What do you do for food?

[Carolyn Duncan]

I have been on a few teams and they have each done different things. In high school my team was sposored by Papa John's. While they never gave us any monetary donations they did send us pizzas twice a week. On that same team I was also comissioned to cook team dinners. I was given money from the team account and I bought pasta- it's cheap and filling. I cooked in the home-ec room in the school so it was close and easy. Another team I was on signed up parents to bring in food. There would usually be 2 or 3 parents each night that would bring something. Other times it would just be each person for themself as far as getting or bringing food.
At competitions it is more cost effective to go to a grocery store and purchase sandwich making items and keep them in a cooler. While you cannot take them in the venues you can eat outside during a break.

[114gopher]

One thing we do every year: Bulk cup-o-noodles! those rock, although you get a little tired of them after about 4 weeks, but conveniently, thats when you stop needing food!

[R81Honda]

We had everyone on the team ante up 20 bucks.
Then one of the team moms stocked the Lab's kitchen full of snacks. We have soooo much food but we eat like pigs so I think in another two weeks we will be all out of food.

[SirGimpOfBaath]

I forget what we do about saturdays, and our meetings normally don't last through dinner, but we usually keep chips and stuff handy.

[fallnangelzbld]

Well I guess I thought a lot more people did what we do... but I guess I was wrong. Our team is in a "research park" type area with restaurants everywhere within a 10 mile radius (plus we're right off the interstate... so thats not so bad either) but we basically just call up every restaurant and grocery store and ask if they would be willing to donate food for our endeavor (feeding 25 people). Believe it or not.... nearly every restaurant and grocery store doesn't mind at all... and what nights are left over we allow parents to bring food. We would get like 25 hamburgers, 25 chicken snacks, 10 medium pizzas (you heard right), a sub sandwich tray, a chicken nugget tray, jumbalaya, etc. You wouldn't believe the amount of food they are willing to give up to help out.

Last year we had every day of the build period... including saturdays... covered except maybe 6 or 7 days. Mmmm... food.

I guess our team should start appreciating this a lot more...

[Odlaw]

We have each parent bring food once and sometimes twice. Most parents are happy to do this. They don't have to feed there kid dinner but once or twice during the whole build period. They figure it's cheaper and easier to provide food for 30 kids once than one kid 30 times. We also went to Cosco and baught bulk ramen, chips, and water. Nothing to elaborate.

[cdawzrd]

Originally Posted by lsmith243

Nah... we kinda just eat whenever we feel like it, or whenever a massive amount of us is hungry... We live on Moxie and stale food... It's quite lovely.

hahaha i feel you.

we don't usually organize food unless it's getting towards ship date. our lab is near charlottesville's mall, so a few of us occasionally run for food. we generally rely on the loving parents bringing in various snack foods :-)

[cdawzrd]

heh. at VCU, food is absolutely banned... that is of course, if they catch you...

(we always have food ready because it's quite expensive around Richmond)

[Hershey]

We got Papa Johns as our sponser! HEHEHE!!!!! Of course, we only get it on Saturdays because of our meetings that run from 9 - 3 ordinarily.

[Conor Ryan]

wow, this thread is making me hungary

[~JeSsIcA~]

Normally on weekdays are meeting are from 6-8:30 ish so we eat before we go. But on saturdays we get meals caterd to us.... from hy-vee.

[GoClimbARock14]

Originally Posted by Leav

(couldn't find a forum that this should be under, so sorry if i mis-posted)

We are starting to realize that feeding 20-30 people everyday is a very complex logistic problem, and unless we find a way to buy in bulk, very expensive....


How do your teams deal with this?
Do you go eat in groups?
order food in?
do you have deals with local food suppliers?
how do you pay?
from which money?

I would like to solve this problem ASAP.
Thanks,
-Leav

We are a fairly small team, but since we have a BBQ, we have bought hotdogs in bulk, and we also make spagetti using a hotplate we have. The water takes a long time 2 boil its cheap and easy.

[Unglued]

Instant noodles are always there if anyone gets the munchies, and we get chips, granola bars, other snacks donated by no frills(a large supermarket chain) our meals arn't too healthy..

[Denman]

pot noodles! - The staple food of building, as you only need a kettle lol...

[Koko Ed]

Last weekend we had our annual pot luck lunch where everyone brings a dish to pass. It makes for nice variety and there is often much food to go around.