Meal for fifty people at $5 a plate

Soul Food! Meat & 3 (or meat & 2). Pick two proteins that will work for your crowd. It usually ends up being chicken & pork in your price range. You may be able to pull off beef if you know how to deal with lesser cuts. Then pick 2 or 3 good sides. Traditionally, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, black beans & rice, turnip (mustard,collard) greens, do the trick. Slow cook and/or bbq. It's a winner. Get Jiffy corn bread mix and bake it in a pie plate. You can get 6 or 8 slices per. Now you've got a 2 proteins, select sides, and decent corn bread. Check the prices in your area to make the necessary adjustments for your budget. It's fun. Best of all it's designed to be cost effective. I pulled something similar off for a church a couple of years ago. I fed 50-60 people for well under $250. I used pork butt & whole chicken that I cut down myself. I cooked fresh greens, black beans & rice, and mac & cheese. Hope this helped. Let me know what you end up doing.

All I can think of (other than those that you mentioned) is turkey, brisket and fish and a lot of vegetables. Sorry, when we cook for a lot of people we make German-style dishes, but my mom has the recipes that we use. (I need to get copies of these...)

I like the first responders idea of the Meat and 2 or 3. That is the best way I would think to give people a variety, and so that people who do not like certain items can choose not to take that part. Another idea would be to do more of a BBQ type meal since it is getting warmer out. You could do simple things like hamburgers and hot dogs or even some pork steaks or chicken. You could do sides like baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, corn on the cob, and maybe some chips. Add some unsweetened tea, sweet tea, and lemonade as the beverages.