Columbus, OH (population: 768,662) has two catering schools within a 100-mile radius of its city center. Lorain County Joint Vocational School District, the highest ranked school in this group with a catering program, has a total student population of 128. It is the 1530th highest ranked school in the USA and the 86th highest in the state of Ohio (#1 is Ohio State University-Main Campus).
Catering students from Columbus schools who go on to become caterers, professional caterers, food service managers, food service directors, etc. have a good chance at finding employment. For example, there are 11,218,260 people working as food preparation and serving related employees alone in the US, and their average annual salary is $20,880. Also, Meeting and convention planners make on average $48,060 per year and there are about 51,530 of them employed in the US today. In fact, in the Columbus area alone, there are 310 employed meeting and convention planners earning an average salary of $42,260. Food preparation and serving related employees in this area earn $20,180/yr and there are 79,520 employed.
Columbus lies in Delaware county, which is one of the 36 counties in Ohio. Overall, the Columbus area has 908,190 total employed workers according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, with a 0.9% unemployment rate, $20.70/hr average worker wage, and a $43,070 average annual salary. Thus, about 87.561 out of every 1000 jobs in Columbus are held by food preparation and serving related employees, and 0.343/1000 are held by meeting and convention planners.
Of the 2 catering schools with a 100-mile radius of Columbus, none have a student population over 10k. After taking into account tuition, living expenses, and financial aid, The Art Institute of Ohio-Cincinnati comes out as the most expensive ($27,113/yr) for catering students, with Lorain County Joint Vocational School District as the lowest, reported at only $5,005/yr.
| Name | State | Population | # of Schools | Avg School Rank | Total Programs | Distance from Columbus |
| Hilliard | OH | - | 1 | 21.2344 | 13 | 9.4 miles |
| Canal Winchester | OH | - | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 13.7 miles |
| Concord Twp | OH | - | 1 | 37.8234 | 22 | 46.5 miles |
| Yellow Springs | OH | - | 2 | 0.482738 | 0 | 49.3 miles |
| Zanesville | OH | - | 4 | 22.0879 | 68 | 51.9 miles |
| Kettering | OH | 52,835 | 4 | 32.9219 | 30 | 64.8 miles |
| Dayton | OH | 151,594 | 15 | 24.3199 | 569 | 65.8 miles |
| Piqua | OH | - | 2 | 25.7036 | 76 | 67.2 miles |
| Saint Martin | OH | - | 1 | 11.3716 | 2 | 72.1 miles |
| Tiffin | OH | - | 3 | 36.5272 | 159 | 78.4 miles |
| Lima | OH | - | 5 | 21.8501 | 114 | 78.5 miles |
| Middletown | OH | 51,674 | 7 | 25.6111 | 228 | 80.5 miles |
| Findlay | OH | - | 4 | 17.9539 | 100 | 80.8 miles |
| Rio Grande | OH | - | 3 | 18.3873 | 146 | 83.4 miles |
| New Boston | OH | - | 1 | 21.3268 | 7 | 85.7 miles |
| New Philadelphia | OH | - | 2 | 20.6614 | 41 | 88.6 miles |
| Vienna | WV | - | 2 | 36.4588 | 41 | 89.4 miles |
| Milan | OH | - | 1 | 27.8478 | 15 | 92.7 miles |
| Medina | OH | - | 2 | 28.5662 | 14 | 99.1 miles |
| Oxford | OH | - | 1 | 41.8383 | 150 | 99.1 miles |