A birthday party in early March resulted in one hundred illness. An unlicensed caterer provided dinner for the 120 guests of chicken, gravy, rice, macaroni and cheese, green beans, cake, tea, and lemonade. Poison control was phoned when guests reported gastrointestinal distress. Poison control contacted the local health department who opened an investigation. Epidemiologists gathered information from the responding thirty guests. Three of these respondents provided stool samples, and two tested positive for Clostridium perfringens. C. perfringens was also isolated in gravy used on the chicken. Different gravy was used on the rice dish. The environmental study found the caterer cooked the food thirty minutes away from the event site, and did not transport the food in temperature controlled units. In addition, the event site did not have a kitchen sink so water was drawn from a janitorial sink for the Sterno food warmers.