Dinner

See the recipe section for cooking inspiration. These dishes can be split up in groups (for example, one person brings an entree that serves 8-10 people and another person brings a different entree that also serves 8-10 people). As long as there is enough food to feed everyone, it doesn’t matter how it is split up! 

We recommend food being served in disposable aluminum serving trays. There is almost always extra food and it is left for the guests after volunteers leave. It is a hassle to try to use your own serving container that you want to get back, so leaving one that can be disposed of is great. 

You do not need to bring serving utensils; the locations provide them. You do need to bring disposable to-go containers that the guests can use to grab some more food later. 

Regarding on-site volunteers to serve the food, we recommend 4-6 people. The guests do not serve themselves and there is usually quite a lot of food to serve, so it is difficult for just one or two people to juggle all of the dishes. Serving usually lasts for approximately 1 hour, including providing seconds for guests. Once you are done serving, the food can be packed up and divided between the fridge and the table (this depends on the amount of food left, so check in with the onsite managers!) so that guests can serve themselves more later. One final note, volunteers do not eat the food they are serving. It is for the guests. If you made it yourself, you can keep some at home for later, but none of the volunteers eat at the shelter.