Want to host a cooking team, or provide soup or biscuits?  We'd love to have you along!

WHEN: Sundays 4.30pm-630pm
WHERE: 18 Edward Street, Mitcham, Victoria. 

If you would like the put together a team to prepare and serve a meal, or soup or biscuits, we would love to hear from you. 

Before making a booking, please check the ROSTER for available dates (we are adding new teams constantly). 

Then fill out our CONTACT FORM or email us at MitchamCommunityMeal@gmail.com. We'll then add your group to the ROSTER. 

What's involved?

Choose one of the options listed below:

Gather a team of 4 -10 of your friends, think of a meal to make for 50 to 60 people, and bring the food to prepare & cook at All Saints Anglican Church, Mitcham. For more details, see 'Cooking team duties' below.

We recommend having 2 people to do this job. Make enough soup for 50-60 serves (approx 10-12 litres of soup; one serve is 1/2 a paper cup), bring it in an insulated container to the venue at 5pm, and serve our guests. Cups will be provided, . We have two 10 litre soups warmers that you can serve out of. You may leave when dinner starts at 5.30pm.  Or stick around and chat with our guests.

Many of our guests don't like spicy, so please don't go crazy in this department :)


We recommend having 2 people to do this job. Make enough biscuits or slices for 60 people, and pack them in individual paper bags. Bring them to the venue at 5pm, and hand them out to our guests. You may leave when dinner starts at 5.30pm.  Or stick around and chat with our guests.

What does it cost?

Depending on what you decide to serve, we expect  2 course meals might cost $300-$350. We will pay the first $100 and we ask that the cooking team contributes the rest. For a cooking team of 6 this means the cost might be $20-$30 per member. Part of the fun is trying to stretch that dollar as far as possible in providing something both nutritional and economical. 

Times

3.30pm - Teams can start cooking

5.30pm - Dinner is served 

6.30 - 6:45pm - Finished & cleaned up 

Cooking team duties

We recommend teams being between 4 and 6 in numbers. 

Note: There is a Coles almost next door to the venue, so don't worry if you forget anything. Almost every team that has cooked, has had to dart over for something.

Food & Kitchen Safety

We abide by Australian and Victorian laws regarding  food safety and preparation. 

There will be a certified Food handling supervisor  personnel on site to ensure good practice.

We require all volunteers to use hand sanitiser and wear gloves when preparing food. These will be provided on site. Please tie back long hair.

We will be ensuring that cooked food reaches the correct temperatures, and looking out for areas of potential cross contamination.

We require each team to show shopping receipts  and we will be inspecting all foods for freshness and use by dates. Foods in damaged packaging will be rejected.

We strongly recommend reading through this site to understand current food safety requirements.   http://foodsafety.asn.au

Please feel free to ask any questions regarding food safety.

Kitchen Safety

The kitchen is a dangerous place, if you are not actually working in the kitchen then please stay out in the main dining hall.

Please ensure closed tip, non slip shoes are worn in the kitchen. 

Victorian laws require long sleeved tops and trousers to be worn when working in the kitchen. This meets both safety and health standards.

All spillages need to be mopped up immediately , and a safety cone put in place while the floor is drying. 

Child Safety

No children allowed in the kitchen under the age of 10. Children must have an adult accompanying them at all times. They can only be in the kitchen if actually participating in food preparation. and be directly supervised by an adult.

We welcome teams bringing their kids along but we require that the children are under continual adult supervision and control. This means one team member not cooking, and being with the kids. 

All our Facilitators have a Working With Children's Check, WWCC.

 We need to be quite vigilant about child supervision. Its easy to be distracted while cooking, so we ask that one adult does not cook while supervising the kids.