6 Fun Facts about the Annual DigiKey Employee Holiday Dinner

The DigiKey annual employee holiday meal tradition goes back many years. Over the course of those years, as the company has grown, the dinner has transitioned from a one-day event to three. However, the menu has remained largely unchanged since the beginning and consists of chicken breasts in gravy, wild rice, cheesy hash browns, vegetables, salad, buns, and the best cake ever for dessert.

As you can imagine, a lot goes into cooking a dinner for more than 3,000 people! Jeff Liden, the man behind the magic, gave us 6 fun facts about what it took to cater the 2017 annual DigiKey holiday dinner:

1. 208 roasters full of cooked chicken, rice, potatoes, and veggies were brought in to DigiKey. Each roaster was doubled for added strength, so that’s 416 roasters carrying the holiday meal!
2. Speaking of chicken, can you guess how much was cooked for the event? 800 pounds!
3. 40 full-sized sheet cakes (80 pieces per sheet) were baked, totaling 3,200 pieces.
4. Approximately 160 8-ounce containers of Cool Whip were used on the cake.
5. 576 pounds of potatoes were used to make the cheesy hash browns.
6. 16 gallons of sweet poppy seed dressing were made just for the DigiKey holiday party.

Along with the wonderful food from Jeff Liden and his team, local school choirs come by the bus-load to sing a variety of holiday carols while the employees enjoy their dinner. This holiday meal tradition is one that employees look forward to all year long.