Meals Captain

Please note: These job descriptions were composed for medium to large sized outreaches with Impact World Tour. For smaller events not all positions or simplified procedures might be required, please apply common sense in determining the needs for your community.

Responsibilities of the Meal Captain

Coordinate preparation and serving of meals for Impact World Tour teams & staff during events
Organize refreshments for the IWT campaign

This Captain will oversee the organization of meals for staff and teams during the Campaign, beginning the day of the first team’s arrival until the last team leaves.

Before the Event

With the IWT Coordinator, secure or confirm a location for meals to be served – the closer to the venue the better. (See below for Additional Details on the meal venue)
Evaluate any missing or inadequate equipment and organize for it to be delivered to the venue (more fridge space, extra cooker, chafing dishes…)
To insure that meals are adequate and do not duplicate, prepare a menu for the week ahead of time.
Recruit and schedule churches and individuals to prepare and serve meals, clean up and perform other needed tasks each day. To cover the entire week of meals, consider asking each participating church to cover 1-2 meals, pairing smaller churches together for a meal if needed. If desired, provide recipes for the scheduled meal items to insure consistency.
Recruit and schedule individuals or groups to provide snacks at the Event Venue both during the day and after each Event Night. (See Addition Details below)
Make a meal schedule for the incoming staff and teams. Give it to the IWT office and have one posted at the meal church during the IWT week.
Secure as many items as possible on a donation basis from local businesses. (Churches should be able to cover the cost of meals they prepare.)
If necessary, submit a budget containing projected expenses for paper products, food and other items to the Executive Committee and IWT Coordinator for approval before making any purchases.
Recruit volunteers to bring meals to the event venue for team members that will be eating there. (Please see Additional Details below)

Week before Event

Obtain a count of staff and team members that will be traveling to your city to determine how much food will be needed for each meal. Finalize meal counts according to the IWT schedule, which you should obtain from the IWT Coordinator. (See the worksheet at end of this section).
Follow-up on details and verify schedules.
Give a copy of the menu and directions to the meal location to the IWT Coordinator.
After budget approval begin purchasing and picking up food and other items.

During the Event
A representative of the Hospitality Meal Team, or the Meal Captain himself should be available at all times during the week with a cell phone as a communications point to handle any circumstances that may arise.

Additional Details

Breakfast
Host homes are asked to provide breakfast for their guests, which they can prepare themselves. A cooked breakfast is not required. A supply of items such as hot or cold cereal, milk, fruit, cheese, eggs, wheat bread, muffins and yogurt available to their guests is sufficient.
Staff members staying in a hotel and teams staying in a group situation such as a church or a retreat center should be provided with items needed for breakfast. Restock as necessary.

Lunch and Dinner
The Hospitality Team is asked to provide food, tableware and crews to serve and clean up for lunch and dinner each day. It works well to provide tableware, with participating churches providing meals at the central location on a rotating schedule. They would also provide the crews needed that day for serving and clean up.

Buffet-style meals are served at 12:00 – 1:00 and 5:00 – 6:00PM (check with your local IWT office if this is accurate). The number of people served each day will vary depending on team and staff schedules. Obtain a schedule from the IWT Coordinator to determine the approximate number of people to be served each day (see worksheet). To accommodate unexpected schedule modifications, it is helpful to serve meals in a manner so unused portions can be served at a later time.

Meal Venue
The meal venue often serves as a meeting point for the teams; therefore it’s important that it be available exclusively for IWT teams for the duration of the campaign. A school or church usually works best, and should be centrally located to host homes and team lodging, and as near to the venue as possible. Ample kitchen and serving facilities, and seating space (enough for at least 100 people) are a must. Both lunch and dinner will be served at the meal venue. Please be aware that often times the meal venue serves as a gathering place or resting place for team members in between events during the day. They may arrive early for a meal or stay late after a meal and read, socialize, sleep, etc. It is important to communicate this with the meal venue ahead of time.

Items to have at hand

Plates, cups, silverware
Disposable plates, cups and silverware (for bagged meals)
Carrier bags (for bagged meals)
Napkins
Foil
Storage containers in a variety of sizes (for storage and take away)
Condiments – ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, salt, pepper… (have some in individual serving packages to include with bagged meals)
Equipment to keep items hot or cool at the buffet table – chafing dishes, coffee makers, extra refrigerators… (These can quite often be borrowed from other churches)

Special Requests

Due to schedules and unexpected events, teams are sometimes tardy for meals. Thank you for your understanding when this occurs.
A team may ask for their meal to be packed for the purpose of travel to another performance location or will need their lunch sent along or delivered to them when they do school assemblies. Please refer to the team schedules as you are planning meals.