Georgia high school football starts back up this month — the Corky Kell & Dave Hunter Classic opens the season on August 12, and most North Fulton programs play their first regular-season game around August 21. Which means right now, somebody at Alpharetta, Milton, Cambridge and Roswell High is figuring out how to feed 50 hungry teenagers every Thursday night for the next three months.
If that somebody is you, here’s the practical version.
How much food does a football team actually need?
A varsity roster runs 45–60 players, plus coaches and staff. Teenage athletes the night before a game eat roughly 1.5× what a normal adult eats — plan accordingly or you will run out, and running out in front of a hungry offensive line is not a mistake you make twice.
Our largest catering package feeds 25 people for $580 all-in. For a typical varsity team dinner that means:
- Team of 30–35 (JV or a small varsity): one $580 package plus an extra pasta tray
- Team of 50–60 (varsity + coaches): two $580 packages — about $1,160, or roughly $20 a player
- Linemen-heavy roster: add one more pasta tray. You know your team.
Want the exact number for your event? These are standard package prices. Tell us your headcount, date and delivery address and we’ll send back an exact all-in total — delivery and setup included, no service charge added later.
That price includes delivery and setup across North Fulton. No service charge, no per-head fee that balloons at checkout.
Why pasta is the pre-game standard
The Thursday-night pasta dinner is a tradition for a reason: complex carbohydrates load muscle glycogen roughly 24 hours before kickoff, and pasta is cheap to scale, easy to eat cold if the meeting runs long, and nearly impossible to mess up for a crowd. Baked ziti and fettuccine hold heat in foil trays far better than anything fried.
A dinner that actually works for a team:
- Two pasta trays — one red sauce, one white. Splitting them prevents the “I don’t like alfredo” problem
- Garden salad — coaches will thank you, players will ignore it, order it anyway
- Garlic rolls — the first thing to disappear, every single time
- A few pizzas for the handful of kids who will not touch pasta
When plans change on a Thursday afternoon
Practice runs long. A scrimmage gets moved. The booster parent who volunteered to cook has a work emergency at 3 p.m. This is the part most caterers cannot help with — the chains ask you to order a day ahead — and 48 to 72 hours for groups over 25.
We can usually put together a team-sized order with about two hours’ notice. Call the restaurant directly at (770) 475-0369 and say it’s for a team dinner tonight — that gets it into the kitchen immediately rather than into a queue.
Tailgates and season-opener parties
Home-game tailgates run smaller — usually 20–30 parents and siblings. One $580 package covers 25 comfortably, and pizza travels to a parking lot better than almost anything else. Order it to arrive about 90 minutes before kickoff so it’s still hot when the lot fills up.
Booster clubs: the paperwork part
If the booster club is paying, we invoice. You do not have to front the money on a personal card and chase a reimbursement for six weeks. Tell us it’s a booster order when you place it and we’ll set up billing — same for school activity accounts.
We also handle gluten-free and vegetarian without a separate order: label the trays, keep the athlete with celiac fed, move on with your evening.
Booking the season
The teams that have the smoothest season are the ones that book the whole Thursday-night schedule in August rather than scrambling weekly. Send us your home schedule and we’ll put the dates in the book — you can adjust headcounts up to the day before.
Ready to feed the team? Request a quote with your roster size and first game date, or call (770) 475-0369. We’re at 3665 Old Milton Pkwy in Alpharetta — ten minutes from most North Fulton fields.