People who cook for the public as part of food fund-raisers now have a new resource for consistent food safety, thanks to a new publication available from our college.

Cooking for Crowds: A Volunteer’s Guide to Safe Food Handling is a comprehensive manual for civic and church groups, school organizations, volunteer fire companies, and the many other groups who cook for the public for food fund-raisers or special events.

Food safety specialist Dana McElroy says the curriculum shows nonprofit and volunteer groups the unexpected food safety risks that they face in preparing large volumes of food, and how to reduce those risks while making food that’s both safe and delicious.

“Many people don’t know that there are a lot of additional safety risks that come with cooking large quantities of food,” McElroy says. “They may have been volunteering for years and probably are very conscious of food safety, but they may not be aware of the additional risks.

“On top of that, nonprofit groups may not have the finances to buy commercial food service equipment and may be working with equipment that’s not designed to prepare or serve large quantities of food. The Cooking for Crowds curriculum is designed to educate groups about food safety standards and provide practical ways to meet those standards.”

Penn State Cooperative Extension agents, who frequently train nonprofit groups about proper large-volume food preparation techniques for the public, asked for the curriculum to replace older, outdated materials that didn’t address the specific needs of nonprofit food preparation.

The result, developed by McElroy in collaboration with extension agents and with the assistance of members of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, provides the most up-to-date and comprehensive materials for educating nonprofit audiences about food safety.

The manual discusses why different food safety strategies are needed when cooking large volumes of food, the causes of foodborne illness, prevention strategies to reduce the risk of foodborne illness, and tips on safe food purchasing, storage, preparation, and service. It also includes:

• Ideas for planning a safe event
• Strategies to provide safe water for food fund-raisers
• Alternative equipment ideas
• Checklists for barbecues, meals, bake sales, sub/sandwich sales, home-delivered meals, and temporary events
• Strategies to implement food safety practices in an organization’s kitchen

The complete “Cooking for Crowds” curriculum is available on the World Wide Web at www.cookingforcrowds.psu.edu. All teaching materials, including the manual, instructor resources, desktop presentation files and graphics, certificates, evaluation tools, and additional resources can be downloaded and used free of charge.

The full-color printed manual also can be purchased through the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Publication Distribution Center for $9.00 by calling toll-free 877-345-0691. Ask for publication AGRS-86.

—Gary Abdullah