P.S. 222 parents say Roll-N-Roaster shortchanged children after a fundraider
(Photo courtesy of irockiroll via Flickr)
Iconic Sheepshead Bay restaurant Roll-N-Roaster is playing Scrooge this holiday season and barking a mighty “Ba humbug” to needy children, according to parents at a local elementary school.
Parents Association leaders at P.S. 222 in Marine Park say Roll-N-Roaster failed to deliver promised donations after a December 1 fundraiser, going as far as accusing the restaurant of “pocketing” money.
“I think we were set up. They were never planning to give us as much as they promised, but we didnt know that,” PA Co-president Mardie Sheiken said.
But while Sheiken and P.S. 222 officials say Roll-N-Roaster shortchanged the school children of hundreds of dollars, the restaurant’s general manager, Ayet Karce, says event organizers violated the agreement and their contribution was “generous.”
Ultimately, Roll-N-Roaster outraged organizers with a paltry $471.00, about half the amount it receives from similar fundraisers at McDonalds. Sheiken said the event was “standing room only” for all three hours, making it impossible that $471.00 was the full 10 percent promised from the agreement.
Sheiken said that there were about 150 families at the event (a number Roll-N-Roaster agrees with), and that each spent about $50. She said people came with up to eight children, and estimated they should have raised closer to $1000.
The event was to pay for an accessible bus for disabled 5th graders to join the senior trip to Medieval Times in New Jersey, and to help at least seven needy families pay to have their kids join their classmates. Several students came from special needs classes, and two are in wheelchairs.
They hammered out a deal to have a three hour event where 10 percent of all proceeds brought in by the organizers would be donated back to the PA.
The deal was modeled on other fundraisers the school does at McDonalds. Twice a year, the PA works with management at the Marine Park McDonalds (Flatbush Avenue and Filmore Avenue), in which the school gets 10 percent of all sales in the three hour window.
According to Sheiken, the McDonalds fundraisers bring around $800 to the group. At Roll-N-Roaster they expected to fare better, since prices are higher and the reputation better.
On top of it, Sheiken said Karce told her that the owner, Nick “Buddy” Lamonica, would kick in a little extra, saying he was a generous man who donates to the community and his employees. Sheiken said Karce told her Lamonica once gave Rolex watches to the employees as a gift.
Karce later called Sheiken to tell her that she could prepare flyers that included a 10 percent coupon for the school’s families and friends. The coupons would also help Roll-N-Roaster keep track of the number of clients the fundraiser drew.
“That was generous on our part. They never had that with other restaurants,” Karce said. “We were generous enough to do that and what they did was take advantage.”
The flyers eventually became the source of controversy.
Sheiken said she expressed worries about the coupon, since busy parents would likely forget to bring them, leaving it on refrigerators and dining room tables. She said Karce said the PA could hand them out to people associated with the school during the event.
“He said it was no problem as long as we werent soliciting his regular customers,” she said. “Nobody solicited his regular customers.”
Karce, though, said “bullshit.” He claims he never gave permission to hand out flyers at the establishment, and he spotted PA president Maryann Locicero handing out flyers to customers.
“A lot of those flyers were flyers given to our customers,” said Karce. “I was told they were people who forgot about them. They thought we were idiots and would believe that.”
Karce said the amount given was 10 percent of what came in from the flyers. Because of what he saw as “dishonesty,” the business did not donate more.
Karce said Roll-N-Roaster was reluctant to do this kind of event and won’t be doing it again in the future.
“This is a classic case of why we shouldn’t have done it, because it did interfere with customers who were complaining,” he said. “It was an inconvenience for our customers that came, which [the PA] solicited outside, stalking them as they came out of cars.”
Meanwhile, the PA is looking for ways to get the restaurant to “make good” on the deal.
“We just cant believe they did this to us this time of year,” said Sheiken. “People want to boycott, people want to protest in front of the restaurant.”
“I think they’re totally screwing us.”
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This turned out to be a lot more complicated than it looked at the outset. Without the coupons and receipts, it’s hard to gauge the profits.
I did not eat at the restaurant I called my order in and I coulnd’t even get a spot to park that night to pick it up. The place was packed beyond belief. I spent $50.00 for my family of 5 and can’t imagine that with those prices they only made $4700.00. This was supposed to help the school children. Shame on you Roll n Roaster. We used to visit the establishment every couple of months and more often when family visits. I will not plan on visiting this establishment any more.
their food isn’t that great anyway.
i only go there once in a while b/c there is not much selections around here.
Before I start, let me just say that I am not affliated with Roll and Roaster in any way. As a matter of fact, they’ve turned me down when I’ve asked for funds for various causes, saying that all their charity work goes to Save The Children. And I have no connection to P.S. 222.
Something sounds fishy here.
I find it hard to believe that “the McDonald’s fundraisers bring around $800 to the group.” You’re telling me that on average, that the school ups Mickie D’s sales by $8K in one night? That’s an amazing figure. And frankly, I don’t believe it.
I do find it more realistic that R&R sold $5K during a 3 hour stint. Even with those numbers, it means R&R brought in $27.78 a MINUTE! Damn – I gotta open up a place like that.
I’ve run a couple of these type of fundraisers in the past and it’s always been standard procedure that the restaurant tells you that the coupons need to be distributed before the event, not at the restaurant or on their property and you are not to solicit their customers.
But also, we’ve had volunteers keeping count on the amount of customers who come in, and ask for receipts so that we can run our own tally.
According to truila, the school has 862 students. To get an $8K night, that would mean that 93% of the students would have to spend $10 at the R&R. And no fundraiser I know has a 93% participation rate.
(http://www.trulia.com/schools/NY-Brooklyn/Ps_222_Katherine_R_Snyder/)
So in conclusion, I think the Mickie D numbers are bogus and that the PTA is unfairly attacking Roll and Roaster.
I call shenanigans!
BrooklynQ: You may be right, you may not. I don’t know enough about it, but that’s the story I was told. I’ve contacted McDonalds to see if I could confirm the numbers. They will get back to me about it, but said that they never had a problem with PS 222. I’ll post relevant info as it becomes available.
Wait a minute – I want to open a McDonalds – they brought in $44.44 a minute!
Every time I’ve seen one of these types of fundraisers (I’ve seen them at the Knapp St Burger King and at Fridays and Applebees over the last decade) there was usually a box, either at the end of the line or by the exit that clearly said “If you want 10% of the cost of your meal donated to (Insert Group Here) please place your receipt in the box.”
Furthermore I think the whole deal with coupons and receipts needlessly complicates the matter. Just give them 10% raised between the hours in question regardless of why the customer was there.
Lets think about this a minute folks. All these people went and paid for food, food that’s not cheap. If only 10% of the money earned from the people they brought in would go to the school wouldn’t it have simply made more sense to collect that money directly? Wouldn’t they make more money if all the students and parents chipped their money in without any food?
It just makes no logical sense to me to limit the 10% to a specific group during a time period. The only benefactor there is Roll n Roaster. However if Roll n Roaster gave them 10% of every customer between the 3 hour time frame then IMO that makes a lot more sense for everyone.
Whatever the numbers actually are I challenge the owner of Roll n Roaster to tally up all the receipts from the time period in question, without any regard for coupon or who was at the eatery for what reason, and simply give the school a flat 10% cut of that amount.
Was there a misunderstanding? That’s possible. Was anyone intentionally misleading? That’s possible too. Who gives a shit. These are innocent kids we’re talking about.
Live and Learn. Give them the full 10% and don’t do any more charity events.
I’m with Arthur. Lets stop the gimmicks. Businesses should should make straight donations so that there’s no question as to how much money is involved. Then they have get a sticker for their door saying that they contributed to a worthy cause.
862 kids in the school well just get each kid to get a dollar from the parents and thats nearly double what that event brought them. either way a business like RNR could of easily given a donation of $500 without blinking they do well over a million a year in sales. im not spending other peoples money but if you are already doing something like this do it right and not mess around its not a fundraiser for politicians its for local kids.
Roll-N-Roaster serves cock meat sandwiches!
Really? I thought all the chickens we eat were hens….
NPR has an interesting article related to this very thing. I’m only guessing they may have put it up because of the time of year.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121718372
The McDonalds numbers are not bogus McDonalds is generous they give 20 percent of the profit to the school much more generous then Roll N Roaster. They also allow the profit from all costumers drive thru and dine in towards the total customer profit for the evening.
That information was not disclosed to me. I was told the McDonalds gives the same 10 percent deal. This certainly makes the situation very different if McDonalds was being used as the bar to which Roll-N-Roaster is measured.
[...] only giving out 100,000 sandwiches for free. The language on the offer begs the question: to avoid suspicions about the propriety of this giveaway — how will RnR be keeping track of the the number of free sandwiches given [...]
I dont know whats going on with this place but i was there recently and the Managers have to be the rudest people i have ever meet. to the point where i will never return to this establishment because of the managment.
I dont know whats going on with this place but i was there recently and the Managers have to be the rudest people i have ever meet. to the point where i will never return to this establishment because of the managment.