# Leasing Church Kitchen



## dvinecuisine

Fellow Culinarians, 
I hope you can give me some insite and help. I am the owner of a small catering company and am in the process of negotiating with a church to lease their licensed commercial kitchen. I was hoping to get some insite on what to propose for leasing. What are typical scenarios from those of you that have or do lease church kitchens? Is it a monthly flat fee? Is it in the form of discounted services? Percentage of sales or profit? What are terms of use exclusive or are other groups able to use the kitchen? Any information or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Billy


----------



## shroomgirl

I liked having a set fee including utilities, pest inspection,hood inspection, etc the church i worked out of brought the kitchen up to inspectable specs (most churches do not have inspected kitchens, older ones generally do not have everything needed to pass inspection).
There were very few active members by the time I came along.....they had monthly lunches. The biggest problem were all the other people renting space that had kitchen keys. The theatre group that would leave a coffee pot on all night, or the kitchen doors unlocked in an unsavory neighborhood...

One renter had 300 members (the kitchen key) and would use equipment.
but also film wrap, foil, ziplocs.....one day i walked in during one of their lunches and they had taken produce out of the fridge to make room for their shtuff.

Church kitchens are important to their congregation.....so buy fridges and lock them, they have their fridges and you have yours. If there is alot of traffic have a closet or space that is just yours and lockable......talk this over with the minister. 

Be careful with open or vague agreements, all of a sudden it will become one sided.....or lopsided, for one of the parties.....at least there is potential of that occuring. 

Scheduling the kitchen, if it's used by more than you then who schedules time.....what if you end up with a large party and the church picnic is that day?

Who accepts delivery?
Who repairs equipment or maintains it, especially if more than you is using it?
Timliness of repairs.....dang, Mrs. White broke the oven door and you have a party in two days.
Who oversees repairs?

I've got a couple of friends that rent the seminary kitchen with students and a hall available for them. So they serve a $5 lunch 4 days a week that helps move leftovers, they have a special low rate for on campus events booked by the seminary. They can schedule events in the site and NO ONE ELSE has access to the kitchen. Their business is growing....without the lunch perk they'd not be doing as well.


----------



## ed buchanan

Read Mushroom Girls post very carefully, as this is her thing. All I will inject is are you renting by a long term lease where you are the exclusive caterer? This is the way I leased temples. Another way is by the chair x amount of dollars per chair PER FUNCTION.. BY NO MEANS A PERCENTAGE OF SALES OR PROFIT. First of all your profit is none of their business. Yes discount to them if you do function for them, but they pay full price, you in turn write them a check for the discount in form of donation then you can take it off your tax as contribution. Catering as Mushroom girl will verify is 1/4 cooking 3/4 smarts in business.


----------



## dvinecuisine

Thank you for responses. They are very helpful.

Billy


----------



## rsteve

So the church's kitchen is already licensed as a commercial facility??? Check the documentation. Most church's kitchens are unlicensed for commercial purposes. If it, indeed, is commercially licensed, that can only mean that it's been or currently is being used for commercial purposes. Ask the church administrator what leasing terms have previously been in place. 

Sharing a kitchen is a first class pain in the behind. What if you and another caterer have events that require use of the kitchen at the same time? Are you large enough to be the exclusive user of this kitchen? Does the kitchen and lease afford you storage; dry and refrigerated? Will you become this church's exclusive caterer? Are you a member of the church with member privileges?

And, of course, who pays for repairs and upgrades?


----------



## foodnfoto

We rent a church kitchen to produce and store our product. It's a licensed kitchen with a health department permit for catering functions. As we only need it on a part time basis, we pay $25 per hour with a cut off at $1000 per month. 
The events manager posts scheduled events on a calender in the kitchen upon which we mark the hours that we use the kitchen. We schedule our production so as not to interfere with other users. Sometimes, the church school and AA members use our juice and dairy products that are stored in the fridge, but it's not that much of a problem. Of course, we mark all of our inventory, but some gets used anyway. Oh well, we don't mind assisting drunks (their word) in their recovery and giving a little juice to some children is not a huge cost to us.


----------

