Have you every seen this age group eat? Don't get your fingers or limbs in the way, you might come up missing one of them ...LOL
I think you are on the low side - with out any type of filler upper, like bread or rolls or a salad... you are going to need more all the way down the line...
I have done the youth group meals before... Our group was around 75 to 100 kids and parents at most dinners, Most dinners for this many people ran around 350.00 bucks and plus the donation that we would get... during holiday this number would go up... around 500.00 plus donations...
Here's my thoughts for what they are worth...
I would be at around 30 to 35 pounds of chicken for a group of 50 - adding in for some shrinkage during cooking... You could do a mix meat, and cut the breast meat into 2 or 3 sections depending on the size of the breast... plus this will help with the cooking time... When we would do chicken alot of time we would cook it the day before... roasting it or grilling it... when you grill it you get the grill marks so that's something to think about, it does look so plain when you just roast it.... then all you have to do is warm everything up... Foil pans and foil are your friends...
As far as the rice goes it's cheaper... but it's not really going to fill them up - measure a half of cup of cooked rice really not that much... Plus rice is one of those fun things that may or may not get done... in large batches... I speak from experience on this...One of the youth guardians, said that she had done rice in the oven... well not so much.... it would not get done, then the out side was dried out, 2 whole pans went in the trash, We had a absolute disaster, and I ended up running to the store for egg noodles as our starch... thankfully it cooked quickly...
I would go with baked or roasted potatoes... You could do a roasted medley of veggies - Potatoes, carrots, and some quartered or thick sliced purple onions... you could add the mushroom caps in this mix if you wanted to... this would save time you can do it in batches... and store in a foil pan, and covered with foil, keep in the oven on warm until ready for service... and visually it looks really good... you eat with your eyes first...
I would do some type of bread, rolls, and butter - Maybe you could ask for some volunteers to provide the bread/rolls.. We always would have parents willing donate something like this... Do not put on the tables, serve with the meal, it helps the plate look fuller... plus it fills people up... a large container of something like country crock, portioned out goes a long way... We used a melon baller scoop for this and if you do it early you can put it the freezer for a bit, and it will hold together during service,... we just put them on tray, with thongs... it worked out great...
I would nix the raw bruschetta ... and go with simple green salad, iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, maybe some croutons if the budget allows - You already have budgeted the tomatoes, you could get less tomatoes and put the money in for some lettuce and come out about the same...Salad dressing - 2 types dressings, Ranch and Italian - 6 large bottles - 4 ranch and 2 Italian - should do it and portion out the dressing in cups if possible, now some kids are going to take a couple and some only one, fill the cups up, if they look full most kids will only take one - again this is something you could ask for a donation for the dressings... Speaking of the bruschetta - again from experience, when we tried to do this, most of the kids said either no thanks, or scraped it off the meat... so it went to waste, which you don't want to waste food or money on something that they are not really going to eat... any type of toppings they did this with, mushroom and onions, onions and peppers, there were other I just can't think of them right now... I know they loved to dip stuff into condiments for sure....
Fruit is costly ---- and kids are picky about what fruit they will eat.... With dessert, I would just go the Popsicle/ ice pop - route for everyone... who doesn't love a Popsicle/ Pop Ice - plus it will be cheaper, and less stress.. you can use the money you would have spent on fruit... somewhere in the main meal ... You can get ice pops for like 2.68 for 36... or the smaller ones 80 count for 4.98 at
Walmart... so for around 5 bucks or so you can have a fun dessert... for everyone...
Take the 160.00 dollars if offered... if you have to spend it then its okay... if not you can give it back whatever you did not spend...
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