Most church gatherings in southeast Queens happen in a fellowship hall: folding tables, a coffee urn, and at best a warming kitchen nobody is meant to cook in. The anniversary dinner, homecoming Sunday, pastor's appreciation, a youth night, the repass after a home-going service. The food has to arrive hot, stand on a buffet line for a couple of hours, and leave the committee with nothing to wash. That is the job this page prices, in public. 75 guests is $2,145 to $3,055 depending on the table you choose, and the trays, the juice, the chafing dishes and the setup are already inside that number.
| Table | Total | Per guest |
|---|---|---|
| Classic JerkJerk chicken, BBQ chicken and stew oxtail, with rice and peas and plantain. | $2,145 | $28.60 |
| The Repass TableFried and baked chicken, macaroni pie, greens and pastry. The one families order. | $2,230 | $29.73 |
| Full Yard SpreadLamb chops, oxtail, curry goat and jerk chicken. What a table costs with nothing held back. | $3,055 | $40.73 |
Sales tax and delivery are outside those figures, and delivery is quoted on the address before anybody agrees to anything. Every dish on every table can be swapped for another off the catering sheet and the price moves by the tray, so the quote builder on the catering page shows your own number at your own headcount. Servers on site, if you want them, are $30 an hour each and quoted separately.
A church fellowship hall around here runs about $100 to $300 for the day, and sometimes nothing at all when it is the church's own event. A restaurant will hold a group to a minimum of $500 to $2,000 before a single plate is served, and the room is only yours for the slot it gives you. The hall is usually the cheaper way to do the whole occasion, as long as somebody brings the food in hot and sets it out properly. That part is ours.
Plenty of halls have no stove, and the ones that do rarely want an outside caterer cooking in them. Nothing we bring needs one. Every tray goes out in a chafing dish over sterno, which keeps food hot for about two hours on the line without an oven or a plug socket. That setup is $5 a head and it is already inside every figure on this page, along with serving utensils, plates, cups, napkins and cutlery.
Four things, and a two minute call to whoever keeps the hall keys settles all of them. The time the doors open for setup, which should be well before guests sit down. Tables for the buffet line, standing where people can walk down one side. A name and a phone number for whoever will be in the hall when the van pulls up. And which entrance to use, with a word about stairs if the hall is not on the ground floor. We set the line out, light the sternos and leave it ready to serve.
The three tables priced above carry chicken, oxtail, goat and lamb, and no pork at all. Plenty of congregations here do not eat it, and a fellowship dinner is not where anybody should have to ask. If the church does want it, jerk pork is $80 a half tray or $170 a large, added to the quote in writing. The kitchen is not halal certified and pork is cooked on the same grill.
Church money is usually spent by a committee, and a committee wants something on paper. The quote comes itemised tray by tray, the same way this page is, so the treasurer can check the arithmetic without calling anybody and it can be forwarded exactly as it arrived. A 50 percent deposit holds the date, and the balance is due on the day of delivery.
Fellowship halls, church basements and community rooms across Jamaica, South Jamaica, St. Albans, Hollis, Springfield Gardens, Cambria Heights, Queens Village, Laurelton, Rosedale, Richmond Hill, Briarwood, Jamaica Estates and the rest of southeast Queens, from the kitchen at 94-14 Sutphin Boulevard. Forty eight hours is enough notice for a repass. Three days is comfortable for anything the church has planned ahead.
At Yah Suh Nyce, $2,145 to $3,055 for 75 guests, which is $28.60 to $40.73 a head. The low end is Classic Jerk and the high end is Full Yard Spread. Both include the trays, juice by the gallon, chafing dishes and sternos, plates and cutlery, and the buffet line set up ready to serve. Sales tax and delivery are quoted separately.
Yes. Nothing we bring needs a kitchen. The food arrives cooked and hot in chafing dishes over sterno, which holds it for about two hours on the buffet line with no oven and no plug socket, and that equipment is in the setup charge rather than added on.
Tables for the buffet line, the hall open in good time before guests sit down, a name and a number for whoever will let the driver in, and a word about stairs if the hall is not on the ground floor. We bring everything else and set the line out ready to serve.
Whoever places the order pays, whether that is the church office, a committee, an auxiliary or a family. The quote is itemised tray by tray so it can be forwarded to a treasurer as it is. A 50 percent deposit holds the date and the balance is due on the day of delivery.
Usually, by a wide margin. A fellowship hall around here runs about $100 to $300, and a restaurant will typically hold a group to a minimum of $500 to $2,000 before any food is served. With a hall, what you pay beyond the room is the food itself, and on this page that is published.
Put in the headcount, pick a table, swap anything on it, and the quote builder shows the total off the same catering sheet this page is priced from, before you send anybody anything.
Arranging a repass in the hall? Those totals are published at four headcounts, and what to serve at a repass covers the rest. Every tray on the sheet is priced at catering prices, and the map is on delivery areas.
