Let's Do Lunch!
In August, we started serving bagels and fruit along with coffee and tea during our Community Hour on Sunday mornings. Our hope was, and continues to be, that having a little something to eat will encourage people of all ages to stay for a while and chat, and perhaps to stay longer to participate in various church activities (classes, chalice circles, meetings, etc.) Judging by the quantity of food consumed and the number of people lingering in Fellowship Hall and the Courtyard well past noon on many days, this experiment seems to be a success!
Would your group or task force like to sponsor a lunch? This is a wonderful opportunity for your group or task force to host a lunch as a fundraiser.
Many people have asked questions about various aspects of these light lunches, so we’ve gathered them here to share the answers with everyone:
- My Chalice Circle (or other group) would like to provide lunch one day. How do we do that? Contact the Lunch Bunch - or the church office - to reserve a date!
- Who is the Lunch Bunch? The Lunch Bunch is the committee that coordinates the various groups wishing to provide lunches, and fills in with bagels or other options when nothing else is scheduled. So far, Anabel Watson and Stephanie Kimball are acting as this committee, but our regular Sunday morning duties often make this difficult so we are hoping that volunteers will step up SOON. If you would like to be part of this committee, please be in touch with Anabel or Stephanie!
- Where do the funds come from? Our congregational budget does not contain any provision for weekly lunches, so each week we place a Donations box on the table and hope that people’s contributions will cover expenses. If you enjoy the snacks and are able to help keep them coming, please add a few dollars to the box if you can! If you don’t have the cash with you, you’re still welcome to partake. That’s the beauty of community: we give as we are able, and our collective abundance feeds everyone, literally and figuratively.
- Why do we use cloth napkins, and what do we do with the dirty ones? We strive to minimize the trash we generate, and cloth napkins are easy to launder with the rest of the kitchen linens each week. There is always a basket for used napkins, either near the trays for dirty dishes, on the kitchen counter, or behind the clean napkins. We’re experimenting to find the best spot! Whatever you do, please do NOT throw them out. And if you have spare cloth napkins at home, donations are very welcome.
- Can we have something besides bagels and fruit? Yes! In fact, bagels and fruit are meant to be the fall-back menu on days when no group has signed up to provide something more elaborate. Our hope is that task forces, committees, chalice circles, and other groups will step up to provide lunches most Sundays, either as fundraisers or service to the congregation.
- My group wants to have a bake sale, but we don’t want to compete with free bagels. What can we do? Please just let us know when your bake sale is scheduled, and we will not serve bagels that day. However, please be aware that there may be people who are counting on finding something to keep them going for afternoon meetings or other events, so ensure that you’ll have enough offerings. It would be great if you can include some savory items in your sale (perhaps slices of quiche, a fruit and cheese plate, or a sandwich bar?), again remembering that people need something they can consider “lunch.”
- Who is responsible for cleaning up? Generally, the group sponsoring the lunch provides volunteers to do the dishes and make sure all the food is put away. On bagel days, our Java Crew has been graciously including lunch plates in their cup-washing routine. They make dishwashing fun! They even have their own theme song. If you’re looking for a way to get involved and serve the church community, you should join the Java Crew.
We hope this answers some of your questions, but if you have more, please send them along! We’re also open to suggestions, and of course would love most of all to hear from volunteers to help keep our Sunday lunches going.
With gratitude for the warmth of community,
Stephanie Kimball and Anabel Watson