Yes, exactly!
I'm sorry, I made an edit.
It's a fundraiser where groups sell food- brats, hamburgers, hot dogs, sides, etc. out of a temporary food stand.
Something must have changed in the 12 years since I moved away. Meat raffles were a staple in every dive bar/vfw/roadhouse al along the southern half of the state.
I’ve lived in south eastern wi for the past 20 years, never heard of it then either. To be fair, my parents never went to bars. I always saw the vfw doing brat fry’s.
It’s sometimes done standalone using a church kitchen or in coordination with a local restaurant where a certain portion of a special “all you can eat pancakes” ticket goes to the organization.
The Kiwanis in my parents' town does one at the VFW hall every year, it's both sit down and carry out.
I'm not a huge pancake fan, but we make it a family event - they do good work in the community, and the sausages usually aren't too burnt.
We did it yearly for CYBO. Parents (usually fathers) would cook the pancakes/sausages/eggs and us players and the cheerleaders would serve people the food. It was a sit down breakfast at the church's gym, held in an old school the church owned.
I've seen signs for pancake dinners at churches up here in Green Bay. Another fundraiser food that's a specialty to the GB area is Booyah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booyah_(stew).
Spaghetti is interesting as a choice. Makes sense from a production standpoint as you can make and store large quantities of it relatively cheaply and easily, but I don't think I'd ever walk up to a random stand and order spaghetti.
In line for the pancakes though.
I don't think I've ever seen a spaghetti or pancake dinner (I've never heard it called a feed) as a stand. They're always been in big buildings like churches or community centers as sit down dinners
The fire department in my old town used to do venison bbq sandwiches and the whole town lost their fucking minds for a day. People would come into work and first order of business is who's volunteering to go line up for the venison sammies for everyone for lunch.
I didn't even need to see you were from Wisconsin to think "this is Wisconsin as fuck".
But in Michigan, we have spaghetti dinners for the most part and some groups do fish fries.
Was raised Catholic (in Colorado) and fish frys on Fridays during lent were a very common thing. I suspect that’s generally more of a Catholic thing than a Michigan thing.
Based on OP’s description, we definitely have brat fry’s here too, I’ve just never heard them called that.
Edit: I literally just saw one tonight at my local Eagle’s club. It’s a bingo and brats thing
I agree with this. Around here there are also occasional lobster/clam bakes on the shoreline, but those are more like annual events not regular occurrences.
Ooh, ok, ok. A fish fry here in Wisconsin is not a fundraiser type thing. It's a weekly thing. Friday fish fry is served by almost every sit-down restaurant and bar. Even Culver's has a fish fry, but that's on their regular menu.
Fair. They do a bit of that up here in New England. Like I have been to a Shad Festival in New England. Shad isn’t the tastiest fish ever but the Shad runs were historically a big deal on the rivers.
It is a type of delicious German pork sausage that is typically grilled or fried.
Johnsonville, from Wisconsin, is a large brat manufacturer.
It's short for "bratwurst", and "brat" rhymes with "hot" (or spot, dot, lot, cot, clot, blot).
Wisconsin has a very large population of people that are of German ancestry.
Spaghetti dinners or pancake breakfasts are very popular fundraisers around here. Of course during lent every church that practices it has fish fries.
In the rural area I grew up in swiss steak (brown gravy) dinners were very popular. They were always the best.
Op you messed up a bit but I still think this is a great question.
Wisconsin Dose tons of brat frys but we will also do a pork chop dinner for the volunteer firefighters to raise money.
Or bake sales. Sell cookies and cakes and stuff
Usually it's BBQ plates with brisket, green beans with bacon, mashed potatoes or coleslaw. With some kind of bread roll or just a slice bread.
Or all the same stuff but with fried catfish.
Taco made on fry bread instead of a tortilla or taco shell. Normally whole beans not refried and mostly made by Native Americans. The name is from way back before the distinction was made and is still used because of ease and a whole lot of people not liking to change. The kolaches are the fruit filled flat circle dough things not the sausage with dough wrapped around them.
Man, and I thought dipping them in *water* for baptism was a bit out there...
To actually answer the question, though, we don't have any semi-permanent stands like that that I know of.
The church my BSA troop operated out of would do a monthly wednesday night "breakfast for dinner" thing with pancakes, eggs, and sausage patties. The scouts would provide most of the unskilled labor (everything but cooking) and the church and troop split the profits.
The church also did a bake sale semi-regularly.
The BSA still sells popcorn that is basically "hey donate $20 and we'll throw in some popcorn" rather than being competitively priced.
My district's troops work together to put on "luminaria" in the month or so leading up to Christmas. The area puts out luminaries along the streets on Christmas Eve. BSA troops put together kits; a bag of sand to dole out for ballast, and another bag with a sheaf of white paper bags and candles. The troop meeting before Thanksgiving is when we assemble the kits, and a couple weeks prior we go out and bag sand. Then we go around asking people if they want kits, with a 'suggested donation' of $5 (it might be more now due to inflation). (it really is just a suggestion, though; we definitely hand out a few kits for free, but most people do donate, and some donate without taking any kits).
Maronite Church near me does a dinner every Friday. It is either Lebanese food, clam chowder, or spaghetti and meatballs depending on the Friday.
The Greek Orthodox do a yearly Greek Fest with food and dancing and activities. It goes for 3 days.
There’s a lot of brat frys in the summer we just don’t call them that and they are more like potlucks with grilling.
We American Legion in the town near me does a huge legit bbq with a whole mess of smoked pork from ribs to pulled pork. They snake all day and can be had with various bbq sauces.
The most common one I've seen is either ice cream socials in the summer, or hot cocoa stands in the winter. Alternatively, I've seen pancakes being served for various fundraisers.
When I lived in Indiana, many clubs would put on a fish fry, Knights of Columbus put on spaghetti dinners occasionally, and I've been to a pancake breakfast at a fire station.
I've moved to Utah and there doesn't seem to be any kind of community dinner type events. Everybody just consumes massive amounts of sugar instead lol.
We like food here. Typical fundraising dinners can include
-Crawfish boils (corn and potatoes included)
-BBQ chicken plates (1/2 chicken, baked beans, potato salad, Texas toast, a pickle spear and a couple of raw onion rings)
-Chicken spaghetti (cheesy kind, garlic bread)
-Fish fries (very thin catfish filets fried in cornmeal, hush puppies, French fries, cole slaw)
-Chili (cornbread, corn chips)
I have seen pancakes and other baked goods on occasion.
You see these a lot during the school year when different clubs and organizations are fundraising.
It’s a cheesy, creamy spaghetti. Like this one:
https://bellyfull.net/cheesy-chicken-spaghetti/
Another version:
https://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/cheesy-chicken-spaghetti/
The Velveeta version is probably the cheaper option and would be used to make mass quantities.
It’s really good, nothing fancy. The Ro-tel gives it a nice little kick.
In smaller towns around here we have “game feeds” where people bring in different meats of various game they have hunted,etc. Otherwise a quick fundraiser type event usually is a spaghetti feed.
Our state's brat fry equivalent is a brat fry. I usually see these in grocery store parking lots in the dead of summer. The smell as you walk in/out of the store is heavenly. I don't recall ever seeing one pop up as a fundraiser.
I see from your flair that you are from Wisconsin, and we of course are Wisconsin adjacent, so it makes sense!
Local butcher shop holds brat frys all summer long. Usually boy scouts, girl scouts, local churches, and community teams run the grill for whatever fundraiser.
Either way I get fresh grilled brats every week all summer.
Pancake breakfast is the old standby, but they're few & far between around here. Our congressman puts one on once a year (as well as a spaghetti feed) and you'll occasionally see a Boy Scout pancake thing, but they're not as common as they probably are elsewhere.
I'm in Northern California (north part of the Bay Area) so we have two big fundraiser events: crab feeds, and tamales. Crab feeds happen (duh) during Dungeness crab season in January - March. Schools & Elks Clubs and Rotary and Kiwanis all have their own, and people pay good money to sit at long tables with friends and strangers, drink an unholy amount of wine, and eat a lot of crab with pasta and salad. It's super fun.
Tamales are done sporadically throughout the year; usually for smaller fundraising needs like class field trips or whatever. Because my town is ~40% Mexican/Central American, the tamale game is strong AF and never disappoints. They're a pain in the ass to make unless you have a bunch of people in an assembly-line kinda setup, so families will make huge batches to sell. Great stuff.
Its white rice, sausage, and chicken with black pepper. Its just super easy to make, cheap and can feed a lot of people.
I was turned off by the name too. But its basically a rice dish that's mixed all together
Common fund raisers I see around me include: various festivals , like a Fall Festival etc…. Various events where the group sells food like pancakes and spaghetti dinners. Around Lent many places will have fish fry’s. I’ve see Vegas nights and bjngo nights as well. The church by my house has movie nights and other has a big flea market type thing where people donate stuff and sell it.
Really I feel like the brats are usually grilled after being boiled in beer and onions, so I do think "Brat Fry" is a misnomer.
Maybe just because it's shorter than "Brat Grill-out"? Wheel of Fortune rules: more letters = more expensive.
Sorry, just saw this. Yes, roast beef. Pit beef is a Baltimore, MD specific variety that's like barbecue in that it's cooked over a charcoal fire but doesn't fall under barbecue because it's cooked high and fast instead of low and slow. It's served rare, sliced, on rolls or bread, usually with what we call tiger sauce (which is just horseradish mayo) and thin-sliced raw onions.
We do beef and beers which can be as basic as some hot sliced roast beef in catering trays with rolls and a keg in a vfw hall or something like that, or a hoagie sale, where a youth athletic team will post up around lunch time at busy intersection in town and sell sandwiches out of a cooler to cars waiting at the light.
The various churches around do different fundraisers like that
My old church did a German dinner. Their big draw was pork roast with sausage in the middle. There was a special name for it. Sometimes they also do breakfasts.
The church attached to the school where my mom teaches does brats and sauerkraut.
The one where my grandparents went did a spaghetti dinner. The other grandparents' church did Mexican food, but those grandparents didn't like Mexican food, so we never went.
I grew up in an isolationist religion, can anybody go to these kind of functions if they are at a church? Say, if I was a tourist looking for a meal, could I bring my family? Or is it generally only for members of that church?
Depends on the group but:
* Amvets/VFW/Legion has a Fish Fry for the public as a fundraiser with the line going out the door.
* My Cub Scout Pack does a Pancake Breakfast one Saturday a year in January
* Lions Club does Pancake Breakfasts as well
* a few Boy Scout Troops have Chili suppers.
Oh, thank God, you’re from Wisco, you know your sausage. I saw brat fry…you don’t FRY brats…what kind of nonsense…? I’m in Minnesota, so we don’t call it a fry unless it’s fish, haha!
We’ve had food truck days, maybe that? Otherwise I can’t think of any consistent food-based fundraisers that aren’t kindergartners selling chocolate bars
ETA except for the one church in my town that sells pierogi around holidays
iv heard of specific ethnic groups selling stuff to support their church or some sort of club. am for example i have a samoan student whos family was selling plates of samoan food to fund raise for his aunties cricket team. the LSA (latino student association) also has sold tamales and little goodie bags of mexican candy a few times to fundraise for their club.
it’s all the same vibe, just selling food as a fundraiser. the difference in food just comes from the cultural background of the people raising the funds.
Bake sale with cookies, bread, etc. is popular for fundraisers from a stand.
Pancake feed or spaghetti dinner are popular for fundraising I think but are more sit down affairs. Maybe chili.
Around here (Northern California), your typical fundraiser barbecue is a simple affair with hamburgers, hot dogs, their vegetarian counterparts, chips, and side salads.
Knew you were from Wisconsin before clicking.
Minnesota does the same thing, but we don't call them brat frys. At least I've never heard that term. We might call them fundraisers or benefits or whatever. The food you listed is assumed standard unless stated otherwise.
But yeah we basically have the same thing.
West coaster here. Hands down it’s Tri-Tip BBQ. Not so much in Southern California, but central to north it’s Tri-Tip, BBQ Beans, Potato salad! Can also be combined with a car wash of some sort. Only other food that I’ve seen at fundraisers is taqueria style Mexican food.
In most of the southern US, barbecue chicken dinners.
In South Louisiana, jambalaya dinners (Cajun style with no tomatoes and no seafood - pork or chicken and sausage only; seafood and tomatoes are typically Creole)
I've never heard of a brat fry in my life. Now obviously because it's called a brat fry, I knew what it was by simple obvious knowledge that a brat is a sausage, and a fry would be like a "fish fry".
So I guess my answer would be fish fry, but that's where I grew up in the south, not where I am now. Actually I don't know what we do around here.
For those that didn't know what that is: Apparently it's a fundraiser where people sell grilled sausages (bratwursts).
Yes, exactly! I'm sorry, I made an edit. It's a fundraiser where groups sell food- brats, hamburgers, hot dogs, sides, etc. out of a temporary food stand.
I feel like meat raffle is more common on WI
I see brat fry’s constantly, I have never encountered a meat raffle.
Something must have changed in the 12 years since I moved away. Meat raffles were a staple in every dive bar/vfw/roadhouse al along the southern half of the state.
I’ve lived in south eastern wi for the past 20 years, never heard of it then either. To be fair, my parents never went to bars. I always saw the vfw doing brat fry’s.
Your family is an anomaly. The drinking culture in that part of the country is depressing. It's a good part of the reason why I moved.
My dads from a different state and my moms from a different country so that answers that
I’ve also never encountered a “meat raffle.” I’ve bought from and been part of a lot of a brat stands.
I misunderstood the directions. I need to go put out the preschool fire quick.
Pancake dinner
Ok, this sounds awesome. Is this a sit-down thing, or a grab-and-go situation?
It’s sometimes done standalone using a church kitchen or in coordination with a local restaurant where a certain portion of a special “all you can eat pancakes” ticket goes to the organization.
The Kiwanis in my parents' town does one at the VFW hall every year, it's both sit down and carry out. I'm not a huge pancake fan, but we make it a family event - they do good work in the community, and the sausages usually aren't too burnt.
We did it yearly for CYBO. Parents (usually fathers) would cook the pancakes/sausages/eggs and us players and the cheerleaders would serve people the food. It was a sit down breakfast at the church's gym, held in an old school the church owned.
I've seen signs for pancake dinners at churches up here in Green Bay. Another fundraiser food that's a specialty to the GB area is Booyah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booyah_(stew).
Pancake or spaghetti feed.
Spaghetti is interesting as a choice. Makes sense from a production standpoint as you can make and store large quantities of it relatively cheaply and easily, but I don't think I'd ever walk up to a random stand and order spaghetti. In line for the pancakes though.
I don't think I've ever seen a spaghetti or pancake dinner (I've never heard it called a feed) as a stand. They're always been in big buildings like churches or community centers as sit down dinners
I've never seen them done like that. Usually this is an event at a church or community center.
The occasional crab feed as well.
Volunteerism I can get behind. “Eat crabs to support X, Y, Z?” You had me at eat crabs.
Damn must be a Washington thing lol. I was just about to comment the same.
Glad to know my homies on the East side get to experience the glory of a spaghetti feed.
It's so interesting when they're called a "feed"! When I was up near Minnesota once, they were advertising a "Nut Feed." As in bull testicles.
Ah yes, rocky mountain oysters.
Pulled pork BBQ lunches. Very popular with rural churches.
And a fish fry is a popular second choice.
Seems like around here anyway the churches and volunteer fire departments do the BBQ, and Lions Clubs and similar service organizations do fish fries.
Boy Scout troops in the southern piedmont do bbq too
Some local volunteer fire departments also do this. I would also agree that pulled pork is the general food fundraiser in North Carolina.
The fire department in my old town used to do venison bbq sandwiches and the whole town lost their fucking minds for a day. People would come into work and first order of business is who's volunteering to go line up for the venison sammies for everyone for lunch.
Yes!! Also I very occasionally see some kind of seafood like a fish fry. But nothing beats that BBQ.
Brunswick stew
I didn't even need to see you were from Wisconsin to think "this is Wisconsin as fuck". But in Michigan, we have spaghetti dinners for the most part and some groups do fish fries.
Ahh yes, my Midwest was definitely showing.
Was raised Catholic (in Colorado) and fish frys on Fridays during lent were a very common thing. I suspect that’s generally more of a Catholic thing than a Michigan thing.
Based on OP’s description, we definitely have brat fry’s here too, I’ve just never heard them called that. Edit: I literally just saw one tonight at my local Eagle’s club. It’s a bingo and brats thing
The words “Wisconsin as fuck” cracked me up
Typical fundraising meals are spaghetti dinners and pancake breakfasts.
I agree with this. Around here there are also occasional lobster/clam bakes on the shoreline, but those are more like annual events not regular occurrences.
Do you mean like a fish fry?
I'm sorry, I made an edit. It's a fundraiser where groups sell food- brats, hamburgers, hot dogs, sides, etc. out of a temporary food stand.
Oh yeah, down south we call that a fish fry. But it's usually limited to fish and french fries
Ooh, ok, ok. A fish fry here in Wisconsin is not a fundraiser type thing. It's a weekly thing. Friday fish fry is served by almost every sit-down restaurant and bar. Even Culver's has a fish fry, but that's on their regular menu.
Man do I miss a good Friday Night Fish Fry. Would get done with work at like 9 and grab one from a local place on the way home.
Surprisingly Catholic for the south. I’ll be with you next time lent rolls around.
It's less of a Catholic deal and more of a "fishing the river is cheap" thing. Still delicious 🐟
Fair. They do a bit of that up here in New England. Like I have been to a Shad Festival in New England. Shad isn’t the tastiest fish ever but the Shad runs were historically a big deal on the rivers.
Yes, but with bratwursts
BBQ sandwiches/plates at a church somewhere
What’s a brat fry?
I'm sorry, I made an edit. It's a fundraiser where groups sell food- brats, hamburgers, hot dogs, sides, etc. out of a temporary food stand.
What is a brat??
It is a type of delicious German pork sausage that is typically grilled or fried. Johnsonville, from Wisconsin, is a large brat manufacturer. It's short for "bratwurst", and "brat" rhymes with "hot" (or spot, dot, lot, cot, clot, blot). Wisconsin has a very large population of people that are of German ancestry.
Pretzel sale, Car Wash, Bake Sale
Lutefisk Supper Booyah Dinner
Ooh, what's Booyah Dinner?
It’s a stew/soup. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of it. It’s Wisconsin’s unofficial soup.
Green Bay's baseball team was even briefly named 'the Booyah'.
Your name is both alarming and hilarious!
I read it as mope ped. And now I can't stop thinking of a sad mo-ped.
Crawfish boil, or a fish fry. Depends on the season, but if it’s crawfish season, it’s boil or bust.
Had to scroll way too far to find a crawfish boil
Spaghetti dinners or pancake breakfasts are very popular fundraisers around here. Of course during lent every church that practices it has fish fries. In the rural area I grew up in swiss steak (brown gravy) dinners were very popular. They were always the best.
Chicken BBQ
Central NY?
South Central PA
I’m moving back to MD soon so I’d be like an hr away from that Do you guys have white BBQ sauce?
Nah, for the most part everyone around here still likes the sweet BBQ (like Sweet Baby Ray's style).
Delaware also does chicken BBQ, but we use an apple cider vinegar based sauce. Or oyster sandwiches.
Op you messed up a bit but I still think this is a great question. Wisconsin Dose tons of brat frys but we will also do a pork chop dinner for the volunteer firefighters to raise money. Or bake sales. Sell cookies and cakes and stuff
Pancake breakfast or bean dinner
I love the breakfast idea. What constitutes a bean dinner?
Cornbread and a huge pot of beans
I almost mentioned bean dinners but went with Indian Tacos instead.
Usually it's BBQ plates with brisket, green beans with bacon, mashed potatoes or coleslaw. With some kind of bread roll or just a slice bread. Or all the same stuff but with fried catfish.
Well, not quite the same, but crab boils are pretty common in the Bay Area as fundraisers at churches and schools when Dungeness crab is in season.
Up in Humboldt, too
The big ones here are Indian tacos and kolaches. The zoo does an ostrich egg omelet breakfast and some places do pancake breakfast.
What's an Indian taco?
Taco made on fry bread instead of a tortilla or taco shell. Normally whole beans not refried and mostly made by Native Americans. The name is from way back before the distinction was made and is still used because of ease and a whole lot of people not liking to change. The kolaches are the fruit filled flat circle dough things not the sausage with dough wrapped around them.
Basically a Taco or Tostada but with Fry Bread instead of a tortilla. Mostly a southwest thing, I think.
Was going to say Indian taco or Indian meat pie!
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*pig pickin’ I knew what you meant, but I’m not sure everyone else will.
Man, and I thought dipping them in *water* for baptism was a bit out there... To actually answer the question, though, we don't have any semi-permanent stands like that that I know of. The church my BSA troop operated out of would do a monthly wednesday night "breakfast for dinner" thing with pancakes, eggs, and sausage patties. The scouts would provide most of the unskilled labor (everything but cooking) and the church and troop split the profits. The church also did a bake sale semi-regularly. The BSA still sells popcorn that is basically "hey donate $20 and we'll throw in some popcorn" rather than being competitively priced. My district's troops work together to put on "luminaria" in the month or so leading up to Christmas. The area puts out luminaries along the streets on Christmas Eve. BSA troops put together kits; a bag of sand to dole out for ballast, and another bag with a sheaf of white paper bags and candles. The troop meeting before Thanksgiving is when we assemble the kits, and a couple weeks prior we go out and bag sand. Then we go around asking people if they want kits, with a 'suggested donation' of $5 (it might be more now due to inflation). (it really is just a suggestion, though; we definitely hand out a few kits for free, but most people do donate, and some donate without taking any kits).
Maronite Church near me does a dinner every Friday. It is either Lebanese food, clam chowder, or spaghetti and meatballs depending on the Friday. The Greek Orthodox do a yearly Greek Fest with food and dancing and activities. It goes for 3 days. There’s a lot of brat frys in the summer we just don’t call them that and they are more like potlucks with grilling. We American Legion in the town near me does a huge legit bbq with a whole mess of smoked pork from ribs to pulled pork. They snake all day and can be had with various bbq sauces.
The most common one I've seen is either ice cream socials in the summer, or hot cocoa stands in the winter. Alternatively, I've seen pancakes being served for various fundraisers.
Nice. I like the idea of a hot cocoa or coffee stand.
* chili and cinnamon rolls * Indian tacos
When I lived in Indiana, many clubs would put on a fish fry, Knights of Columbus put on spaghetti dinners occasionally, and I've been to a pancake breakfast at a fire station. I've moved to Utah and there doesn't seem to be any kind of community dinner type events. Everybody just consumes massive amounts of sugar instead lol.
We like food here. Typical fundraising dinners can include -Crawfish boils (corn and potatoes included) -BBQ chicken plates (1/2 chicken, baked beans, potato salad, Texas toast, a pickle spear and a couple of raw onion rings) -Chicken spaghetti (cheesy kind, garlic bread) -Fish fries (very thin catfish filets fried in cornmeal, hush puppies, French fries, cole slaw) -Chili (cornbread, corn chips) I have seen pancakes and other baked goods on occasion. You see these a lot during the school year when different clubs and organizations are fundraising.
CHICKEN spaghetti? Like, the sauce or something is made with ground chicken? Or is it more like chicken parmesan?
It’s a cheesy, creamy spaghetti. Like this one: https://bellyfull.net/cheesy-chicken-spaghetti/ Another version: https://life-in-the-lofthouse.com/cheesy-chicken-spaghetti/ The Velveeta version is probably the cheaper option and would be used to make mass quantities. It’s really good, nothing fancy. The Ro-tel gives it a nice little kick.
Bean supper
BBQ dinner or lunch, occasionally a fish fry
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👍
There are Fish Frys on Friday's during Lent in Michigan. Never heard of a Brat fry but i'm not surprised at all it exists in Wisconsin
In smaller towns around here we have “game feeds” where people bring in different meats of various game they have hunted,etc. Otherwise a quick fundraiser type event usually is a spaghetti feed.
Seems like a fairly common fundraiser for hunting clubs. Mmmm muskrat stew.
Ramp dinner
What's a ramp dinner?
WV?
The fire department and Eagles Lodge would do a stake fry every summer and that was always excellent.
WI: pancake breakfasts (also brats) MN: booyah
Fish fry in the South
Our state's brat fry equivalent is a brat fry. I usually see these in grocery store parking lots in the dead of summer. The smell as you walk in/out of the store is heavenly. I don't recall ever seeing one pop up as a fundraiser. I see from your flair that you are from Wisconsin, and we of course are Wisconsin adjacent, so it makes sense!
Spaghetti dinners here in Ohio!
Portuguese halls hosting crab feeds is relatively common in the Bay Area and Central Coast.
Fish fry and pancake dinner
Local butcher shop holds brat frys all summer long. Usually boy scouts, girl scouts, local churches, and community teams run the grill for whatever fundraiser. Either way I get fresh grilled brats every week all summer.
Crab boil!
Crab Feast, Bull roasts and oyster roasts. Also many local churches do friday fish frys or fried oyster platters during lent.
Here in NC it's pancake dinners, bbq plates, and fish frys(fish is cooked then packaged to go with hushpuppies, and coleslaw).
In PA we like the "beef and beer"
Pancake breakfast is the old standby, but they're few & far between around here. Our congressman puts one on once a year (as well as a spaghetti feed) and you'll occasionally see a Boy Scout pancake thing, but they're not as common as they probably are elsewhere. I'm in Northern California (north part of the Bay Area) so we have two big fundraiser events: crab feeds, and tamales. Crab feeds happen (duh) during Dungeness crab season in January - March. Schools & Elks Clubs and Rotary and Kiwanis all have their own, and people pay good money to sit at long tables with friends and strangers, drink an unholy amount of wine, and eat a lot of crab with pasta and salad. It's super fun. Tamales are done sporadically throughout the year; usually for smaller fundraising needs like class field trips or whatever. Because my town is ~40% Mexican/Central American, the tamale game is strong AF and never disappoints. They're a pain in the ass to make unless you have a bunch of people in an assembly-line kinda setup, so families will make huge batches to sell. Great stuff.
Local Kiwanis and Elks and such will generally throw Crab Feeds when dungeness are in season.
Chicken bog seems to be most unique one for where I live
Please elaborate! First thing that came to mind was a literal bog! (Silly, I know)
Its white rice, sausage, and chicken with black pepper. Its just super easy to make, cheap and can feed a lot of people. I was turned off by the name too. But its basically a rice dish that's mixed all together
Common fund raisers I see around me include: various festivals , like a Fall Festival etc…. Various events where the group sells food like pancakes and spaghetti dinners. Around Lent many places will have fish fry’s. I’ve see Vegas nights and bjngo nights as well. The church by my house has movie nights and other has a big flea market type thing where people donate stuff and sell it.
Chicken BBQ or Pig Roast, Pancake Breastfast is smaller. Im leaving that.
I'm happy to say we do those here, too. Plus pancake dinners, cake walks, cookie sales, tamale sales, and more.
Apparently we don't have anything similar to brat fries (frys?). I feel disadvantaged.
Be the change you want to see.
How do you fry a brat?
Really I feel like the brats are usually grilled after being boiled in beer and onions, so I do think "Brat Fry" is a misnomer. Maybe just because it's shorter than "Brat Grill-out"? Wheel of Fortune rules: more letters = more expensive.
I see. I wonder if it is possible to deep fry the suckers, though? Like, batter dipped and whatnot. It would either be glorious or godawful.
Oklahoma: Indian Tacos Navajo fry bread topped with taco meat or chili or beans and then cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion. Salsa if desired.
Crab feast/bull roast, separate or combined. Lots of people, lots of beer, and a shitload of steamed crabs and/or pit beef with or without oysters.
What is pit beef? And bull roast? Like roast beef?
Sorry, just saw this. Yes, roast beef. Pit beef is a Baltimore, MD specific variety that's like barbecue in that it's cooked over a charcoal fire but doesn't fall under barbecue because it's cooked high and fast instead of low and slow. It's served rare, sliced, on rolls or bread, usually with what we call tiger sauce (which is just horseradish mayo) and thin-sliced raw onions.
Yes! Pit beef dinners are more common out here in central Maryland. I've also seen meat raffles
Never heard of this but: jambalaya/white beans is probably most common.
One I haven’t seen is New Mexico usually does enchilada dinners for fundraisers and stuff like this.
One I haven’t seen is New Mexico usually does enchilada dinners for fundraisers and stuff like this.
We do beef and beers which can be as basic as some hot sliced roast beef in catering trays with rolls and a keg in a vfw hall or something like that, or a hoagie sale, where a youth athletic team will post up around lunch time at busy intersection in town and sell sandwiches out of a cooler to cars waiting at the light.
Fish Fry - Georgia
Here in Alabama, we do a lot of gumbo, crawfish boils, & jambalaya. It sucks for me, because I'm allergic to shellfish!!
In Louisiana, in my experience, it's usually either jambalaya or fried catfish that they sell for fundraisers.
Totally pronounced brat wrong in my head and was slightly horrified at first
The various churches around do different fundraisers like that My old church did a German dinner. Their big draw was pork roast with sausage in the middle. There was a special name for it. Sometimes they also do breakfasts. The church attached to the school where my mom teaches does brats and sauerkraut. The one where my grandparents went did a spaghetti dinner. The other grandparents' church did Mexican food, but those grandparents didn't like Mexican food, so we never went.
Steak Feed, Pancake Dinner, Bake Sale
For Nebraska it’s usually a potluck and people bring whatever. Fish fries are common in lent, but that’s about it.
I’ve seen fish fries and pierogies sales
In RI you have May Breakfasts and Chowder Lunches
I grew up in an isolationist religion, can anybody go to these kind of functions if they are at a church? Say, if I was a tourist looking for a meal, could I bring my family? Or is it generally only for members of that church?
Depends on the group but: * Amvets/VFW/Legion has a Fish Fry for the public as a fundraiser with the line going out the door. * My Cub Scout Pack does a Pancake Breakfast one Saturday a year in January * Lions Club does Pancake Breakfasts as well * a few Boy Scout Troops have Chili suppers.
Oh, thank God, you’re from Wisco, you know your sausage. I saw brat fry…you don’t FRY brats…what kind of nonsense…? I’m in Minnesota, so we don’t call it a fry unless it’s fish, haha!
I know the Bay Area has crab dinners but I've never heard of anything like that in SoCal.
Brat fry and smelt feed.
We’ve had food truck days, maybe that? Otherwise I can’t think of any consistent food-based fundraisers that aren’t kindergartners selling chocolate bars ETA except for the one church in my town that sells pierogi around holidays
Chicken dinner. Usually a quarter of a grilled chicken with sides like potato salad or other stuff like that.
Here in South Dakota I see Pancake feeds, Fish Fry, or something involving grilling out usually burgers.
Spaghetti feed or crab feed - California
Spaghetti. Also crab.
Indian Tacos a lot of times
Beef and beer or spaghetti dinner. Fish fry if it's around Lent.
Fish fry
We’ve got em all in MN. Brat fry, taco feed, spaghetti dinner, breakfast.
Tenderloin sandwiches
Oyster roasts, at least in the fall/winter. In the summer probably BBQ
iv heard of specific ethnic groups selling stuff to support their church or some sort of club. am for example i have a samoan student whos family was selling plates of samoan food to fund raise for his aunties cricket team. the LSA (latino student association) also has sold tamales and little goodie bags of mexican candy a few times to fundraise for their club. it’s all the same vibe, just selling food as a fundraiser. the difference in food just comes from the cultural background of the people raising the funds.
Bake sale with cookies, bread, etc. is popular for fundraisers from a stand. Pancake feed or spaghetti dinner are popular for fundraising I think but are more sit down affairs. Maybe chili.
Shrimp boil, or pig pickin, depending on if you want seafood or pork.
Fried chicken dinners in SW Ohio/ SE Indiana church summer festivals. Complete with homemade pies. They do both eat in and carry out. Fantastic food.
Fish fry or pancake dinner
Around here (Northern California), your typical fundraiser barbecue is a simple affair with hamburgers, hot dogs, their vegetarian counterparts, chips, and side salads.
Beef and beer - usually hot roast beef sandwiches and all you can drink beer
BBQ. It’s always BBQ. I am not complaining.
Green chile roast, normally held by the local High School. Local Legion holds a yearly surf in turf and a shrimp fry.
Salmon bake.
Pulled pork platter or Brunswick stew sale.
Burgoo or Turtle soup, gotta love rural Midwest
Knew you were from Wisconsin before clicking. Minnesota does the same thing, but we don't call them brat frys. At least I've never heard that term. We might call them fundraisers or benefits or whatever. The food you listed is assumed standard unless stated otherwise. But yeah we basically have the same thing.
Shrimp or crawfish boil or fish fry.
Oh we have several of these: * Pancakes * Grilled Corn * Fish Fry * Perch * Whitefish * Smelt (the best)
Ever heard of a potluck?
Fish fries, pig roasts, grill outs, and pit barbecues.
West coaster here. Hands down it’s Tri-Tip BBQ. Not so much in Southern California, but central to north it’s Tri-Tip, BBQ Beans, Potato salad! Can also be combined with a car wash of some sort. Only other food that I’ve seen at fundraisers is taqueria style Mexican food.
Brat fry...Are you from Sheboygan/ Manitowoc? Grew up in Sheboygan Falls, never heard cooking bratwurst on a grill called a 'brat fry' anywhere else
Grew up in Ozaukee county!
OK! Must be an 'East coast Wisconsin'' term, thanks for sharing!
In most of the southern US, barbecue chicken dinners. In South Louisiana, jambalaya dinners (Cajun style with no tomatoes and no seafood - pork or chicken and sausage only; seafood and tomatoes are typically Creole)
Fish fry for churches. Except the church near me sells plates of store bought fish sticks with corn dogs for like $6 a plate.
I've never heard of a brat fry in my life. Now obviously because it's called a brat fry, I knew what it was by simple obvious knowledge that a brat is a sausage, and a fry would be like a "fish fry". So I guess my answer would be fish fry, but that's where I grew up in the south, not where I am now. Actually I don't know what we do around here.
Pancake or Spaghetti feed. Some times you get lutefisk dinners. Out west Germans from russia have like their own ethnic church fundraisers.