We have encountered a number of campgrounds that have a restaurant onsite. Three that come to mind immediately are in Hanksville, UT, Santa Rosa, NM and Cape Charles, VA. There are campgrounds located at casinos which almost always have one or more food service venues. Several of the dreaded KOAs have restaurants or a limited offering like pizza and wings.

  On 4/15/2018 at 4:58 AM, Matt J said:

,,,My plan on the punches would be to discount them to the point that you're getting your meals for at least a few bucks an item cheaper than ordering off the menu, so there would be a financial incentive to buy the punches...

Many campgrounds give out discount coupons to local restaurants. Sometimes it is a percentage off, sometimes a free appetizer, two for one special, or buy one get one half off. All kinds of possibilities. The Big Texan Restaurant in Amarillo offers free limo service from/to the nearby campgrounds.

So i was just thinking how popular food trucks are right now, you could be mobile.

if one area is not working you could move, if your food is good they will come to you.

  On 8/18/2018 at 8:38 PM, mickeyblueyes said:

So i was just thinking how popular food trucks are right now, you could be mobile.

if one area is not working you could move, if your food is good they will come to you.

Welcome to the Escapee forums!

If you are thinking to make income from your RV as you travel about by becoming a food vendor, you need to keep in mind that most states and many cities require that food vendors be licensed and inspected by the health department. In addition, many RV parks would not allow you to operate inside of their parks.

Matt hasn't logged in since April, so he may not see this discussion. Others may, though, and it may provoke a few thoughts.

Years ago schools used to use a punch card system (that was before computers). In those days, you could buy either the full lunch or just a carton of milk. The cards were different colors to prevent cheating. There was only one offering for lunch each day.I suspect that the actual cost of each meal varied from day to day, but the overall average had to be less than what was charged. The same would have to be true for what Matt was considering.

Last year we happened to be at an Escapees park over Thanksgiving. There weren't a lot of us in the park, but the park managers provided the turkey and everyone else pitched in with the rest of the food. Like most pot luck dinners, everyone brought enough food to feed everyone else, so everyone in the park ate off of that stuff for three days! Maybe that's the way to go.

Matt's park is also occupied by people who are there for a month or so at a time, so a scheduled meal would be something that would be relatively easy to organize. Most government-run campgrounds (State or Federal parks) generally don't have people staying for more than a week or maybe two, as two weeks seems to be a common limit. People in those parks either are already with their own group or else don't get to know their neighbors very well.

One exception to that is that one time we were hosting at a State park when a large number of sites were reserved for a group of smokers. No, not cigarettes. Meats, cheese, etc. On Saturday they fed the entire park. Not a pot luck. They provided ALL of the food to anyone who wanted to eat any of it.

Not to be too negative about this but I think you might be facing a losing battle.  If you were going to attract a sizable crowd at all you might have to offer something at a loss.  We don't travel in our RV to eat at restaurants. We eat outside our RV by grilling.  At a minimum 6% of Americans have Diabetes, 25% have Hypertension and over 40,000,000 people have Kidney Disease and half of them don't even know it yet.  Restaurant chains provide some of this information on their websites but the information is something that usually deters folks with CKD from stopping by.  Also, with your competition already established in any given area, the odds of being successful are already against you.  

  On 4/16/2018 at 1:48 AM, folivier said:

A few years ago we stayed at a campground in Arco, ID that had a small onsite restaurant.  They had free pancake breakfasts with bacon, eggs, etc. at additional cost.  Also were open for dinner with a limited menu.  We were there 2 weeks and enjoyed breakfast most mornings and dinner a few times.  Unfortunately they don't seem to have the free breakfasts anymore.

It was nice to walk a short distance to get a good meal but really was more of an added feature, IOW wouldn't plan a stay there just for the  food.

I just stayed in a campground outside Richmond, VA that had free waffles every morning.  They cooked them to order and brought them to you.

Now that is a meal service that I could like!

The KOA in Alamosa has a Hunt's pizza franchise in the office so you order pizza and they deliver to your site.  Nice on a long travel day.

The Jacksonville North KOA in Kingsland, GA has a free waffle and pancake breakfast daily. They also have a modest dinner menu in their snack bar or delivered to your site. We prefer Crooked River State Park when we're in that area, but we have stayed at the KOA a few times and found the food was pretty good at reasonable prices.

Emerald Cove Resort, across the river from Parker, AZ, has breakfast in the club house plus a lunch and happy hour menu in the bar. The foods are simple but tasty and affordable. All of these are pay as you go using either cash or credit card.  I often picked up lunch to bring back to my van.

Linda Sand