As a former leader of a NPO, I have to say that I would never consider selling food for those prices.  My job was to make money for the organization, not give it away.  A NPO is supposed to be a community group that helps community members in need.  If we gave away our food at cost then how would we be able to help people in need? ……

 
The problem as I see it, is that the npo’s ARE making money selling at the cut rate prices because of the preferential treatment they get from some event coordinators and health department officials. A “for profit” guy would have to sell quite a bit more product just to break even, but the npo’s break even point is a lot lower. Since profit isn’t the goal, a npo could walk away with $500 for the weekend and be happy where the commercial vendor would have to take in more than that just to break even.
 
Like I said before, I don’t mind the competition as long as we are on the proverbial “even playing field” – but I don’t see this happening. I have expressed interest in vending at some local events but when I wanted the contract to state that there were no npo’s selling what I was selling, they said that they could not guarantee that or lower my rent if there was. Hope they enjoy their Pig @ss & lips Ball Park franks handled by 14 year olds that have absolutely no food handling training……..