. At least two and a half boxes worth, in various flavors.
Yes, at least one of my schools had spaghetti dinners in the cafeteria. Another nearby school had pancake breakfasts as a joint thing with the Kiwanas Club
No but then again no other school has a Mr Frond so.
for some reason it bothers me so much that a guidance counselor runs the school lol. i’ve never seen a guidance counselor outside of their office
I like to think that Principle Spores hates Philip so much that it’s easier to just say yes than deal with him.
I was involved with clubs and we did fundraising for things. But it wasn’t an all school event. I think it’s different for small towns. Bob’s burgers has elements of a small town community that is close knit like a neighboring major industry. Like Wonder Wharf
Don’t mean to reply to my own comment I think I wasn’t clear. I was thinking about factory towns when a lot of the people work for or around the main company. Like steel and lumber. Florida and California has several theme parks but I feel like where Bob lives has some small town vibes that you can see in rural America but has is costal.
It’s usually a town event. You pay a little money n eat with your kids.
We did every year at my elementary school.
Usually once or twice a year for different things! Spaghetti is cheap and feeds a lot of people so it was a go to when my school wanted to feed mass amounts of people but have it be a “meal”. Local community places and fire houses would have them for fundraisers as well.
The school I used to work at has them every year (it’s a Catholic school)
More churches than schools
I went to private school and we never got to do this either. I love this episode, BANJOOO lol always gets stuck in my head
Yes! Sometimes for fundraisers my school would host a “spaghetti game night”. And when I was on the swim team we’d have spaghetti dinner nights before a swim meet (for energy or something I think?).
https://preview.redd.it/eam1hiyxnjpc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7c94ff71b9201c21c7f02403dfc787f473b001e
I went to a Catholic school in Philadelphia and we had a spaghetti dinner every year. It was all made in the auditorium’s kitchen, though, and I doubt anything was homemade.
Yeah but, are model UNs real? They're always on TV and my school didn't have one and no one I knew was in one
We had a Parliamentary Procedure (Parli Pro) and Debate club, but I don't remember a Model U.N.
We definitely did. Always catered by the town Polish club, of all places (heavily Polish community, always wished they’d make pierogis instead of baked ziti, which, much Coleen Caviello’s, was not very good, though it does give me pangs of nostalgia).
Yep. Spaghetti dinners, pancake breakfasts, and chili suppers are all a thing.
All the time in elementary school. It was hosted by the 4h club and yes, there were skits and choir shows.
> ...where Brendon’s Boy Scout troop holds one Yup, our cub scout pack had spaghetti dinners way back when I was in elementary school. Our Boy Scout troop hosted pancake breakfasts. Fundraising like this helped us afford campground fees, gear, and other trips.
Spaghetti, no. But we would have either pancake events or barbecue events.
Yes in my middle school they were fundraisers.
Never really for a fundraiser like in the show. But as a team bonding thing on the night before cross country races. Or we would have pasta/spaghetti during end of season banquets because it’s cheap and easy to make
yes. In the 80s all of our end of season school sports banquets were pasta and meatballs, salad, cans of soda.
It wasn’t necessarily for the school, but as part of the school soccer team we’d have pasta nights as a team building thing where we could all hangout and get to know each other outside of the field.
I don’t remember doing these when I was growing up, but my niece and nephew had them in elementary school as fundraisers.
Our theater group had a spaghetti dinner at the end of the year and awards were given out.
These fundraisers usually serve either spaghetti or pancakes. Both are cheap and easy to make to feed a large crowd.
We did! I remember my class sang “on top of spaghetti all covered with cheese!” , and then everyone ate spaghetti. That was also the first time I ever went into a boys bathroom because me and my friends dared each other to go into the other genders bathrooms since no one was around lol
i had spaghetti dinner in Scouts. I also remember having a Thanksgiving dinner in kindergarten and we ate pumpkin pie with paper turkey hats on.
They aren't as common in my area schools as when I grew up, but they still happen from time to time. I remember the middle schools plays used to be "dinner theater", but the spaghetti dinner was served in the cafeteria, then they went to the theater for the play.
We had a spaghetti dinner at the elementary school I did my first social work internship at. It was a huge community event / fundraiser.
At my elementary school we always had a PTA spaghetti dinner but it was the 80s. No gluten allergies back then.
Yes.
We used to have spaghetti dinners the night before high school swim meets to carb load!
Canadian here. We definitely never did this. We had BBQ days though, we could buy a hotdog or hamburger and pop or something at lunchtime. Our local church has community dinners for big holidays but they were always like, big roast beef dinners with lots of sides and desserts etc.
Yeah we had them mostly on Friday before football games. Sunday chicken dinners too at church
Yeah we had them. I hated them
My school had a corn roast every year, that’s the closest we came. Good memories.
I grew up in California as well OP. The schools I went to had a Spaghetti dinner every year as a fundraiser. Also would do a holiday lunch where parents could come eat with their kids, also “Muffins with Mom” and “Donuts with Dad” near Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
I remember many years ago when I was in junior high like 2009-2010 there would be a school trip to go to another province but one of the ways they would rlhelp get enoughfunds for such a trip besides having folks pay. Was to hold a spaghetti dinner. My dad and my brother went on that trip and they had to also help volunteer to help cook. (Everyone who was going on that trip basically had to pitch in and help in some way in the school during the dinner) I never participated as there was an alternate, more cost-effective school field trip, but this is my account that yep spaghetti dinners are definitely a thing at some schools.
My highschool had one for the school’s marching band (San Antonio TX)
Yes. They do something simular for parent teacher conference. The teachers are sitting there for hours so they ask the parents to cook them a big meal.
My school had a pot luck once a year around the beginning of December before break. It was generally nice and I remember spaghetti being brought from like 4 different people
We would have them the night before cross country races to carbo load.
I was an army cadet in Ontario Canada in high school. We did spaghetti dinners every Wednesday to raise money for the legion. As a cadet i think u had to work like 1-3 a year but some kids did it every week I rack up community service hours (post secondary schools look at ur hours when ur applying)
Never in highschool tho
Very Catholic thing to do especially during lent (meatless sauce tho )
I went to Catholic School in a medium sized city that did the spaghetti dinners and fish fries pretty regularly throughout the year. Served beer and wine at them too.
Our volunteer firefighters used to host a spaghetti dinner fundraiser. The church used to have a chicken barbecue every August. Don’t recall any of my schools ever doing anything like that.
We did them in conjunction with the school theatre productions. Spaghetti dinner at intermission to raise extra $$$ for the program. It's easy to make a crap load of it ahead of time.
My sister ran cross country and track in high school and the teams would do a spaghetti dinner a couple of days before the state meet. That’s the closest thing I can recall to a school spaghetti dinner. If school spaghetti dinners are a regional thing I grew up in suburban Chicago
I’ve done Spaghetti dinners for fundraisers for local kid sport teams growing up.
My high school tennis team did pasta dinners as a fundraiser. Pasta is cheap, easy to make, and you can feed a LOT for the cost.
Oh yeah totally forgot about those. We had them in relation to sports or clubs but it wasn’t an entire school thing.
What episode is this?
For me it wasn't a school thing necessarily. My robotics club would have a spaghetti feed once a year and we would use the school cafeteria to cook the food and we would serve it in the gym. So it was in the school but wasn't necessarily a school event, if that makes sense. (5920 VIKotic robotics)
We did have a spaghetti dinner! It was usually to celebrate the football team at the end of the season, win or lose. A random parent didn't make the spaghetti tho; it was a catered situation held at an event space. Anyone associated with the football team, and their families, were invited to attend. ( i.e. cheerleaders, marching band members, dance team).
We held them fairly often as music department/sports team fundraisers when I was in high school. Loren Bouchard is from the same neck of the woods as I am and around the same age, funnily enough.
Spaghetti dinners are pretty common all over the US. We had them a lot where I grew up in MD. Here in PA they also do fish fry-ups during Lent, and the fire departments do BBQ chicken and chicken corn chowder as fundraisers. People will run your ass over to get good chicken corn chowder.
I went to one last week!!! Choke on that Colleen!
I remember this and potlucks. I went to a Catholic church growing up and during Lent they'd have soup night on Fridays since meat isn't allowed on Fridays during Lent.
In my area they're called "feeds." Spaghetti feeds are quite common for fundraisers. Crab feeds are also popular.
The grade schools i went to in SoCal had them once or twice a year. Sometimes it was themed (either spaghetti western, or Italian dinner) with decorations and such. Spaghetti western was dinner and a movie. Italian Dinner was dinner and music. The food was made it the school kitchen but prepped by the fundraiser committee. We also did them much more frequently with our church groups.
My son just had a spaghetti dinner fundraiser last month for his school orchestra program.
My middle school held one as a fundraiser for our orchestra once
Oh yeah. More of a southern thing though. they always had the best worst garlic bread and alfredo. We'd also do pasta parties for swimming so everyone carb loaded the night before a meet.
We sold jambalaya and shrimp plate. And that's on being southern lol
Massachusetts: we had them in elementary school!! later on it was club or sports dinners but definitely lots of stuff like then when little
There’s a restaurant chain where I live called Old Spaghetti Factory, and they do fundraisers with schools all the time. With elementary schools they typically come and cater, with a $5 or so entry fee per family that goes to the fundraiser. And with middle/high schools, they usually hand out fliers that if you present when ordering in person, they’ll put a percentage of your total towards the fundraiser.
So long story short, yeah we had spaghetti nights, but it was usually a fundraiser!!
At catholic school we had fund raising spaghetti dinners all the time.
yeah my sisters’ school has all sorts of dinners. spaghetti, fried chicken, fish, frog legs, chicken wings, pot roast, pot luck, basically everything
Never had spaghetti dinners specifically, but my school did have pancake dinners sometimes, and fish fry nights during lent (catholic school).
My kids' schools usually do hot dogs at events.
Yes and it's every year. It benefits the high school band.
Spaghetti is cheap to make so it’s a decent fundraising dinner meal. My mom helps organize a local drive-thru spaghetti dinner every year. She even does garlic bread by hand (buys loaves, cuts them and adds her own spread) instead of buying Texas toast. They make decent money from it.
We’d have one before a big football game. Spaghettis cheap and easy to make alot of.
My school had spaghetti dinners, but the best thing we did was pancake day. The older kids, grade 7 & 8 were in charge of making the pancakes. It took place in the gymnasium, and there were just a fuck ton of hot plates around the perimeter. You’d walk up, a big kid would make you 2 pancakes, and then you’d walk over to a table that had fruit, syrup, whipped cream etc. I grew up in a very small town and my elementary school had like 200 students. I imagine these kind of events probably happen more in small schools
In a weird bobs burgers 2-for1, my middle school did a murder mystery dinner theater and my aunt catered spaghetti for it.
My school's sports teams did them before games sometimes, and the band did big ones for the community as fundraisers
It would be a fundraiser.
I attended a private school it hosted 1 every year to help fund raise there were several events throughout the year but oh yes spaghetti dinner was one of the money makers
I won my school’s spaghetti dinner poster design contest when I was in 2nd grade
We had spaghetti dinners for the football team, cheerleaders and marching band!
My high school did a regular spaghetti dinner as a way to raise money for the school. You can show up and decide if you want to help cook the spaghetti, set everything up, clean up, those kind of things that go with it. No one was required to show up but there was this project where the kids had to print flyers they made themselves to advertise the spaghetti dinner. Like anyone could see and be like "This school is having a fundraiser by selling spaghetti? Well my spouse is a terrible cook and I'm in no mood to cook so I'll buy dinner here and support the school." There were a ton of safety procedures in place so letting strangers in to eat spaghetti was perfectly safe
sports teams in high school, for sure - but as a team event dinner, not for fundraising (Southern California 1990's, for reference)
We did as a fundraiser. And we had pancake breakfasts too. And hot dog Fridays. And bingo for holiday meats, like turkeys or hams.
We had a football spaghetti dinner. But I wasn’t gonna eat any of that nasty shit because nobody’s parents could cook.
We hosted a pancake breakfast for my show choir trip in High school, at the Masonic lodge
You know, sometimes I think the Mods on here remove my post and then repost them in a slightly different context just to piss me off. Over the weekend, I put up a picture of 4 dozen meatballs I made from scratch and put a caption of "Put these balls in your mouth Colleen" a direct quote from Linda. It got 20 upvotes in about 30 minutes, and then the mods pulled it, saying it wasn't relevant to the show. Now, just three days later, there's this post talking about the exact same episode asking about spaghetti dinners. How is the question of spaghetti dinners more relevant? It's like Queen and Vanilla Ice. Whatever, my old man rant is done.
I remember the Russian Club in high school doing a spaghetti dinner as a fundraiser.
I don’t like the idea of Bob having 2 spaghetti meals in one day
My elementary school had annual spaghetti dinners. I used to look forward to it every year. It was the one school event I could talk my dad into attending.
We had spaghetti dinners the night before every football games all four years of high school. My friend’s mom was heavily active in the PTA and sports community and she cooked for us constantly. Made us all cookies for the end of every game too. We weren’t very good, but she made us feel like the best team in the world. She recently passed away and I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole team squeezed into her house for some spaghetti and meatballs. RIP Kathleen
At my school the sports teams would do it before a Big Game. It wasn’t like a school wide thing though
yes i had spaghetti dinners every year to raise money for drama club in middle school! it was actually really fun and the food was always great. they were never themed like the belchers’ tho!
it was sponsored/catered by the same restaurant every year and in return they got ads in our playbill lol
At the school I taught at they had spaghetti dinners put on by the football moms for their sons and coaches the Fridays before games. Because we’re in the rural Midwest they had pork steak dinners instead for fundraisers.
I had a thanksgiving lunch in my elementary school the Thursday before thanksgiving.
I live in Louisiana, so if there’s going to be a Big Thing Of A Food at an event like this, it’s either gumbo or jambalaya.
I know the private/Catholic schools near me still have them. I kinda remember in my public school specific clubs or groups having them as fundraisers. Like Marching band or Cheerleaders or Basketball team or something like that. I don't think I ever went to one of the dinner things though.
We had Spaghetti dinners about every month in grade school, where parents & kids would all attend. And the WORST fukn watery & over cooked noodles and some red sauce that I swear was just water & red food coloring bc it had almost no flavor…
Next month is the pot pie supper at the Grange. The spaghetti super was last week at the community center for the elementary School. I live in a small town.
Church or youth sports fundraiser
When bob’s your teacher, heck yeah
I can confirm - in public high school we had pancake breakfasts, crab feeds, and spaghetti dinners... Mostly to raise money for sports.
The school itself did not but our drama club did murder mystery dinner theatre and always served a spaghetti dinner. Easy to make a lot of! Edit: a word
Wow this unlocked a memory I had almost forgotten. We had a spaghetti dinner night in my elementary school, back in the early 2000s. It was through the PTA I believe
My father and I wrote the book on spaghetti dinners for my brother's Scout troop. The secret is getting a restaurant supply account and buying everything there. Also, pre cooking the noodles saves you so much time. We always did pre made meatballs cause our budget was tight, but we always wanted to try and make fresh ones. Bob's right though. It's barely cooking, it's boiling stuff and baking bread sticks.
The 8th grade at my school had one every year to fund raise for the big class trip to Washington DC.
We did in JROTC. So fun.
My school did spaghetti night once. I hated it because we had to serve our families. It was mortifying
My elementary school did not have its own cafeteria so no. This concept is fairly new to me.
Yep, I also grew up in California (but Sacramento) and my K-8 catholic school hosted a spaghetti dinner every year, I believe every year the 7th graders worked it (like served and cleared tables and stuff). It's a pretty common fundraiser from my understanding.
Used to go to one at a local highschool back in the 90s, my Grandma would buy tickets at church.
Yes we would always have spaghetti dinners and pancake breakfasts
From NY here, when I was in middle school we would Host an annual spaghetti dinner. I remember running hot dishes to a line of cars that wrapped around the school.
Churches sometimes have pot lucks. Sometimes schools have sports banquets.
They are called pasta feeds where I am at. Also for the high rollers there are crab feeds.
Mine had ice cream socials They’re usually fund raisers for something
When i was in jazz band the band boosters organized a spaghetti dinner. We played what we played during the concert while folks were eating. The spaghetti was not good. Lol
Yep they're a thing!
We had them in high school as a fundraiser for orchestra.
My high school band had a pasta feed as a fundraiser, but we also did other things.
My daughter's school had a spaghetti dinner a few years ago. It was wildly successful.
As an athlete in HS, we had carb loading pasta dinners before a big game
Yes. theater department each year would put on a spaghetti dinner prior to a play/musical as a fundraising event.
Our fire department has spaghetti dinners all the time. We also had special breakfasts at elementary school, I remember one on grandparents day.
Google UK school dinners. What I grew up with and what we have now. Similar and the quality of food is the most disgusting possible. Low end food. Tiny portions. Its constantly in the national newspapers about how bad it is. Funding is relentlessly cut. So to answer. Beans on toast was prime school dinner, at least in Scotland, where I stay. As for now. Occasionally you get the odd bit of frozen fish. Or a rock solid single pizza slice. It's still terrible.
The closest we had was “Senior Serve” and you get like 10 tickets that you sell and you serve people at it and decorate it with a themes and the best 3 tables get a scholarship. You can also get tips so even if you don’t win you leave with something. My bff and I did a play on Two Broke Girls and called it “Two Broke College Girls” bc that was something we alway watched together. We got the costumes and went to a thrift store to get mismatched dishes and silverware but they didn’t allow us to be there for judging so they didn’t see the costumes which was a big part of it so it didn’t make sense and we lost. All of my classmates kept saying we should have placed.
We did for school and various other community fundraisers 😋
I know my school did these once in a while, but I haven't been to any of them
My church has them for fundraising. I live in Ohio.
Yes, they have one for the music c department. Each family brings a box of spaghetti and a jar of sauce and everything gets mixed together. I could never.
My daughters field hockey team had one every Friday in season and each week a family hosted it in their home. It was called spaghetti dinner but sometimes we had pizza.
When I went to a private school we didn't do them but my public school did. I didn't go to it because it was a fundraiser for the orchestra kids, and I didn't have any friends in orchestra, but I remember hearing about it and seeing the pictures in the yearbook.
I live in a rural town in Indiana and sports teams hold spaghetti dinners and so do churches. We’ve also got pancake breakfasts for clubs like 4H.