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Hospitality (how to serve)
Are you or your committee assisting with Hospitality?
- Here are the instructions for a printer friendly version.
These instructions are provided to help guide your committee. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call the clerk of the Fellowship and Hospitality Committee (name and contact information in the BFM Directory).
- Because food allergies to nuts have become so prevalent, please refrain from bringing foods that contain peanuts, peanut butter, tree nuts, nut oils, etc.
- Please list the ingredients on the food you bring to potluck & coffee hour (gluten free, diary free, vegan, or vegetarian, etc.).
GENERAL HOSPITALITY INSTRUCTIONS
GENERAL HOSPITALITY INSTRUCTIONSSupplies (coffee, tea, sugar, dry foods, paper goods, cups, tablecloths) are stored in the large plastic boxes in the window seats in the library. The purpose of the plastic containers is to keep dirt and rodents out of our supplies, so please make sure to keep the lids tightly sealed. DO NOT LEAVE ANY FOOD, EXCEPT COFFEE AND TEA SUPPLIES, IN THE PLASTIC CONTAINERS IN THE LIBRARY. Some food (such as crackers and dips) and drinks can be stored in the downstairs refrigerator in the Meetinghouse.
There are extra supplies in the blue metal cabinet in the corner of the Multipurpose Room in the Groome Building. The Committee buys economical and environmental-friendly paper goods in bulk to avoid emergency trips to Giant. If supplies are low in either place, please email or call the clerks of the Hospitality Committee.
If you need to buy cups or plates, please be sure that they are recyclable, NOT Styrofoam or plastic. If you need to purchase supplies, always give your expense to the Assistant Treasurer so that we know what our actual costs are. Remember, you can be reimbursed or you can donate your expense as a "Gift in Kind." In both cases, please use the BFM Expense Reimbursement Request Form at https://bethesdafriends.org/resources/Documents/expense-reimburse-form.pdf/
Before Sunday
Someone in the group should email the group from the previous week to see what foods are left over. This helps you use up the oldest food first, not over-buy when there are a lot of leftovers, and avoid missing essentials. Who did last week’s coffee hour? List of who does coffee hour is in the front of the Directory. Or ask F&H. Or ask your committee clerk.
Those assigned for the current week should email each other to arrange who will bring what. Typical needs are about 2 gallons of juice, a tray of cut-up veggies with dip, 1-2 pounds of cut-up cheese, 2 boxes of crackers, and some fruit such as grapes (or make your own choice). Cut up all items into “grab and go” portions. A dessert or cookies are a plus. Mix up the juices among sugar free, cold tea, and real fruit juices.
Check the downstairs refrigerator for leftover juice or food. A tray labeled "BFM" holds our leftover juices, and a similarly labeled crisper drawer holds our leftover food.
Set up: Arrive at meeting by 10:15.
- 1. If making coffee (not always needed in the summer months): Fill large coffee pot with water. The coffee pot is in a Library cabinet OR under the sink in the kitchen downstairs. Plug in the coffee pot well before meeting starts since it is takes a while to heat and can be noisy while heating. An extension cord is under the Library sink or in a drawer in the credenza or in a drawer in the desk in the office.
- 2. If there is already a large table in the Library, then get out one more from the closet and set it up for the beverages. The tablecloths are in a window seat. The color cloths are for regular coffee hour & potlucks. (The white tablecloths are reserved for special occasions such weddings and Memorial Meetings.) If you choose not to use a tablecloth, be prepared to wipe the tables clean afterwards.
- 3. Trays & platters are located in one of the window seats &/or in the lower cabinets in the downstairs kitchen. Put on the trays: instant coffee (regular and decaf); teabags; hot chocolate mix; Coffee mate; sugar and sweetener; stirrers; and teaspoons.
- 4. Put out hot cups, cold cups, napkins, plates, and paper towels (for spills).
- 5. Set up a wastebasket and the blue recycle bin (found in the closet) near the drinks table.
- 6. Food: Arrange crackers, veggies, etc. on platters. Platters are located in one of the window seats &/or in the lower cabinets in the downstairs kitchen. Cover with plastic wrap or napkins until meeting ends. Have cheese ready but keep in plastic until meeting ends.
- 7. As soon as meeting ends and before announcements, slip out to uncover platters, etc. Put out a pitcher of water. Pour out a few cups of juice if you want to have some ready for self-service. Do not let children take food or drink until coffee hour begins. (Tell them to wait for their parents — we don’t know their allergies.)
Keep watch over tables during coffee hour to make sure supplies are adequate, mop up spills, etc.
Clean up:
1. When most people have left, clean up everything, dump left over hot water in bathroom sink, return all supplies to their proper place, and pick up all the crumbs or vacuum the carpet (vacuum sweepers are in closet). If dry tea or coffee goods are in the window seat, be sure they are in CLOSED, LATCHED plastic or metal bins, otherwise we’ll have a rodent infestation.
2. Take trash bags and recycling to the dumpster and recycling receptacles. The dumpster is through the garage entrance to the loading dock underneath the gym off Beverly Street. See # 6 at https://bethesdafriends.org/Location#campus. The wheeled recycling receptacles are in the same area, to the right of the exit from the garage. You can also take them home to dispose of yourself. (NOTE: if you drive to the garage, the doors open automatically. And they also open automatically as you drive over the metal plate or sensor to exit the garage area).
3. If table cloths are wet or soiled, take them home to wash them, but do plan to return them soon.
Arrive at Groome Building by 10:15 a.m. to set up. Each member of the assigned committee should bring a substantial dish to ensure enough food at potluck. Someone should also bring cider or cold drinks, and you can use the leftover drinks in the downstairs refrigerator in the Meetinghouse.
Set up tables
- 1. Two long tables near kitchen for food: Cover with non-white table cloths (in blue cabinet or in window seat in library). The tables without benches are either in the corner of the Groome Building room or they might be stored in the utility closet to the left of the kitchen door.
- • Ask the Guard to open and prop open the utility closet with a door stop until end of clean up. Be sure the door remains propped open. The closet holds sponges, power strips, the dry mop—all are needed for clean-up, and if it closes and locks we have to find someone to open it.
- 2. One table near entrance for drinks. Hopefully these extra tables are in the corner of the cafeteria. If not, you have to bring them from the closet of the Meeting House library.
- 3. Six table/bench units in two rows (but note that a larger crowd will require 7 or 8 tables).
- • To unlock these tables, turn the silver handle near the bottom, so that the black latch in the center of the table "pops up." Then pull ends of table until the table is flat. The silver rod at the top/center of the tables is pushed down to latch the tables open. The silver rod has to be pulled up to release the tables when you fold them at clean up.
- 4. One table by piano for desserts.
Initial prep for the tables
- 1. Food tables near the kitchen door: Place silverware and plates at end of tables. (Kitchen worker will be there to get plates and silverware out of locked cabinet in kitchen.) Usually, we use Sidwell’s silverware and plates, but if they are not accessible, use plastic cutlery and plates from BFM cabinet. Also set out napkins. (BFM cabinet is 2nd from the right of the blue rolling cabinets that are closest to the kitchen doors in the corner of the main room.)
- 2. Beverage table: the table near the entrance: Fill large coffee pot (from blue cabinet) with water and plug it in.
- · The 20-cup coffee-maker should be in the blue BFM supply cabinet in the Groome Building’s Multi-purpose Room. If there’s none there, it can be in a storage cabinet in the Library. Third place is beneath the sink in the downstairs kitchen in the Meeting House.
- · Extension cord: Look in BFM's blue rolling cabinet (second from right). If not there, look for one in the bottom left-hand drawer of the credenza in the Meeting House, in one of the desk drawers in the office, and/or under the sink in the Library.
- · The most accessible outlet is behind the steel, rolling food cart that is to the left of the kitchen entrance (to the right of the storage closet). There should be one outlet open for use.
- • [MUCH less accessible is an outlet behind the second blue cabinet from the left. The cabinets are on wheels, so they can be carefully pulled from the wall, being watchful of all the objects piled on top of them.]
- · Place on beverage table the items needed for hot drinks: hot cups, coffee, teabags, Coffee mate, sugar, stirrers, teaspoons, etc. (These are all in blue cabinet in corner of main room). Also place juices, a pitcher of water, and cold cups for cold drinks. The kitchen has plastic pitchers.
Final prep for tables
- 1. As soon as meeting ends and before announcements, committee members should return to Groome building to finish setting up food tables.
- 2. A kitchen worker will be there to help put hot food out (and they will wash dishes, silverware and other items during and after potluck), but committee members also need to help place food dishes and serving utensils on the table.
- 3. A member of the Hospitality Committee will pay the kitchen worker in cash for their transportation expenses (in 2024, that is $50).
- 4. Before potluck begins, someone from the committee with responsibility for the potluck should ask for a moment of silence.
- 5. During potluck, some supervision may be needed at food and beverage tables.
After potluck, which could be around 1:00, 1:15, or even later. Note: Potluck ends when about half the diners have left, and the rest are beginning to get up from the table.
- 1. Wipe the tables (using soapy water and cloths provided by kitchen staff), fold the tables back up, and return them to the wall.
- 2. Put table cloths away in the library window seat; if soiled, take them home and wash them (and try to return them by 10:30 the following Sunday).
- 3. Put paper goods, beverage items, coffee pot, etc. away in blue cabinet in corner of the main room. Be sure to return the extension cord to wherever it came from.
- 4. Return extra drinks and food (like crackers, cheese, and cookies) that can be used for the next coffee hour to the refrigerator in the downstairs kitchen in the Meetinghouse.
- 5. Use the large dry mop in closet to clean the floors. Empty dustpan into trash container.
- 6. Empty waste baskets into the large garbage bin with plastic bag.
- • The kitchen helper usually takes out the food trash before leaving.
- • Before leaving, the Committee members take all other trash and recyclables to the SFS outside collection places (next to the garage entrance under the gym), if the kitchen helper has not already done so. Do not leave any trash in the SFS bins.
These instructions are provided to help guide your committee. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call the clerk of the Fellowship and Hospitality Committee. (Names and contact information available on the inside cover of the BFM Directory.)