Fundraising and Promotion events

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The co-op generally fundraises for large expenditures that occur infrequently, such as refurbishing the peanut butter machine, or paying for insurance. Here are some fundraising methods we've used in the past, or ideas we've had. The most successful ones in the past have been the first two (pre-packaged chocolate bars and cake stalls). Here are all of them:

  • Buying master-cases of Cocolo pre-pack chocolate bars, and getting members who work in offices to sell a box of them. This works best if the supplier is trying to offload the chocolate (often due to an impending use-by date) for around $2 a bar, and we sell it for $5.
  • Cake stalls and BBQs
  • Pie Stall
  • A guessing competition, with a couple of co-op hampers as a prize (and also anything we can get donated, such as yoga vouchers, electric bike tours...). We ran this but only raised $132 – it was hard to sell tickets, and they were mostly bought by coordinators.
  • Movie nights: the margins on these can be slim if we use a cinema screening, as the tickets are quite expensive to buy off the cinema.
  • Book sale. Could be good, people have lots of books.
  • Sponsorship – asking people to contribute money and putting their names on a plaque. We've never done this before.

Money management for stalls

  • Money from stalls needs to be kept separate from shop sale and veggie money. This means we need a separate float for stalls, bbq’s etc. The finance coordinator needs to be informed with enough notice to be able to organise the extra float. It’s best to either discuss this during, before or after a meeting or by contacting the finance coordinator. A week’s notice is good – we need to know what we are selling things for and how much we expect to have to sell to be able to work out the best type of float. (Currently finance info is being picked up from the coop on a Thursday evening and dropped back at the weekly Monday meeting)
  • When working out what to sell and at what prices, we bear in mind what this means for floats and being able to make change. Eg we price stuff so that all prices in in 50c, $1, $2, $5 or $10 to keep it simpler.
  • We also need to make sure we keep money for GST and non GST items separate so the finance coordinator can process the money correctly once the stall etc. is over.
  • Once the stall / bbq is over – all the money goes into the events/bbq bag in the safe. It does not get run through the till. Make sure the float stays in there.

Booking an event space on campus

  1. Discuss and decide an appropriate date and time for the event
    • Make sure you do this early
    • Consider weather and seasons and availability of volunteers.
  2. Fill out a ‘UNSW Outdoor Event Application Form’.
    • Go to the Arc Office upstairs in the Roundhouse.
    • You need to be a member, but not necessarily an office bearer of an Arc society.
    • For more information please check www.facilities.unsw.edu.au/forms/fm-assist.
    • You will also need to fill out a Risk Assessment Form attached to the document
  3. Take the form back to the Roundhouse office and get it approved with Arc.
    • They then send the form to FM Assist, on Upper Campus by the Library
    • FM Assist processes the request and books the space for you.
  4. Receive a booking confirmation from FM Assist.
    • Ensure you have booked the correct BBQ before proceeding.
    • If you have not received a confirmation email the week of the BBQ, check with FM Assist (not Arc) on the process of your booking.

BBQ's

A BBQ is a great way to fundraise and raise awareness about the coop. Here are a few things to consider when organising the event.


Choose a BBQ

Book a BBQ as described in above – ‘Booking an event space on campus’ Below are suggested bbq spaces on campus. In the case that the BBQ taken at this stage, enquire about what other BBQ venues on campus might be available.

Sam Cracknell Building (H8) + able to catch people on the main walkway + close to the food coop + no stairs + able to share volunteers between BBQ and shop + able to direct people to the shop from there - perhaps not as many people at uni on lower campus - Some people do not know where this, advertise as between the Law Library and the Village Green.

Library Lawn Gravel Area (E21) + very popular area on campus for food + easy to advertise - competition with food court and potentially with other society food stalls - very far away from Thoughtful Foods shop, consider logistics. - more likely to be booked up in advance

Other BBQs available Michael Birt Lawn (D25) Morven Brown Lawn (C20) Commerce Courtyard CLB (E20) Ball Sculpture Lawn (H17) Quad Corner (E16) Chancellor’s Garden - Fountain OMB (J15) Physics Lawn (L13) Physics Courtyard (K15) Science Theatre Lawn (G13) ASB Lawn (E13)

Preparing & Ordering for the BBQ

  1. Items to purchase for a goal of 100 burgers:
    • 3 bulk bags of tofu should be enough with thick ones cut in two. If weather is looking good, a 4th packet could be marinated too.
    • Dressing, hummus and marinate to accommodate
    • 500mL oil for cooking
    • 150 napkins (We usually allow for 1.3 napkins per burger made, this takes into account one in three customers taking 2 napkins with their burger)
    • Veggies:
      • 3 cos Lettuce; need to order lettuce for the veggie boxes that week (a whole box of lettuce is too much)
      • 2kg juicing carrots (if carrots and beetroot aren’t available then can order 5kg tomato)
      • 2kg beetroot (if expensive can just use more carrot)
      • 3kg of onions
      • 3kg of zucchini (not necessary, can just have onion – or just have zucchini)
  2. Music is essential!
  3. All costs to be kept in the ordering book or stock loss book – pick one!
  4. Designate roles, eg selling/cash handling, assembling and cooking tofu and onion
  5. 4 people are needed from 9:30am to 3pm to prep, cook and sell food.
  6. Bread: Basically we will always have enough bread if it is obtained for free from brumbies; they have indicated that Thoughtful Foods are more than welcome to pick up the bread any day of the week without prior organizing. Although it is good to call 2 weeks prior to the event to have them pencil the date in as to not give it away inadvertently. Usually we receive a minimum of 200 bread rolls, and 20 bread loaves. This is ample for up to 400 burgers/ sandwiches.
  7. Veggies: On the Wednesday before the event, make sure the person co-ordinating veggies knows how much you want to spend. You can ask for some specific veggies, but you might not get them all. On Thursday morning, weigh out as much as you need of each fruit or vegetable before they're distributed, and calculate the price.
  8. Having someone bring in a food processor helps hugely in preparing veggies. One that has a grating function and cutting function is best.

BBQ Checklist - to be prepared in advance (tick when complete):

  • Money float (found in the safe, and an opaque plastic container to put it in)
  • Box of goodies, including:
    • Banner
    • Flyers
    • Menu (x4)
    • Roster of volunteers
    • Gloves to handle food
    • Hand sanitizer
    • Price signage: $5
  • Food and utensils:
    • Knives (for cutting bread rolls)
    • BBQ spatula
    • Tongs (for serving and cooking)
    • Spoons (for serving hummus and dressing)
    • Oil
    • Bread
    • Paper towel/ napkins
    • Tofu (pre-marinated – to be cooked)
    • Sliced onion and grated zucchini (to be cooked)
    • Grated beetroot and carrot
    • Washed and chopped lettuce
    • Hummus
    • Tahini miso dressing
  • Elevator speech about the co-op:
    • “Thoughtful Foods is a volunteer-run, not-for-profit organisation that seeks to make a more ethical food system more accessible.”
    • E.g. minimal packaging, local, organic, fair trade, whole foods
    • Other info - bread, veggies and groceries
  • Objectives of today are: fundraising (for X) and raising the profile via 100 burgers!

Labour division

1 Chief per BBQ available,

2 vollies assembling burgers (this generally results in a constant stream of burgers being produced)

1 Vollie as a point of sale (Ultimately in charge of cash )

1 spare vollie (if needed to cut up extra veggies, relive others etc)

1 coordinator (to oversee and manage the whole operation)

Schedule suggestion

Running the Day For a BBQ operating at Midday (selling burgers at 1200)

- 900 - Start chopping veggies in shop 
- 1000 – move equipment to area for preperation 
- 1020 – turn on BBQ for preheating ( the UNI ones have a timer that needs to be restarted every so often so keep an eye on them) 
- 1030 – Start cooking the onions and zucchini 
- 1120 – start cooking tofu ( best cooked in sunflower oil to make it a little crisp)
- 1145 – Assemble burgers and get the crew to make sure they are up spec with some samples. 
- 1200 – sell burgers
- 1300 – finish cooking tofu and start Cleaning the BBQ 
- 1330 – finish selling final burgers and start the cleanup 
- 1430 – BBQ Packed up 
- 1600 – Cleaning complete

Pie stalls

A pie stall is a very lucrative means whereby only one person with the help of Funky Pies can raise over $300. It is also an effective means of promoting outside the library, so take lots of flyers and signage!

  1. At least two weeks prior to the event, book a space outside the library, using the ‘UNSW Outdoor Event Application Form’. There are power points on the pillar opposite the library entrance.
  2. As soon as the space is booked, contact Angie of Funky Pies and talk to her about whether she can provide us with big pies, mini pies and stall equipment. Last time Funky Pies permitted us to use their pie stall kit, which included oven, table, tongs, tomato ketchup, napkins made of recycled paper, table cloth, signage (for Funky Pies), sticky tape, disco balls, thermometers, scissors and extension cord.
  3. On the day, meet Funky Pies at Morven Brown car park at 9am. Tell Funky Pies that this is entered via Gate 8 on High Street. Angie and her assistant were terrific in helping to carry the oven and set up. Angie explained how to work the oven.
  4. We need to provide posters, flyers, masking tape, gloves, float and tin, banner, napkins and ketchup (just in case Funky Pies don’t).
  5. While selling pies, it is quite easy to talk to people while they wait to get the pies out and easy to tell whether their curiousity in the co-op warranted a flyer.
  6. The oven had 5 shelves and you could just fit 10 big pies per shelf. I had 3 shelves of big pies. Next time I would be tempted to do 4 shelves of big pies and order 60 (ie 5 boxes of 12), but this would involve some rotation and more attention to be paid as to where the colder pies are. The bottom shelf cooked faster and you need to keep this in mind so that they don’t over cook down there. In October 2012 we sold all of our 36 big pies by 1pm.
  7. Last time we sold mini pies for $2.50 ea (cost 0.92) and marked them down if people wanted more. $2.50 each was expensive as they were tiny, so I think $2/pie or 3 for $5 might be better. Big pies sell at $6/each.
  8. The day ended at 3:30pm. You need to let Funky Pies know in advance when you want them to come and help pack up.
  9. Pie stalls are only effective as a fundraiser if we get good price for pies otherwise we don’t make enough profit

Cake stalls

How to run a cake stall

1. Book the space several weeks in advance (see ‘booking an event space on campus’). The most effective and traditional space is in front of the Library lawn.

2. Advertise amongst the coordinating collective and members for people to bake and man the stall. Give at least 2-3 weeks notice so that people can have time to prepare and schedule us in.

  • It is important to emphasise that baked goods do not need to be produced from items in the shop/ have to be organic, gluten free, vegan etc, however it is an added bonus where this happens.
  • It is important to be clear about the objectives of a cake stall – typicaly to a) raise funds and b) raise awareness of the co-op and our stock. These two objectives can usually be achieved through a balance of the kind of items we sell.
  • Promotion methods can and should include: call outs in the bulletin/chat list; posters up in the shop; flyers in vege boxes; talking it up during shop shifts.
  • It is important members know when and where to take their baked goods – e.g. to the co-op before 9:30 am, directly to the stall thereafter etc.

3. The busiest hours for a cake stall are typically 11-2. If you have the vollies to person the stall, then try for 10am-3pm, with at least half an hour before and after for set up and pack up. In order to reduce pressure on the coordinating collective it is important to set up a roster (usually placed on the vollie board) and encourage members and regular vollies to put their names down, even for an hour or two. Following up with them before and after via email helps to confirm their presence and show appreciation of their contribution.

4. In order to support vollies who person the stall it can help to:

Provide them with some info/ pre-prepared spiel about the coop so they feel comfortable talking about us to customers/would be members:

  • e.g.: Have you heard of us before? Thoughtful Foods is a campus-based food cooperative that sells organic, sustainably and ethically produced food and groceries to members and the public. You can find the shop on the other side of the roundhouse. Etc. NB: There is also a good promotional blurb in the how to run a BBQ section of this book.
  • Clearly price and label all items as gluten free, vegan etc.
  • File all the ingredient lists for the items in the one combined document so that it is easy for them to refer to it should customers have any questions.

5. The day before (especially if you are organising the cake stall but not setting up) prepare a box with everything that will be needed for the stall.

  • Promotional items – e.g. fliers, posters, our banner, stickytape, scissors, spare paper and texta (for the recipes and pricing), blue tac
  • Card Tables (from between the sink and the window)
  • Float – this will usually be pre-prepared by the finance person and kept in the safe.
  • Utensils: some trays/plates for display; knifes; paper towel/napkins; tongs.
  • Optional mood setting extras: music, promotional items from co-op stock etc.
  • The vollie roster and (preferably) contact details for those personing the stall.

6. On the day, if all this pre-preparation is done, it is relatively simple to set the stall up. Use the wooden trolley loaded with the card tables, baked goods delivered that morning and the box of necessary items. Try and make the stall as attractive as possible, with a balance of delicious and healthy items with promotional flyers. With the help of members and the coordinating collective cake stalls are typically a relatively hassle free and simple way of raising funds – up to $200 is a reasonable goal.

7. After pack up, don’t forget to write up the vollie hours of members on the vollie board.


Tips from past cake stalls

  • It was good to have savouries. Maybe we should have more next time.
  • Need to make sure we have good amounts of gluten-free options, given we talked up gluten-free options at the Oweek stall. We had some, might be good to have more.
  • We had contributions of baked things that were not from coordinating collective – good thing!
  • More icing next time – lots of things we had were healthy-looking golden brown things.
  • Coloured things sell well at the library lawn stall.
  • Have labels/prices ready to go before we take stuff up next time
  • When we do flyers in veggie boxes doing the call out for baked things, we should make the back a return label with headings for names, ingredients etc.
  • We had vegan stuff J Good to do the “v” labels – means we could identify it thanks to small v’s in the corner, had vegan options and also wasn’t overly obvious so didn’t turn people away either. Good balance with the labelling signage J
  • We marked down things that wouldn’t keep in the last hour – meant that they sold.
  • Things that kept can be sold in the co-op on Tuesday/Wednesday – need to keep money separate so use a jar. It doesn’t get rung through the till and doesn’t have discounts.
  • Taking up stuff up on the trolley was good. We need to make sure we don’t forget we have our own cake stall tables – the card tables between the sink and the window. They fit on the bottom of the trolley for easy transporting.

For more information about cake stalls, consult the zine at the back of this folder.



Eco-Living Stall

Randwick Eco-Living Fair takes place annually one Sunday in September. Check the Randwick Council website by the end of July for details and make sure you organise a space at the stall ASAP. We can request a free stall. It is a great opportunity for promotion and fundraising. It is essential that Thoughtful Foods is there every year. All the following sold very well:

  1. A cake stall;
  2. Alter Eco puffed quinoa chocolate bars;
  3. Shop products (more as a demonstration); and
  4. Funky Pies (see 4.7 for how to run a pie stall).
  5. There is scope to hand out lots of flyer and sell lots of products. We should be ambitious and have at least 100 flyers. In 2012 we came under prepared and had lots of interest. Prepare an elevator speech along the lines of the following and be prepared to promote all the great things about Thoughtul Foods!

“Thoughtful Foods is a not-for-profit volunteer-run organisation that provides a more sustainable and accessible food system. It does through a wholistic approach that emphasises organic wholefoods and minimises packaging through reusing containers and ordering in bulk.”


O-Week

O-Week is important!

O-Week is at the end of February or beginning of March. It is very important that we make best use of this golden opportunity as we get maxiumum exposure to the campus population during this time. Investing time and effort into Oweek activities pays dividends when we look at new membership intake.

Materials

There are lots of documents that we give new members and people who are interested during O-Week. We generally have some materials left over from the last year in storage. Some documents may need rewriting (and then proof reading). Printing can be done at Arc. There are electronic copies of these materials on our website under “Resources”.

Stall Stuff

Part or all of a stall can usually be obtained through Thoughtful Food’s connection with the Enviro collective.

This is a list of what we need to bring to our stall:

  • Materials for our stall
  • Materials for Enviro Collective stall
  • Stickers, badges (Ellie and Dave)
  • Food – snack bags with non-meltable food (for sale), plate of cheap nibbles, jars for display
  • Float/money
  • Finance ledger – list details of what has been sold (membership and food)
  • Membership receipt book
  • Contact list (for both stall and shop) – email it around beforehand
  • Water, sunscreen, hat
  • Paper weights, bull clips, banners (clean beforehand), string, sticky tape
  • Music
  • Giant laminated map showing where the food coop is


Shop & stall hours and rosters

We staff the O-week stall from 10am - 4pm each day. If it's quiet in the afternoon we can pack up earlier, around 3pm.

  • During O-week we open the shop Mon-Wed and Friday from 10am - 4pm each day, and 9-6pm on Thursday.
  • There should be at least two people on the stall and one in the shop at any time (except Thursday which will need three people in the shop at all times).
  • Make a sign for the door (to write email and contact details if interested)

The following is a walkthrough along with some tips of what a typical Oweek day at the stalll looks like:

Morning

By 10:00am things start to become quite busy, so it is important to leave TF by 9:00am with snacks and stall decorations. Decorations include: Sign for top of stall banner at the bottom of stall Flyers bottled goods (honey, tea etc) snack platter

Afternoon

Around 12pm-3pm there is sudden spike in interest about thoughtful foods (not sure why). The best strategy is to have a script and a systematic approach for interactions with Oweekers.

Evening

After 4pm, most people have moved off the main walkway. Generally speaking its a good time to go.


Volunteers

O-Week is a great opportunity for people to volunteer, because it's our busiest week of the year.

Talk to coordinators and 'super vollies' about availabilities for both O-week and semester 1 weeks. Talk up how awesome O-week volunteering can be to get more people involved. Confirm people plan to do their shifts the day before.

Compile a list of things for volunteers to bring (water, sunscreen, etc.). Volunteers should spend no more than three consecutive hours on the stall

Publicity – Blitz, magazines, websites, Tharunka, o-week website

Confirm our opening hours and training times. Submit them to Blitz magazine (through the Arc website), and ask that they be repeated each week during semester. This needs to be done at least a week before O-Week starts.

O-week coordinator

It may be helpful for one person to co-ordinate O-week, which will mostly involve making sure things on this list happen (probably by organising a working bee). This person will probably be the coordinator liaison.

Running an event

We often get a stall location that's less than ideal. To make sure we make the most of O-Week, we should run a fun event, in a location that's likely to get more passing pedestrian traffic. This is a really important way to get new members! Consider a celebrity chef cooking-type event, or something to do with giving people free food.

Flea Markets

To be added


Event Recount Reports

Pie Stall Reportback, Sem. 2, 2013

Authors: Ben Gregory, Liz Llewelyn Needs formatting

Background In semester 1 of 2013, TF ran our first pie stall fundraiser. There was a lot of support from Angie (Funky Pies delivery woman). She brought 30 pies, a pie oven and tongs (almost everything we needed to run it). The pie stall ran smoothly and sold out within the first hour of the lunch rush.

In week 3 of semester 2, we ran another pie stall. Andrew liased with Angie at Funky pies and picked up the pie oven and pies the day before the pie stall. This worked well, because Angie was busy and having everything we needed already on campus made things simpler in the morning.

Equipment - Transport - Set Up Even though the pies were already defrosted, time was still required to heat up the oven and heat the pies. So 2 people took everything up to the library at 09:00, to start selling at 11:00.

Required Equipment: • Pie oven & pies • 1 sturdy table • 1-2 sets of tongs • Serviettes • Sign/s for pie stall • 2 tomato sauce bottle/s (and perhaps chilli sauce) • Thoughtful foods fliers • Money box and change box

Extras: • Pie Stall fliers (send extra vollies out fliering) • Paper bags for pies (but serviettes worked well enough) • Extension lead (proved unnecessary this time) • Paper towel (perhaps as an alternative to serviettes)


The best way to transport all this stuff is to put it on the trolley and wheel it to upper campus by way of the elevators. One person is needed to bush the trolley, and another person to spot and make sure nothing falls off. We put all the small things in a plastic tub.

Elevator route we used: 1. Quad west elevator. From outside the bookshop, go up 2 levels and walk accoss the balcony). 2. Quad east elevator. Go up to contact, then take the ramp up until you get to just below CLB; then go to the elevator to the north. 3. Elevator below Blue Stone Cafe. Go up 2 levels, to the Blue Stone/library level. This elevator is smaller than the others.


Heating By law, the pies need to be heated to 80 degrees. The heating schedule we used is laid out below. If not sold and allowed to cool, the pies cannot be heated and sold again; by law.

Heating Schedule from Funky Pies: • 20 minutes to heat the oven to 200 degrees, then 20 minutes to heat the pies. • Or, conservativelly: 1.5 hours at 150 degrees to heat the oven and pies together. Then turn down to 100 degrees once the pies are hot.

We used the second option. However, a complaint from the semester 1 pie stall was that the pies were too hot. So, this time the oven was turned down to about 60 degrees once the pies had been heated. More pies also had to be heated as the day went on; so later, the oven was turned up to 100 degees as pies were added at the bottom and moved to the top once heated.

Roster The staggered roster also worked very well. There were 2 people at the stall at all times (except during the heating period). Having the staggering meant that things kept going smoothly during the changeovers. Example roster (each colour represents a vollie shift): 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 Set Heating Pies Selling Pies Selling Pies and Pack Up Up Pack Up and back to TF


We actually sold out at 13:00, but this is still a good template for next time; when we will order more pies and 'sausage rolls'.

Pricing The pies were sold for $6 and the 'sausage rolls' for $3; but our wholesale price was not finalised until after the stall. Which means that the price could be changed for the next stall. The suggestion is to leave the pies at $6 and increase the 'sausage rolls' to $3.50.

Lessons

• The main lesson was that we could have sold a lot more. We had 60 pies and 20 'sausage rolls'. They sold out in 2 hours (at 13:00), and we were planning to be there for another 2 hours. However, the lunch rush runs from about 11:00 to 15:00, so we can't rely on those sale rates before 11:00 or after 15:00. The consensus is that we'll increase it to 100 pies and 40 'sausage rolls' next time. But that's still a relativelly safe number, and could be increased (considering that we did little marketing). • The staggered roster worked very well. It also helped that the vollies we had on the stall were known to be reliable, so everyone turned up when they were supposed to. • Fundraising prices should be negotiated with Funky Pies beforehand, in order to maximise our profits and decide on a sale price.


Soup stalls

Thoughtful Foods has done two soup stalls to date and this is what we have learned: In general:

  • Soup Stalls require a lot of preparation time before the day in the making of soup, but this doesn’t need to be coordinator time – volunteers can do it
  • On the day, soup stalls are easy to run – 1 person serving, 1 person taking money, maybe 1 more person for talking up Thoughtful Foods
  • Soup stalls have been run in front of the Library and sold out both times – good in winter

Items purchased (100 serves):

  • Biodegradable cups – we did a bulk order so the shop still has plenty
  • 100 napkins
  • 50 chewy brown rolls from Tin Pin bakery at Bondi – rolls cut in half. Have to ring ahead of time (about a week) and order and try and get good price!
  • 25kg of jap pumpkin – jap is cheapest
  • 5kg of potatoes
  • 5kg of brown onions
  • Shop items: oil and spices (see recipe for quantities)

Soup Recipe:

NOTE: This is a basic recipe that serves 6 people and to be used to gauge the right quantity – different spices etc. can be used. Must be multiplied for appropriate quantity (e.g. multiply be 16 to make approximately 100 serves) Ingredients:

  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 1kg peeled pumpkin, diced
  • 1 large potato, peeled, diced
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1L vegetable stock (or just water) – less for thicker soup
  • Salt – as you feel is appropriate (depends on personal taste)
  • FYI the spices can be changed according to personal taste

Methods:

  • Heat oil in a large saucepan over low heat
  • Add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened but not coloured.
  • Add garlic and spices and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds.
  • Add pumpkin, potato and stock/water and bring to the boil.
  • Turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
  • Allow to cool slightly and then blend in batches (can do this with a stick blender or food processor)

Notes:

  • Pumpkin and potato cook much faster when in smaller pieces
  • Pumpkin and potato can be roasted in oven first to accelerate cooking process.
  • The whole cooking process is about 3 hours per person (peeling vegetables and chopping them took bulk of this time) - getting volunteers to peel and chop pumpkin on a Thursday when veggies arrive makes cooking much easier as most of the chopping is done. But needs to be stored in a cool place so it doesn’t go bad
  • The co-op has a couple of big pots for cooking. Also Monika has 3, Andy has a couple and *Alicia/Laksmi have a couple that can be borrowed.
  • Soup is transported in barrels from honey or tahini
  • If heating is being done by adding boiling water then soup should be made relatively thick

Logistics on the day

  • Bread rolls picked up from Tin Pin bakery at approx. 7am and dropped to co-op. These need to be cut in half by a volunteer before they are taken to the stall. 50 rolls takes about 10-15mins to cut in half
  • Soup most likely made at coordinators/ volunteers house so needs to be picked up by someone with a car and driven to co-op/ soup stall location (probably Library Lawn)
  • Reheating done using burners from the co-op and Monika’s burner. Pour soup into pots so that they are half full and then fill up with water. On high heat, takes very short time to heat (approximately 10-15min)
  • Items needed for stall: tressle table, Tfoods banner (and promo material), scoops for serving (plastic is better so not to scratch good pots), extension lead (in case not near power point), power board, burners (Tfoods double one and possibly Monika’s single one), pots, cups, napkins, soup and rolls.
  • If we did soup as catering in bowls, Monika has around 50 bowls that could be borrowed – they are an eclectic mix that don’t match. Asking the school requesting catering to supply the bowls and cutlery stuff may be the better option.


Flea Market - August 2013

“What we have learned” from the Flea Markets The flea markets should definitely become a fixed event for “Thoughtful Foods” that is happening once a month on a Wednesday. The market is getting more people into the store especially on Wednesdays, is creating awareness that we are existing and is giving us the opportunity to show what we are doing! 1. What was good? - Alex created an amazing set-up with fresh oranges, lemons, limes, self-made jam and cordial that is not only appealing but also matching the image of “Thoughtful Foods” - two big signs were pointing out WHO we are (but not WHAT we are doing) - we had flyers AND explained people the way to our store - we offered free samples of nuts and dried fruits (the sign “free stuff” is catching people’s attention!) 2. What do we have to improve? - we need to set up earlier, before 10:30 a.m., to find a space closer to the main walkway on campus but that we can direct people to the store as well - big advertisement/beautiful hand-written signs WHAT we are doing here, guidance to the store with ballons/streamers/chalk path way…. - we need a float box - we need some of our ready-to-sell products like Brownies, Glowbars, “Glowballs” - people kept on asking for TEA and COFFEE - we could prepare some “snack packs” with nut mixes or dried fruits for example, weigh and price them before for selling on the markets - everything extra, for example if somebody is happy to bake muffins or offer some specials that we can sell there, is appreciated - Alex had the idea that we could also cook a special lunch with ingredients from the store and sell it 3. What we could need next time?


BBQ recount March 2014

Andy' BBQ recount March 2014 BBQ Recount Items Purchased for 100 burgers - 200 Pieces of Tofu, around 3 packets - Dressing and marinate to accommodate - 1 Box of cos Lettuce ($18.50) this was 8 cos lettuces we only used 2 - 7.5kg’s of tomatoes (probably the right amount) - 7.5kgs of Beetroot ( A bit much as this wasn’t popular) - 4kg’s of Zucchini ( Not enough we should have go more maybe even 8kgs) - 7.5kgs of Onions was enough - 300ml of sunflower oil to cook with - 200 napkins - 7 garbage bags of free brumbies assorted bread (we only used 2) Bread- Basically we will always have enough bread if it is obtained for free from brumbies; they have indicated to me that thoughtful foods are more than welcome to pick up the bread any day of the week without prior organizing. Although I would call 2 weeks prior to the event to have them pencil the date in as to not give it away inadvertently. Usually we receive a minimum of 200 bread rolls, and 20 bread loaves. This is ample for up to 400 burgers/ sandwiches. Accessories. We usually allow for 1.3 napkins per burger made, this takes into account one in three customers taking 2 napkins with their burger, I think this is ample Tomato sauce, usually we have 1 big jar/b

Anonymous BBQ or cake stall recount When we ran one in Week 2 we raised $580 after deducting costs! We also ran one in Week 5, raising $383 after costs. We also ran one at the Newtown markets that raised $205 – this wasn't great, also now you need a permit (expensive) so the markets are off the cards at the moment. (what semester, what type of stall?),