This is a VERY large party if you don't have
experience with large groups. It requires a commercial kitchen, and heated soup tureens to serve. For 280 people with soup, you need 6 serving lines or 3 double sided in order to serve everyone in less than 1 hour. About 4-5 people in the kitchen and 18 out front to set up, serve and clean up the party.

Appetizer table
Fruit tray, see fruit tray page
Relish tray, 3 times the classic relish tray on the veggie tray page
2-3 dips (1 quart per 12) with chips, crackers (6 pounds per 100) and veggie dippers 8-10 pounds per 100)
a sweet dip some meaty thing, could be meatballs, dry summer sausage, smoked sausage rings, 10 pounds per 100 (3 quarts sauce per 10 pounds for the meatballs)

Bread
assorted, 15 pounds per 100
10 pounds cheese per 100, some can be logs and spreads
2 pounds block butter per 100

Added starchy salad
pasta (6 pounds dry pasta per 100) or potato 35 pounds raw potatoes per 100) plus add ins and dressing

Salad, use plan for 100 page.

Now to the soup
14 gallons chili, not too spicy, shredded cheese and chopped onions for toppings, possibly beans if the recipe does not have them) (see church chili recipe this site for topping amounts)
22 pounds dry rice
8 gallons chicken noodle
6 gallons butternut

You will probably have about 4 gallons soup left, but if you cut back any of these, you run the risk of running out of the preferred.