Corporate
Non-Profit Event Catering in Medellín
Medellin Elite Catering caters for organizations that answer to donors, boards and auditors: foundations, NGOs, international cooperation agencies, church groups and neighborhood associations. Since 2019 we have served fundraising galas, donor breakfasts, volunteer days and community lunches across the Aburrá Valley.
Non-profit teams usually arrive with grant terms that shape the event, a board that wants the event to look generous, and an auditor who will read the invoice later. We plan the menu around those three facts, so the food suits the guests and the paperwork suits the donor.
Our bilingual coordinators often work with program officers abroad and local staff at the same time. Experience since 2019 has taught us how to make a simple volunteer lunch feel cared for and a gala plate feel worthy of the evening.
- Itemized quotes available
- Bilingual English and Spanish coordinators
Plan your event
Our Non-Profit Event Catering
We cater the full calendar of a non-profit: fundraising galas, donor receptions, board meetings, volunteer days, community lunches, workshops and anniversaries. Events range from 20 board members at a breakfast to 600 people at a neighborhood celebration.
Every proposal starts with your guests, your program and your grant terms rather than our menu list. We then show two or three options in different service styles, so the organization chooses what fits, instead of trimming a menu that was never designed for the event.
Our team brings the same standards to a community hall as to a hotel terrace: cooks and servers with current food-handler certificates, hot trays held at 60 °C or more and salads chilled to 5 °C or less. For organizations with business-style events such as conferences or partner launches, our corporate event catering service follows the same planning.
Galas and Fundraisers
A fundraising gala needs food that supports the program instead of competing with it. We choose between a plated dinner and a cocktail reception with the organizers, based on the run of show, the room and how donors should move during the evening.
Plated dinners suit galas with an auction or a program of speeches, because guests stay seated and servers work around the stage. Cocktail receptions with 8 to 12 canapés per guest allow more guests in the same room and keep donors moving between tables, which suits silent auctions.
We time the courses around the program: the starter while the host welcomes guests, the main between the video and the appeal, and dessert during the auction. When sponsors donate wine or spirits, our bartenders serve them, and every bottle of spirits must carry the Antioquia tax stamp.
Volunteer and Community Lunches
Volunteer days and community lunches need hearty food for large groups, served quickly. We serve them as a simple buffet, a big-pot meal or individual boxed lunches, depending on whether people eat together or in the field.
A community lunch in a salón comunal or a school yard often centers on one Colombian dish cooked in quantity: sancocho with chicken, arroz con pollo, or a bandeja with fríjoles, rice and ground beef. For outdoor volunteer days, such as tree planting on the hillsides or neighborhood clean-ups, boxed lunches with a protein, rice or potato, fruit and water travel well. For catering in Laureles and central Medellín, boxed lunches usually reach the site 15 to 30 minutes after leaving our kitchen.
Large groups move faster with two serving points and 1 server for every 20 to 25 guests, as on any buffet catering line. For gatherings above 150 people, our large event catering team plans the extra cooks, equipment and timing.
Invoicing for Grant Reporting
Every event is invoiced electronically through DIAN, with the details your donor's financial report will ask for. We itemize food, staff, rentals, delivery and tax as separate lines, and we can add the project name, grant code and internal reference to the invoice.
For international donors, quotes come in English or Spanish, and payment can be made by bank transfer or a card payment link. Foundations registered under Colombia's special tax regime (régimen tributario especial) receive invoices that reflect any withholding they are required to apply.
On request, our coordinator signs a delivery record with the date, the number of meals delivered and the venue, which program teams can attach to attendance lists. Supplier registration documents, including our RUT and food-handler certificates, are sent within 24 hours of a request.
Questions and answers
Non-Profit FAQs
Can you donate leftover food?
Sealed, untouched food can be packed for your organization to share or distribute when food safety allows, but food that has been on an open buffet cannot be safely passed on. We pack those sealed trays and boxes with date and allergen labels and hand them to your team at the end of the event, in the spirit of Colombia's food waste law, Ley 1990 of 2019. If you have a food bank or shelter partner, we can deliver the packed food to them on our way back to the kitchen within the city.
Reserve your date
Plan Your Next Fundraiser or Community Event
Tell us the kind of event, the date and the expected attendance, and we will build a menu around it within 24 hours. Grant officers and finance teams can write to info@medellincatering.com with invoicing questions.
- Itemized quotes available
- Menus, staff, tableware, setup and cleanup in one quote
- Food-handler certified team and labeled allergens on every tray
- Monday to Saturday
- 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
- Sunday
- Closed (events still run)