← Food truck event margin calculator
Roaming Hunger is a food truck catering marketplace: an event planner submits a request, Roaming Hunger sends it to trucks in the area, and available trucks submit a catering package with their own pricing. Most of that bidding is free and a truck keeps its full bid, but for a guaranteed, contracted booking Roaming Hunger facilitates directly, it charges a vendor fee and holds the funds until after the event.
That makes Roaming Hunger the right choice for finding a booking you don't already have. This page answers a narrower, faster question: for a booking you already have — a lead you found yourself, a planner who called you directly, a returning client — what should you actually charge, free, with no listing and nothing taken out of the price you set.
| Question | Where to answer it |
|---|---|
| I don't have a booking yet — where do I find one? | Roaming Hunger's marketplace, or another lead source. |
| I already have a booking (or a lead) — what should I quote them? | This calculator — enter your numbers, get a price immediately, nothing listed. |
| Does my quote actually cover prep, travel, and breakdown time, not just the food? | This calculator — see how much to charge for a catering event. |
| How much room does this quote have before a bigger-than-expected turnout erases the margin? | This calculator's turnout-risk warning — flags when food cost share gets tight. |
| Can I get an answer without listing my truck or paying a vendor fee? | This calculator — a static page, no sign-up, no fee. |
This tool needs no account and lists nothing: it is a static page, the arithmetic runs in your browser, and your guest count, costs, and every other figure stay on this device — nothing is uploaded anywhere, there is no marketplace listing, and no fee on whatever you and your client agree to.
They solve different problems. Roaming Hunger is a marketplace: an event planner submits a request, Roaming Hunger sends it to food trucks in the area, and trucks that want the job submit a catering package with their own pricing — for a guaranteed, contracted booking, Roaming Hunger can facilitate the deal directly for a vendor fee, and it holds the funds until after the event. This page is a free calculator: no listing, no lead generation, no vendor fee. You already have the booking, or a lead you found yourself, and you type your guest count, food cost, prep and travel time, staff labor, and other costs, and it prices what that specific job needs to charge to hit your target margin.
Not really comparable — they solve different problems. Roaming Hunger's own guidance says most catering leads are free to bid on and a truck keeps its full bid with no deduction, but some events run on a revenue-share or vendor-fee model, particularly a guaranteed, contracted booking it facilitates directly, and it does not publish one fixed commission rate. This calculator doesn't take a cut of anything; it prices a booking from your own prep hours, travel, staff labor, propane, permit fee, and target margin, independent of whatever price Roaming Hunger's marketplace happened to yield for someone else's truck.
Getting listed and receiving leads is free, and most catering work carries no commission — you bid what you want and keep it. But for a guaranteed, contracted booking Roaming Hunger facilitates directly, it charges a vendor fee, and it holds the funds until after the event rather than paying you up front. This calculator has no listing, no lead flow, and nothing that bills — it is a free static page with no server behind the numbers you type.
No. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Roaming Hunger. Roaming Hunger is a trademark of its owner, named here only to describe what this calculator is for.
Also: How much to charge for a food truck catering or event booking.