Hiring guideRead at source, 30 September 2026
How to Hire Catering Staff for Events and Busy Seasons
Caterers find servers, cooks and delivery drivers among restaurant workers who want extra shifts, students, hotel banquet staff and local drivers, most of whom are not searching job boards for event work. What works is a Facebook or Instagram job ad per role that states the pay, the shifts and whether the job is on-call, a one-minute mobile application, and a text reply the same day. Boostpoint's 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark has no catering or food service family, so the figure to use is the overall median: $13.88 per applicant.
The catering roles and why they're hard to fill
BLS does not publish a catering occupation, but O*NET's job titles place the roles. “Banquet server” is a reported title for waiters and waitresses, “banquet cook” for restaurant cooks, and “restaurant take-out items” appear in the description of driver/sales workers. The figures below are national and cover every employer in each occupation, not caterers alone. The hiring difficulty column is our qualitative reading of what BLS publishes about openings, training and experience; BLS does not rate hiring difficulty.
| Catering role | BLS occupation | Openings per year | Median annual wage | Hiring difficulty (our qualitative reading of the BLS figures, not a BLS measure) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Event and banquet server | Waiters and waitresses | 423,100 | $35,230 | Very high volume and short-term training, so the pool is large, but every restaurant in town hires from it. |
| Event bartender | Bartenders | 121,200 | $34,340 | High volume, short-term training; state alcohol rules can narrow who qualifies. |
| Catering cook, banquet cook | Cooks, restaurant | 218,600 | $37,390 | Moderate-term on-the-job training and some prior experience expected, so trained cooks are harder to find than servers. |
| Prep cook, kitchen helper | Food preparation workers | 135,700 | $35,320 | High volume, short-term training. |
| Catering chef, kitchen lead | Chefs and head cooks | 25,200 | $62,470 | The smallest pool in this table, and BLS lists five years or more of work experience for entry. |
| Event captain | First-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers (closest match) | 171,500 | $44,080 | Usually promoted from your own best servers; BLS lists less than five years of experience. |
| Delivery driver (van or car) | Driver/sales workers (closest match) | 45,500 | $38,770 | Short-term training, but you need a clean driving record and someone who can also set up a buffet. |
| Delivery driver (box truck) | Light truck drivers | 107,200 | $44,860 | Short-term training; you compete with parcel and route delivery. |
The hard part of catering is not the skill. It is the schedule. Events cluster on Friday nights, Saturdays and the weeks around holidays and graduations, and most catering staff are part-time or on call. You need a large bench of people who each want a few shifts a month, and you are hiring that bench from the same pool as restaurants that can offer steady weekly hours. The kitchen side has the extra problem of trained cooks, covered in depth in line cook and kitchen staff recruiting.
Where to find catering staff, channel by channel
- Last season's bench. Your returning servers and cooks are the fastest hires you have. Message the whole list before the busy season with the dates you need covered, and ask each of them to bring a friend.
- Restaurant servers and cooks who want extra shifts. Weekend events fit around a weekday restaurant job. Say in the ad that the shifts can work alongside another job. How to hire servers covers the front-of-house pool.
- Students. College students want flexible evening and weekend work that pays on the night. Check your state's alcohol service rules before you put younger staff on the bar.
- Hotel and banquet staff. People who have worked banquets already know plated service, room flips and long events.
- Delivery and route drivers. For delivery, look for drivers who have handled food or equipment and can help with setup. Our delivery driver job description is a starting point for the posting.
- Facebook and Instagram. Most of the people you want are not searching job boards for a banquet shift. A job ad or a hiring-event ad in their feed reaches restaurant workers, students and drivers near your kitchen.
The catering job ad that works
Catering candidates want to know four things in the first two lines: the role, the pay, how many shifts and when. Say plainly whether the job is on-call, part-time or full-time. State how gratuities work. Under federal rules, a compulsory service charge added to a customer's bill is not a tip, and 29 CFR 531.55 gives amounts built into a hotel's banquet contract for distribution to staff as an example, so do not advertise a service charge as tips.
Sample Facebook ad copy (swap in your own details): “Event servers: pick the Saturdays you want, weddings and corporate events, paid every week.” “Catering cook, weekday production kitchen, 6 a.m. start, done by 2:30 p.m. Most weekends off.” “Catering delivery driver: van provided, deliver and set up lunches for offices, weekdays only.”
Write one ad per role. A server who wants Saturdays and a production cook who wants a weekday morning shift are not the same person, and each stops reading at the first line that isn't about them. Employment ads on Meta run in the Employment special ad category: no targeting by age, gender or ZIP code, and a minimum 15-mile radius. Put the kitchen's town and the event area in the ad so candidates can judge the drive.
Screening and a one-minute apply
Keep the application to a few taps on a phone, and ask only what decides whether someone can work your events:
- Which days can you work, including Friday nights and Saturdays?
- How many shifts a month do you want?
- Have you served banquets, weddings or plated dinners? (servers)
- Which kitchen stations have you worked? (cooks)
- Do you hold a valid driver's license, and do you meet our insurer's driving record requirement? (drivers, only if your insurer sets one)
- Do you hold a food handler card or alcohol server certificate? (only where your state requires one; see food handler card requirements by state and alcohol server certification by state)
Then reply by text the same day. Catering candidates are usually applying to several restaurants and event companies at once, and the first to offer a trial event often gets them. A short working interview on a real event, paid, tells you more than any question.
Seasonality and timing for catering hiring
Catering demand follows the event calendar, and in many markets it peaks in the same weeks every year: late spring and early summer for graduations and weddings, early fall for weddings again, and November and December for holiday parties. Plan hiring backwards from those peaks:
- Start before the calendar fills. Recruit and train new servers before the first busy weekend, so they work a few smaller events before a 300-guest wedding.
- Rebuild the bench, don't just top it up. On-call staff drift away when there are no shifts. Contact everyone on the list before each busy season and remove those who don't reply.
- Use a hiring event. When you need a dozen servers for one season, a dated open house brings them in at once. See how to promote a hiring event.
For wider planning, including when to use overtime, seasonal hires or agency cover, see peak season staffing.
What catering recruiting costs
Boostpoint's 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark reports cost per applicant for 15 role families and 5 sectors. None of the role families is defined around servers, cooks or non-CDL delivery drivers (the CDL truck driver family covers CDL drivers only), and none of the five sectors is food service, so we do not quote a family or sector for catering roles. The figure to use is the overall benchmark across all 891 campaigns.
| Measure | Cost per applicant |
|---|---|
| Median campaign | $13.88 |
| Middle 50% of campaigns | $6.48 – $29.74 |
| Campaigns with an apply rate over 35% | $1.61 |
| Campaigns with an apply rate under 5% | $53.77 |
In Boostpoint's 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, the apply experience explained 70% of the variation in cost between campaigns, against 18% for what the ad auction charges, so a short mobile application matters a great deal. Catering is not reported separately. These are advertising costs per applicant, not cost per hire; how many applicants become event staff depends on how fast you reply. The full tables are on the benchmark page.
Frequently asked questions
How do I hire catering staff?
Hire by role, not as one “event staff” posting. Run a separate job ad for servers, cooks and drivers that states the pay, the shifts and whether the job is on-call, use a one-minute mobile application, reply by text the same day, and make a paid trial event the interview.
Where do caterers find servers and cooks?
Among restaurant servers and cooks who want extra weekend shifts, college students, hotel banquet staff and last season's returning staff and their referrals. Most are not searching job boards for event work, so a job ad in their Facebook or Instagram feed near your kitchen reaches them.
How do catering companies staff busy seasons?
They rebuild an on-call bench before each peak: contact returning staff first, recruit new servers early enough to work a few small events before the big ones, and use a dated hiring event when they need many people at once. Hiring starts well before the first busy weekend, not during it.
Should catering staff be part-time or on-call?
Most caterers use both: a small part-time or full-time core for the kitchen and deliveries, and an on-call bench of servers for events. Be clear in the ad about which one the job is. Under 29 CFR 785.17, on-call time can count as hours worked when staff must stay on or near your premises; see on-call pay laws.
What does it cost to recruit catering staff?
Boostpoint's 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark has no catering or food service family, so use the overall figure: a median of $13.88 per applicant, with the middle half of campaigns between $6.48 and $29.74. That is advertising cost per applicant, not cost per hire. See the benchmark.
Have the bench ready before the busy season
Boostpoint Attract turns your server, cook and driver openings into Facebook and Instagram job ads and hiring-event ads, builds and optimizes the campaigns, and collects applicants through a one-minute mobile application. Add Connect to text every applicant the moment they apply.
Book a DemoSources: BLS Employment Projections 2025-35 and BLS, May 2025 median annual wage (waiters and waitresses; bartenders; cooks, restaurant; food preparation workers; chefs and head cooks; first-line supervisors of food preparation and serving workers; driver/sales workers; light truck drivers); O*NET OnLine job titles for 35-3031, 35-2014 and 53-3031; 29 CFR 531.55 and 785.17 (eCFR); Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark. Read at source 30 September 2026.