Running a Meal Plan (Part 1)
So you like to cook, and you want to run a Meal Plan for your LARP. But where do you begin? If you’re reading this, you’ve probably never done anything like this before. (Or you have, and you felt overwhelmed when you did!) This is going to be something of a recurring thread, as I’m sure I’ll come up with more tips and tricks. But this first post is going to be where you should start for preparation -- and will hopefully serve as a sanity check to decide if this is something you’d like to take on for your LARP. If this is your first time ever running a Meal Plan, and you’re working alone, I would recommend capping yourself at 10 people (include yourself!) That’s more than enough to feed, and will give you an idea for what you’re getting yourself into. If you have a significant other or roommate who you trust to stick out any meal plan work with you at gathering, you can consider going up to 20 (10 people for every dedicated individual to the meal plan), but I might still say consider a cap of 10 for your very first game, no matter what. See how everything goes. Running a meal plan at game will mean that you miss a lot of action. You will need time to prepare, serve, and clean after every meal, and for a standard weekend LARP, that’s at least 4 meals (5 if you decide to do something for Sunday morning). You’re looking at about 2 hours per meal, minimum. Add an extra hour if you decide to go fancy. If you like to cook, and like the downtime of doing something more mundane between fights, then that might not be a deterrent for you! But I think it’s worthy of knowing before you start. Tip One: Enlist Help Yes, people are paying for your meal plan services (be sure to charge a little more than you pay for the food -- you are putting in time and effort even before you get to game, and you may also want to buy extras to make your life easier, or make your presentation more beautiful!) But -- if you are running this while also being a player, it is no fun to have to be alone while other things are going on. Consider having people on the meal plan sign up for shifts. They can help you cook and serve, or clean, or guard you in case enemies come up while you’re cooking. Either way, people will be around for you to RP with while food is being made, and that will be a HUGE help in making this experience more fun. Tip Two: Be Realistic with your Space If you drive a 2-door car to game, and are usually packed to the gills, take a step back before offering to run a Meal Plan. You’d be surprised at how much space meal planning eats in your car. On average, when I was running a meal plan, it was two coolers, an insulated cardboard box, a huge dry goods bag, and a campstove. Additionally, if you usually drive with other people, make sure they understand what you may be bringing, and that it may cut into any space they assume will be in the car. (Protip: If you agree to do this, get a photo of everything you’ll be bringing to share with your driving buddies, so they have a visual idea of the space you need each game.) Tip Three: Leave Yourself the Whole Week before Game Be done with your craft projects a full week ahead of game, so you have the week before game to shop, prepare, and organize your meal plan. Trust me, you will be much happier not trying to juggle crafting time and meal prep time. Tip Four: Make a Sample Menu, and “Buy” for It Make a shopping list for a sample meal plan, complete with amounts you will need to buy, and hit some of the stores in your area to see how much it would cost to purchase. See if you would benefit from having a membership to some place like Costco or Sam’s Club. Also see if ordering some of your ingredients online will save you any money. Dollars add up in the long run, and then you’ll know how much you want to charge to ensure you’re not footing any extra bill. Side Tip: Your first couple of Meal Plans are going to be MUCH more expensive than you expect, especially if you don’t often cook for yourself from scratch at home. Random things like oils, vinegar, and spices add up -- but often only need to be purchased once every couple of months or less, and then space themselves out for purchase afterwards. Don’t be discouraged if things feel expensive the first time. Once you have a good spice cabinet settled, and have all of the tools you need to make it easier, it will get cheaper. And you’ll get better at sourcing your fresh food on the cheap. When I became experienced at running a meal plan, I often hit four different stores the Sunday before gathering, because I knew who had the sales I needed. Tip Five: Get the Lay of the Land Ask other people who attend your game how they deal with logistics for food. Where do they dispose of their greywater? (Greywater, in case you don’t know, is generally it is defined as wastewater produced by appliances -- but in this use, we’re talking about wastewater that might contain soap, fats/grease, or salt. Not good for soil and plants at your site! Make sure you figure out a way to dispose of it safely.) Do they know of a good place to get electricity if you need it? What’s allowed in terms of campfires/cook tops? Don’t start planning for what you’re going to bring until you know what facilities are available to you. And be realistic about the openness of those facilities. If your camp site has a kitchen, how many other people are going to be trying to use it? Is there a schedule that you can take advantage of? If it’s first come - first served, you may want to plan to cook on your own cook top. Tip Six: Prepare to Tell Folks to Bring their own Services Don’t waste your money on disposable flatware and plateware. It’s a mess, and people are terrible for keeping track of their stuff. They’ll have half a drink of water out of one of your cups, and then throw it away. And then gods forbid anyone outside of your camp hears that you’ve brought extra cups. Impose an early rule that anyone on your meal plan needs to bring their own service (plate, bowl, mug, fork, knife, and spoon). You can provide napkins or papertowels, and a plastic tub for them to rinse or wash their own services when they’re done eating. Be sure to impose a rule that they have to clean their own dishes! Tip Seven: Plan for Incidentals There’s some random, and sometimes not so intuitive things you will want to have. Like I said above, plan to bring a big plastic tub to wash your dishes in, which means you’ll also need a way to have clean water to rinse your dishes, a sponge, soap, and a towel to dry them off with. You might also want your own trash bags (and some sort of collapsible trash bin), extra propane tanks (if you have a propane stove), matches, Sterno and Sterno stoves to keep things warm if you feel it’s necessary, atmosphere friendly serving bowls, and napkins or paper towels to clean up messes. Tip Eight: Keep a Journal You are going to need to be a business owner when it comes to the Meal Plan, so get some sort of book that can travel with you to game to help you out. For each meal plan, figure out how many people you can reasonably serve, and label those spots, writing in each person’s name until your slots are full. (And they will fill up, trust me.) Make notations whenever those people come to a meal to get food so that you know you’ve fed them. (This helps both to ensure everyone gets at least one serving before you give out seconds, and to help you track a friend down for meals if they’ve been skipping.) Make notes if someone is going to be on an NPC shift for a meal, or what assistance they’ve signed up for (see Tip One). Make additional notes if a person stiffs you on assistance or money. As much as it sucks to have to tell someone that you’re not going to offer your Meal Plan to them anymore, it’s good to have proof written down if someone is consistently not upholding their end of the bargain. Tip Nine: Try All of your Recipes at Home First The last thing you want to do is experiment with recipes when you’re feeding people. That’s just stressful. Cook everything at home first. See if you like the taste, make notes on what parts you want to make at home vs. what you will make at game. How can you make the recipe easier on yourself? Are there any allergens in the recipe? Tip Ten: Executive Decisions Are Your Friend Too many people try to decide things by committee. If you are running a Meal Plan, you decide what time the food is served, and you decide what is being offered. Avoid polls asking people what they’d like to eat, or when. It’s good to know if anyone has any hard food aversions or allergies, so you can plan for those -- but outside of that, let it just be your decision. Believe me when I say, it’s much easier on everyone.
