Market Day (Fundraiser )Foods Any Good?

As my son has just starterd Kindergarten...so has the school fundrasing!

Our school uses Market Days as one of their primary fundraising activities...this is where I have no experience with the food? Anyone ever tried anything from this venue? I do want to help the school by buying some items every so often but at the same time...I want to order something we might like. We have had hit or miss items from Schwans in the past. I am more of a homemade fan vs. processed frozen food but...I do want to help the school.

Any parents/others out there that can offer a few suggestions?

Thanks!

We used Market Day goods for many years.

A lot of it is pretty bad -- I would not recommend a single one of their steaks or burgers, and beware because many of the other meats are brine-injected, or flavored.

Their "chickensteaks" are OK, for quick-dinner, reasonable-portion boneless, skinless chicken breasts, but certainly not flavorful poultry.

Their frozen pre-prepared items are generally pretty good quality: mozzarella sticks, potato skins and the like. Desserts are decent, things like frozen slices of "pudding cake" work well for school lunches.

I like to get the frozen super sweet corn and the baby peas. I like the stuffed appetizer bread which is usually a special around the holidays, and the frozen fruit pops made with real fruit. I've had some other stuff that was good but can't remember anything else in particular.

I'm not sure where you live, but there is a Sare Lee outlet store by me that is also a Market Day store and when you but something they ask you if you want to sign up for a school. I really like the french toast sticks. I would not say that the meat is bad. The burgers are good.

The Lasagna roll ups are fine and simple. You can use them with your own sauce or a better jarred sauce.

The fruit cups (peach strawberry) are decent.

The pies are "restaurant quality" - not bad, not amazing.

Most of the full on prepared meals are unbelieveably salty. Watch the nutritional info. It's all online.

We always got their seasoned salmon, which was pretty tasty.

My mom regularly ordered from Market Day when my sister and I were in school, and now she orders to benefit the school attached to her church. I remember the chicken nuggets being pretty good as well as individual-sized pizzas. I also vaguely remember in a positive way the aforementioned french toast sticks. My mom also used to order the individual-serving Tropicana juices for us to take to school.

While in school, my mom would order Market Day too. I remembered liking the chicken gems and breakfast bundles (pancakes wrapped around a sausage link on a stick).

I remember something being a totally guilty pleasure - the ham & cheese pretzel sandwiches. Such fake cheese! So salty! Such a comfort food. Also, you have to have the corn pudding. It never lasts on Thanksgiving or Christmas, and we've taken to begging our host to order double the amount she did last year.

The fruit cups mentioned upthread are good. I really like the individual chicken pot pies. They are good for a quick dinner as they are really good in the microwave and only take 5 minutes. But I do categorize them under quick and handy guilty pleasure. Our school rep just went to the Market Day tasting day and raved about some kind of new salmon. I've gotten the soups before. They are fine, but I never really reordered.

It is convenient to order and pay online. Then you just have to pick up at school and not send forms and $ back and forth. The school gets the same credit.

We've known Trudi Temple, founder of MD, for 30 years. It started when she was asked by a kid's school to make something for a bake sale fundraiser. Trudi hates to bake, so instead she drove her station wagon down to the wholesale produce market, brought back a few cases of fresh produce, and sold them off at the sale. She was asked to do it again... and the rest is history.

The last time she took members of the Hinsdale Rotary Club (her late husband, a United Arilines captain, was a member of the club and a former club president and District Governor of Rotary Distrist 6450, the Chicago district where Rotary was founded) on a tour of her plant, she was operating in eight or ten states, as I recall, and her gross sales that year was around $300 million. That's why it has taken on a rather institutional character. She no longer hauls cases of produce around in her station wagon. She mentioned the number of trucks they were operating at the time; I've forgotten exactly - she's not UPS, but it was a HELLL of a lot of trucks.

Most revenue, as you all know, is shared with the sponsoring schools, and most of the remaining profits are donated to Trudi's charities. Trudi retired and sold the company just a couple of years ago; her health is fragile. When she and Bill Temple owned it, it was a non-profit. Don't know its status today.

Trudi's other passion (besides business) has been gardening. Her garden, developed over the years around their spacious Oak Brook (or maybe it's in north Hinsdale; the boundaries up there are hard to follow) is nationally famous. She and the garden are the subjects of the lovely book Trudi's Garden (Goblin Fern Press, 2006) by Laurie Bohlke and Trudi, which tells of her girlhood in WW II Germany, how she met Bill when he was stationed there as an Army pilot after the war, and the development of both her garden and Market Day. It also makes a handsome coffee-table book. We're giving a copy to our son-in-law, who will receive his Master Gardener's certificate in February.

They are (and were) a most impressive couple. We have been lucky to know them.

I remember my mom ordering food from Market Day when I was in elementary school a couple decades ago... but the only food I remember were the frozen pizzas that were the default meal for my brother and me when our parents went out and left us home with a sitter.

The one thing I would always beg my mom to buy from Market Days when I was a kid was frozen chocolate chip cookie dough. They came in individual balls and we would eat them straight out of the freezer as a snack. Ah, the good old days when a frozen ball of dough could satisfy my sweet tooth...

We purchase the ravioli, breakfast bundles, and the strawberry/peach cups. None of it is outstanding, but it's all good.

Actually I think the Chicken Gems are the best Chicken tenders I have ever had-
They are not chopped up nuggets, but strips of breast meat that are nicely seasoned and one or two make a nice sandwich-not the nuggets or patties, but the GEMS.
My family also loves the meatballs- come frozen without sauce in a recloseable bag.
Very nice seasoning- microwave what you want-keep the rest in the freezer.
Breakfast bundles are kind of greasy, but the kids like them.
the mini choc chip pancakes make a nice quick breakfast
Things like ground beef and beef stew are fine-
As mentioned upsteam the chicken steaks are convenient, and thaw quickly in the micro for last minute meals
I was never thrilled with the seafood except for the breaded items
Veggies etc were fine.
I found the prices to be more than I would pay in the store on sales, but you are pitching in to the PTO-

Oddly, the only thing I remember Trudi really pushing was the Corn Dogs!

Trudi really loved those corn dogs.

I didn't grow up around here and was never exposed to Market Day as a kid. So over the last couple years I've tried this and that; some is good, some is less good, and a lot of the prepared stuff is shockingly bad for you. I know many people aren't interested in that, but watch the nutritional info.

I think the seasoned salmon (and the regular Salmon) is outstanding. Some of the best I've had for frozen salmon. The sweet corn is great as well. I've never had any issues with the burgers. They are not the absolute best I've had but they are certainly not aweful. Depending on which ones you get, they are pretty good. They have asparagus spears which are really good. I like to grill these or roast them and they turn out wonderfully. Some of the items are way out there when it comes to "good for you" but there are plenty of items that are good for you as well. Italian wedding soup is good as is the Chicken and Dumpling soup.

Chicago-based World's Finest Chocolate, a family-owned business that produces fundraising candy products, said Wednesday it has agreed to acquire Itasca-based Market Day Corp.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/2015 ... 150629524/