How not to handle a potluck!

[Luv Bunnies]

My husband is the director of a men's chorus and tomorrow evening's rehearsal will be a holiday party for the guys and their families. They sing for all of the guests and then we do a gift exchange. Of course, there are plenty of goodies to nibble during the evening. It starts at 7:30 p.m. so it will be after dinner for most people, although some guys come straight from work. Last year, it was mostly appetizers and desserts.

So the president of the chorus board sent out an e-mail to remind everyone about the party and how the food should be handled. He said he didn't want to deal with a lot of leftovers. So, each person or family should bring only the amount of food they plan to eat. When you pack up your cookies or whatever else you're bringing, you're supposed to only pack the amount that you and your family would be able to consume during the evening. Then, by his calculations, we should have no leftovers!

My husband and I are taking our 2 boys with us. So, based on the president's description, we decided we should bring 8 cookies, 48 chips, 1/4 cup of dip and 1 carrot! How does that sound? Seriously, half the fun last year was when everyone made a plate to take home. We ended up with lots of interesting cookies, slices of cheesecake, etc. that we could enjoy the next day. We saw the chorus president the other night and I told him what I was planning to bring. He cracked up and said he admits that his e-mail went a little overboard.

 

[minkydog]

Yeah, I think i'd have to plea ignorance--""What email? You sent an email?" I'm with you, half the fun of a potluck is taking home the left-overs.

 

[emer95]

My husband is the director of a men's chorus and tomorrow evening's rehearsal will be a holiday party for the guys and their families. They sing for all of the guests and then we do a gift exchange. Of course, there are plenty of goodies to nibble during the evening. It starts at 7:30 p.m. so it will be after dinner for most people, although some guys come straight from work. Last year, it was mostly appetizers and desserts.

So the president of the chorus board sent out an e-mail to remind everyone about the party and how the food should be handled. He said he didn't want to deal with a lot of leftovers. So, each person or family should bring only the amount of food they plan to eat. When you pack up your cookies or whatever else you're bringing, you're supposed to only pack the amount that you and your family would be able to consume during the evening. Then, by his calculations, we should have no leftovers!

My husband and I are taking our 2 boys with us. So, based on the president's description, we decided we should bring 8 cookies, 48 chips, 1/4 cup of dip and 1 carrot! How does that sound? Seriously, half the fun last year was when everyone made a plate to take home. We ended up with lots of interesting cookies, slices of cheesecake, etc. that we could enjoy the next day. We saw the chorus president the other night and I told him what I was planning to bring. He cracked up and said he admits that his e-mail went a little overboard.

That is hilarious!

 

[C.Ann]

How boring! Half the fun is trying out the stuff that other people made.. LOL..

 

[Imzadi]

1 carrot for 4 people?

It would have been better if the chorus president had asked for volunteers to help clean up afterwards.

 

[disykat]

I've seen the "bring enough to feed your family" rule of thumb used at potlucks, but it's usually to encourage people to bring ENOUGH food. Bringing a small dish of food to contribute is fine if you are one person, but a family of 4 or more should be bringing a very large dish or several dishes of food.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

1 carrot for 4 people?

It would have been better if the chorus president had asked for volunteers to help clean up afterwards.

My boys don't like carrots so DH and decided we'd get a few carrot sticks between us.

Here's the best part about the chorus president: He won't even be at the party since he left today on a cruise to Mexico with his family!!!!!

 

[Silent1CB]

I sent out an email to my family asking them all to tone down how much they all bring. Its all the extra things they bring that get out of hand. And they end up leaving all those extra calories here at our house since none of them want to take them home. That's too many calories to leave for just DH & I, when really its me who ends up eating it all.

This year I told them they all needed to bring the extras back home with them.

I usually try to encourage everyone to pack up a plate to take home, but no one else wants the calories either.

 

[MIGrandma]

I have no problem getting rid of Christmas leftovers at my house. The kids are always willing to pack up some to take home with them and I definitely don't mind sharing. They usually leave us a little of what they brought too so it works out great for everyone.

I don't understand why leftovers at a party/potluck would be a problem. Doesn't everyone just take home their own dish/plate of whatever they brought? I mean, if they want to share leftovers, fine, but people don't just leave their stuff at the party if they don't want to take it home, do they? I can't imagine taking something and then just leaving it there for the host to deal with.

 

[golfgal]

We sent an email to DH's family reminding them to bring tupperware to haul home leftovers--that usually works for us. Maybe you can suggest the same to the choir director.

I don't blame him for not wanting to deal with leftovers. A lot of people will bring too much and if they don't bring anything home one person gets stuck with all the food and most of it goes to waste.

 

[disykat]

I have no problem getting rid of Christmas leftovers at my house. The kids are always willing to pack up some to take home with them and I definitely don't mind sharing. They usually leave us a little of what they brought too so it works out great for everyone.

I don't understand why leftovers at a party/potluck would be a problem. Doesn't everyone just take home their own dish/plate of whatever they brought? I mean, if they want to share leftovers, fine, but people don't just leave their stuff at the party if they don't want to take it home, do they? I can't imagine taking something and then just leaving it there for the host to deal with.

We had a whole thread about this a while back. I agree with you that each person should deal with their own leftovers and dirty dish, leaving leftovers only if the host accepts them when asked if she'd like them. However, I would say the majority of people on that thread thought it was extremely rude to do so - that the food you brought was a gift. They thought it was better to leave everything, dish and all, for the host to deal with. (And then of course there's that "never return a dish empty" rule I learned about on the DIS!)