2007 RSF Food Committee/2006 debrief notes
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Recommendations: RSF Food Committee, Regional Social Forum, London, Ont., 2006
To future Food Committees of Regional Social Forums:
- We consider we were broadly successful this year in that we provided enough, satisfactory food for the attendees of the event, and because we did this (with one possible exception) without putting undue pressure on any committee members and helpers of food preparation, presentation and clean-up. ‘Undue pressure’ means forcing members to take on tasks they did not volunteer for because there were no others to do the job.
- We consider that there were inadequacies in our work because we did not or were unable to fully take into consideration values of food security in our choices of types and sources of food to serve.
Contents |
Practices to maintain or extend:
Organizational:
Continue practice of ‘keeping fallow resources at the centre.” Core group should constantly seek to distribute responsibility. This encourages participation. It also obviates the need for utterly, rigid planning, because there is slack (people and resources) built in for responding to the unexpected; i.e., space to be spontaneous. In practices, this means:
- Delegate large tasks where possible so that the core group can continue to be available for planning and responding to the unanticipated.
- Clearly define tasks that individuals can take on, and get specific ‘buy-in’ from them. Don’t expect them to also do other, ancillary tasks without their explicit commitment.
- List everything that must be done in advance so that there can be found a committed person to do each of them.
- Have no leader. Nothing ‘falls to’ one person. All tasks are volunteered for or don’t get done. If a substantial enough core group does not form, buy the (food) service.
- Prepare most food ahead of the event. Some on-site kitchen and labour during the event is then available to respond to emergencies, or unanticipated or creative cooking requirements. This also keeps to a minimum the pressure on on-site volunteers.
- Plan to have some non-onerous cooking tasks done on-site cooking to allow for more participation.
- Book a public kitchen just prior to event, and have a ‘maybe’ volunteer list on-hand to solicit for last-minute ‘pitch-in’ cooking (with nothing planned there) in case some planned advanced preparation has fallen through. This would prevent the situation whereby core group members, who already have much to do, must pick up the slack from this failure.
- Allocate resources to find groups who will take on meal preparation tasks in advance of event.
- Use previous year’s on-site cooking volunteer’s list to solicit new participants in Food Committee
Strategy
To respond to unpredictability of number of meals required, serve mostly ‘expandable’ or ‘contractible’ type meals. This means:
- Choose dishes whose bulk can be increased by last-minute addition of ingredients. Such types of dishes are casseroles, stews, soups, and ‘make-your-own’ sandwiches.
- Choose dishes that can be frozen effectively or will otherwise keep easily if they are not used.
- Procure agreement with food sources (COOP?) that non-perishable goods can be returned if not used.
Food Policy
Consider a variety of factors in choosing menu, such as health, food security, and ‘solidarity’ principles. (Propose striking a Food Policy committee that will meet in fall and make recommendations of types of food to serve to General Committee.)
- In the interests of food security (i.e., buying local), prefer dishes that can take substitutions of produce, depending what is locally available.
- In the interests of food security, consider seasonality of food when scheduling RSF.
- Aesthetics (variety, taste)
- Serve food with a variety of ingredients.
- Serve food that is prepared in a variety of ways; for example, include some sautéed, some baked, some raw, etc, where possible. (This will conflict at times with ‘expandable meals’ principle, but should still not be ignored.)
- Sylvan Bakery bread is very good.
Environmental sustainability
In promotional literature, feature more prominently the need to bring personal dishes to the site during event.
Practicalities of planning, menus and cooking
- Use ‘spreadsheet’ method of compiling master list of ingredients (by dish), not only to be able to buy in bulk, the same ingredients for different meals, but also to regulate how much (and what) is taken out of common stores for the production of different meals.
- Plan to order food well in advance. Particularly if dealing with the London Food Coop, and asking for discounts, at least a month before you wish to order since they will approve you request only during a board meeting.
- Generally, do not attempt to rely on complicated procedures to get things done. (Example: use signs to direct traffic or instruct people, where word of mouth would be cumbersome.)
- Have a person in charge of the kitchen who is always consulted for logistical issues.
- Have a communication process designed to make sure all relevant people know what foodstuffs are available and where they are (stored).
- Ensure that food is properly thawed before it is to be cooked.
- Make sure food to be heated reaches site kitchen in time for it to be properly cooked.
- Don’t forget about drinks, what and how to serve them.
- Have snacks available for evening participants.
- Have three large coffee urns; one for hot water and two to alternate coffee preparation.
- Take care when multiplying ingredients for larger quantities during food planning
- Procure a good set of basic cooking machines, such as a food processor, rice makers, and have them available for unexpected (not to mention, expected) requirements.
- Have a sufficient number of good tools available in the kitchen, such as knives and cutting boards, so that a reasonably large number of volunteers can help in the kitchen if necessary.
- Minimize line-ups for food.
My (Mike's) Notes from the Kitchen
- More Spices on hand
- Updated inventory taken daily at storage site (i should have made an effort to get over there to get an idea of what was there
- Snacks for evenings
- Peanuut Butter & Jam is always a good thing to have on hand for breakfast/snacks (though, consider allergies)
- More cutting boards/Quality knives
- Larger proportian of vegan food (say, up to 1/3-1/2?) (1st year, there was lots of vegan food left over 2 yrs. ago, last year not enough)
- Thaw early, get prepped food to site erlier for heating.
- Know what will be coming frozen, what just needs to be heated, what will be made on site
- Is there a way of staggering serving to minimize line ups?
- Getting more people to bring their own dishes, cups, utencils, etc... If not, is there a way to get more dishes back to the kitchen clean quickly?
- 2nd & 3ed coffee urns (one for hot water, one to have brewing before the first batch runs out)
