Serving food and drinks at an event, stall or club night
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
6 min reading time
Cups, trays, straws, and dispensers for an event, market stall, or club night. Here's how to calculate quantities, choose materials, and understand the rules around single-use plastic.
At a club night with eighty visitors, you won't use eighty cups. You'll use around two hundred, because people lose their cups, because they switch from coffee to soft drinks halfway through, and because someone grabs ten at once to hand them out. Anyone serving food and drinks at an event for the first time almost always orders too little packaging and too much of the wrong kind.
Autumn is the season when this happens again: canteens open, associations plan their activities, and markets and open days feature stalls serving warm items. Below is what you need and where the calculation errors lie.
Calculate in portions, not visitors
Start with how many times someone grabs something, not how many people show up. A rule of thumb that works well in practice:
Short activity of two hours: 1.5 consumables per person.
Evening of four hours: 2.5 to 3 consumables per person.
Full day, market or open day: 1 consumable per visitor, but much more turnover than you think.
Add ten percent for loss and misjudgment. For eighty visitors in an evening, you'll end up with over two hundred cups. If you order a hundred, you'll be washing up halfway through.
Cups: disposable, hard plastic or both
For hot drinks, small cardboard cups are the most practical. A pack of Coffee Cups 150ml, 100 pieces (€14.95) comes down to fifteen cents per cup. The 150ml size is deliberately small: coffee from a large cup gets cold before it's finished, and you pour away more than you sell.
For participants who stay all day – volunteers, exhibitors, teams – a reusable cup is better. A Sport and Coffee Cup made of hard PVC, 500 ml (€9.95) won't tip over, stays warm longer and lasts the entire season. Give these to your own people and keep the disposable cups for visitors; that saves about a quarter of your consumption.
Containers and boxes for food on the go
Everything people eat standing up must fit in one hand and not get soggy. For small portions – a slice of pizza, a few bitterballen, a piece of cake with coffee – Mini Pizza Boxes 85x85x20 mm, 100 pieces (€10.00) are surprisingly versatile. They are stackable, you can fill them in advance, and they cost ten cents each.
For snacks dispensed per portion, a Popcorn Container (€7.95) is a reusable solution for the table: you refill it instead of handing out a bag per person. This works well for a movie night or a children's activity, less so for high-traffic events where hygiene is a factor.
Straws: paper, bamboo or hard plastic
Straws seem like a detail until you have the wrong ones. Paper straws soften in carbonated soft drinks; bamboo and hard plastic do not. Here's the difference:
The diameter counts more than the length. A 6 mm straw is too narrow for anything with chunks; for milkshakes and smoothies, use 8 mm or wider.
Sauces, syrup, and toppings without mess
Loose bottles on a serving table lead to drips, sticky caps, and one visitor putting on too much. A Juice, Syrup, and Honey Dispenser (€19.95) dispenses the same amount each time and keeps the table clean. For oil on the griddle, an Oil Bottle with Spray 300 ml (€9.95) works better than pouring: you use less and don't spill.
If you have a stall where atmosphere is key, a Space Gun Ketchup and Mustard Dispenser (€17.95) is a dispensing point that attracts people – and it keeps the bottle out of sight. If you need to refill small bottles or dispensers yourself, a set of Mini Funnels, 10 pieces (€9.95) is the cheapest tool you'll buy that day.
Behind the bar, there should be at least one opener that doesn't walk away. A Bottle Opener with Magnet, polyresin 12.5 cm (€9.95) sticks to the fridge and is therefore the only one you'll still find at the end of the evening.
Rules on disposable cups and containers
For companies and organizations that provide food and drinks, specific rules apply in the Netherlands regarding plastic disposable cups and containers. These have been updated in recent years, so always check the current status before purchasing.
In broad terms, according to KVK, the obligation to charge extra for plastic disposable cups and containers will formally still apply in 2026, but the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate will no longer monitor it this year, and this extra charge rule will expire by 2027. What remains: you must be able to offer a reusable alternative, and for food and drinks consumed on-site, there is a ban on plastic disposable tableware. Cardboard and paper alternatives and reusable cups are exempt from the extra charge rule.
Read the details at KVK and on Rijksoverheid.nl, and if in doubt, opt for the strictest variant – which is usually also the cheapest, as reusable materials are a one-time purchase.
Making prices visible
Nothing slows down a queue more than visitors having to ask what something costs. If you're selling from a stall or canteen, stick a price on what you can. For individual items, a Pricing Gun MX-5500 with 50,000 white price stickers (€59.95) is an investment that pays for itself in time; if you work with color codes per price group, Price Stickers for pricing gun in 6 colors, 500 pieces (€2.95) are handy – your volunteers won't have to memorize a price list.
Clear signs. If you're in a non-smoking area, No Smoking Stickers, 50 pieces (€4.95) are quicker to arrange than a conversation.
Ordering
Order disposable materials generously, reusable materials precisely. Cups, containers, and straws are not thrown away if you have too many – you'll use them next time. However, over-ordering reusable cups and dispensers is wasteful. Everything for serving is grouped under Food & Drink Accessories, Straws and Glasses. Boxes and packaging can be found in Packaging & Shipping, pricing guns and stickers in Pricing Guns & Labels. Are you organizing something for more than a hundred visitors, or does your event span multiple days? Email the number of visitors and duration to info@verpakkingdeals.nl, and we'll help you calculate the quantities.
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