GWAPA Food Committee - Volunteers Please!

[chris_todd]

Yeah, buying prepared foods or getting takeout is pretty much out without additional funds. Shopping frugally can help (Costco, Sam's, etc.), but won't get us all the way there. Bringing cooked food combined with shopping frugally should do it, but as you say, would be challenging.

However, it's not hard to make enough vegetarian chili to feed 30 people for less than twenty bucks, for example, and that would be tasty, filling, and widely acceptable. And easy to cook in a crockpot the night before, which also makes it fairly easy to transport. These are the kinds of creative solutions we're looking at.

Pasta (both salad and cooked), wings, spaghetti, hot dogs, chili, veggie plates with dip or hummus are all ideas we've had for food that's cheap, easy to make and transport, and tasty, but we're looking for more.

Another idea that has been tossed out there is to ask meeting attendees to pitch in $1 or $2 for food. If you have 25 attendees, that changes our budget to $65-90, giving us many more options, including the option to get prepared food for some meetings (though probably not all).

Keep the ideas coming, folks!

[ingg]

Fwiw, I do not think it is broken.

I feel snacks\appetizers are fine with the budget presented. Maybe we can sometimes do a treat of a meal, but I do not think it is reasonable to do on current budget.

Should revenue from raffles\"the box" get us to the point of being able to do meals, great, but this was never and should not be expected in my view, and is not done by anyone else that I am aware of (CCA is finger foods/snacks, PVAS was last I knew as well, though that is over a year since attending PVAS meetings.)

Meetings did not used to have a meal BTW, only snacks as they are now again. We spent money from some huge auctions, and instead of giving a treat, created an expectation. Now the auction revenues are smaller, and instead of simply going back to what was status quo have created a bit of a monster.

I am absolutely guilty of helping to create that monster, as every time I hosted my wife and I cooked and baked, and ordered stuff, getting back (and only asking for) a portion of what we spent. It is just our way, but again, the treat that was intended has somehow turned into an obligation.


Back to the present....

I rather like the idea of better finger foods than chips, but would much prefer finger food/snacks to a pot of chili (wouldn't eat it, and am surely not alone) or hot dogs. Messy for the homeowner, utensil intensive, and just overall hassle - finger foods are simple, easy in comparison.

I would rather have a soft drink (and really dislike tea) but can get my own on the way to a meeting.

Which brings up a rather fundamental point - if you need a meal because of lengthly travel times or whatever other reason, odds are you left a home with a kitchen, and passed dozens of drive throughs on the way to the meeting...make use of one, the other, or both. I do.

[Bgssamson]

Donation's maybe? so that we have more flexibility as far as options. I really think we can just designate water as the OFFICIAL DRINK of GWAPA (IMHO) so that we have more money set aside for food.

I am donating $10 a month for this year regardless of my attendance!


-Brian

[ddavila06]

donations sound good to me too, so that GWAPA can try and come back to how it was last year...noone seemed to complain about pizza and occational hot dogs/sandwiches, etc...not necessarily $10 each time, but we all know how much a snack can be, so it should be up to the member. i am so glad this topic came back up i can't wait to get back in track with the meetings this year

[Ghazanfar Ghori]

I'd say $40 would be a stretch. But $40 plus a few bucks in donations should be sufficient to get things moving

[chris_todd]

I am donating $10 a month for this year regardless of my attendance!

-Brian

That's very generous, Brian, but I think more generous than necessary.

Donations are essentially how CCA handles it (or has since this summer, when Pat finally learned how to delegate, LOL, and Rachel took over the "food committee"). Basically, different people volunteer to bring something, and through cooperation and coordination, they manage to feed 50-75 people on a budget of $80 or so. October had meatballs and hot dogs, November was 6' subs from subway, and January was sloppy joes (December was their potluck holiday party). Along with chips, sodas, and a veggie and/or fruit tray at every meeting. With the occasional exception of the person bringing the main entree, people don't ask for reimbursement - it's just a donation to the club.

It should be possible to do something similar, where if you attend the meeting and eat food, throw in a couple of bucks. Or agree to bring a bag of chips or two, or a veggie tray, or a few bottles of soda. We have 10 meetings a year (not counting the potluck), and probably 50 members or so (maybe more) who will attend at least one meeting. If each member brought something to a meeting once a year, we'd have (on average) five things a meeting. If you don't care to partake of food, it costs you nothing, and for those of us who do partake, we only have to bring something once a year.

Seems pretty easy to me. Or, at least, an experiment worth conducting.

[ingg]

Chris, we already do "throw in a buck or two", via club proceeds/take from auction.

KISS rule here man. No one should feel obligated, or have additional funds be mandatory, because of this.

I think maybe we should let "the box" work for a couple of months ans see where it takes the funding for food. While I understand that a few people want to show up to a lunch buffet, those few people might want to temper their expectations to the budget that is at hand.

[krisw]

Agreed on the donations. Let's see what we can achieve via food preparation and creative shopping first. Remember that the new auction rules and donation box were implemented to help pay for food too, so if those are successful, the $40 budget will likely go up. Thank you to everyone who has volunteered already. We probably still need a couple more folks to help spread out the workload. Thanks to everyone for their comments! I know Chris is going to do a great job pulling this together with everyone's help.

[SCMurphy]

I hate being the third board member in a row to post, it makes it look like we are ganging up on the topic, however I haven't gotten to comment yet. (I am assuming that I don't get ninja'd before I send this.)

Chris, you have your hands full, I'm glad you looked into how CCA actually handles the food at meetings. I honestly had no idea since I am not a member of any club outside of GWAPA. Dave's comments about "the box" are good but we are still ironing out exactly how "the box" is going to work so we can't depend on that just yet. I know that when I was hosting meetings before the group got so large I would do like Dave and go beyond the 'budget' and just host. Not everyone can do that nor do we expect them too. It is just fun to do every now and again.

I think you need to find a way to keep the whole thing fair so that there are not 4 or 5 people providing the bulk of the food, remember your committee is not supposed to shoulder the burden, they are supposed to organize the effort. When the monthly meeting is announced and people are 'pre-registering' you could have them volunteer to bring something at the same time. Keep track and don't let anyone over do it, even if they want to keep bringing food there is a danger that eventually they will feel put upon. Reign in the over achievers, encourage the people that haven't participated yet.

[chris_todd]

I rather like the idea of better finger foods than chips, but would much prefer finger food/snacks...

Any specific suggestions? When you think of tasty finger food, what comes to your mind?