Quantities
How many pizzas do you need for 50 teenagers?
Order 21 large pizzas for 50 teenagers. That is 3 slices a head, plus ten per cent so the last kids through the line still get a choice. If it is a boys’ sports team coming straight from practice, make it 28 pizzas.
A large pizza is 14 inches and cut into 8 slices. Fifty teenagers at 3 slices is 150 slices, and ten per cent more is 165. That rounds up to 21 pizzas, which is 168 slices. The same 50 people as adults would eat about 2.5 slices each and need 18.
The whole table, for 50 teenagers
| What | Amount | What to buy | Working |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pepperoni pizza | 72 slices | 9 large | the one that goes first |
| Cheese pizza | 64 slices | 8 large | picky eaters and vegetarians |
| Veggie pizza | 32 slices | 4 large | about 1 in 5 |
| Ranch, for dipping | 28 oz | 2 × 16 oz bottle | half an ounce a head, plus 10% |
| Soda | 75 cans | 7 × 12 pack | 1.5 cans a head |
| Bottled water | 55 bottles | 10 × 6 pack | 1 a head, plus 10% |
| Paper plates | 55 | 1 × 64 pack | 1 a head, plus 10% |
| Napkins | 150 | 1 × 200 pack | 3 a head, because pizza is greasy |
| Cookies, if you want dessert | 55 | 5 × 12 pack | 1 a head, plus 10% |
Pizza counts assume a large 14-inch pizza cut into 8 slices, which is the standard large at the national chains. Grocery package sizes are the ones actually stocked in American supermarkets: ranch in 16 oz, 12 oz and 8 oz bottles, soda in 12 packs, water in 6 packs, plates in packs of 64 or 44, napkins in packs of 40, 100 or 200.
Why three slices a head
Most teenagers take two slices on the first pass and come back for one more. A few take four or five, and a few take one because they ate before they came. Three is where the average lands for a school club, a youth group or a cast party.
Sports are different. A team that has just finished practice eats closer to 4 slices a head, and a varsity football team can go past that. If the group is mostly athletes, order for 4. Leftover pizza is easy to send home. Running out in front of fifty hungry kids is not.
What actually goes wrong
- Everything arrives at once, or none of it does. Twenty-one pizzas is a big order for one store. Call a day ahead, and ask for delivery 15 minutes before you want to eat.
- The pepperoni is gone in five minutes. Put all the boxes out at the same time rather than opening one flavour at a time, so the cheese gets eaten too.
- Somebody has a food allergy. Ask ahead about gluten and dairy. One gluten-free pizza, kept in its own box and labelled, saves a kid from sitting out.
- Nobody brought napkins. Or plates, or a trash bag. The pizza is the easy part to remember.
If you are organizing this with other people
The arithmetic above is the easy half. The hard half is splitting it into things one person can bring, keeping track of who said yes, and reminding them before the day. That is what Event Wranglr does. You describe the event in a sentence, it works out the quantities and the package counts, and it produces a sign-up sheet your volunteers claim from a link with no account and no advertising.
Describe your pizza night and see what comes back.
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