Family Reunion Catering

A family reunion feeds four generations who agree about very little, in a park or on family land, across most of a day, organized by one relative who has been doing it for eleven years and would like a break.

Traditionally everyone brings a dish. That works until the family gets big enough that six people bring potato salad and nobody brings anything hot.

Four generations, one base

This is the reason a potato bar suits a reunion better than almost any other event. A seven-year-old, a teenager, a vegetarian niece and a great-uncle with firm views about food all get something they will actually eat, off the same line, without anybody being catered to separately.

There are vegetarian options. There are no vegan ones, and we say that up front rather than improvising at the table. Anyone with a serious allergy should be a phone call before the day rather than a note in an email.

The organizer gets the day off

One person usually carries a reunion: the bookings, the tables, the coolers, the cooking, and the clearing up while everybody else says goodbye. Catering the food does not remove all of that, and it removes the part that starts at six in the morning.

We arrive with everything, cook on site, and leave with what we brought. No borrowed kitchen, no dishes to return to their owners, no counting who brought which pan.

People arrive all day

Cousins driving in from three states do not arrive together. Some are there at ten, some at two, some after a wrong turn near Manchester.

Food cooked as people order handles that. The branch of the family that gets in at three is not eating the leftovers of the branch that arrived at eleven. That argument is set out in full in food truck or buffet caterer.

Parks, pavilions and family land

Reunions happen in the places with no kitchen: a county park pavilion, a church shelter, somebody’s back forty. For a one-day event we need no power, no water and no kitchen.

  • The trailer is 22 feet long and is towed by a full-size Chevy van, so it needs a route in and room to maneuver into the spot.
  • Solid ground. A trailer this heavy will sink or get stuck in soft ground, and that matters most after a wet week.
  • Nothing else for catering or a one-day festival. We are self contained.
  • For festivals of two days or more, a 50-amp RV-style outlet within 50 feet, and access to potable water.

Two things worth checking with a park before you book anything: whether food vendors are allowed, and where a vehicle that size is permitted to park. Some parks have a rule and all of them have a preference. Find out early, because it is easier to move us than to move the reunion.

The other one is ground. Grass after a wet week is where a heavy trailer gets stuck, so tell us if there is a gravel or paved option.

How to run it

For a reunion spread across a day, Loaded Truck usually works best: the window opens, people come over when they are hungry, and there is no moment when everyone has to stop what they are doing. If your reunion has a proper sit-down meal in the middle, the Loaded Bar moves a large group through quickly.

Loaded Stations

Serving stations set up inside your venue. You pick four entrees off the menu and choose potato, pasta or both. Guests walk up, say what they want, and watch it built. Up to 300 guests.

Loaded Truck

The same four entrees you picked, ordered at the trailer window and handed over a minute or two later. The trailer ends up being part of the event. People like watching the window.

Loaded Bar

The buffet. You pick three proteins, two toppings and three sauces. Potato and pasta go out in bulk, guests walk the line, and our staff top each plate as it passes. Up to 400 guests.

Numbers

We serve up to 400 guests for the Loaded Bar and up to 300 for Loaded Stations, which covers reunions comfortably at any size a family reaches. Our lines go just as fast as any normal buffet, and the buffet stays open afterward for seconds. When you send an inquiry, we'll give you an estimate of how long it will take to serve your guests.

Reunion headcounts are famously unreliable and nobody expects otherwise. A rough number holds the date. About a week before the event we confirm your final guest count, your entree picks and the serving time. A rough potato-versus-pasta split comes about two weeks out, and an estimate is genuinely fine there. Sizing is covered in how many guests we can serve.

Booking

Most reunions land on the same handful of summer weekends, so early is better. Call 931-271-7455, email nicholas@itsloaded.com, or send the details: the date, the location, a rough headcount and the hours it runs.

We cater across Middle Tennessee, North Alabama and North Georgia, bounded by Nashville to the north, Huntsville to the west, Dalton, Georgia to the south and Cookeville to the northeast.

What a quote includes is in what catering costs, and gatherings with the same all-afternoon shape are covered in graduation parties and company picnics.