Meal Instructions
Dinner entrees, sides, beverage/dessert and Tomorrow Bags:
For our 8th season, Room In the Inn (RITI) Berea will be operating under a new model for serving food and meals to our guests. Due to health department regulations, we will not be able to accept and serve meals prepared by volunteers in their homes. All meals served to our guests must be prepared in a commercial/restaurant kitchen, either purchased from a restaurant/deli or prepared in the Union Church kitchen (with a food manager present and all cooks having a food handlers card).
PROVIDING DINNERS:
Dinner volunteers may select to either provide a main dinner entree, dinner sides, dinner beverages and dessert, or a combination of the 3 components; each nightly meal has separate volunteer slots on Meal Train for each day of the season.
We typically serve 20-30 guests per night, but guest numbers have ranged from 15 to 45 in the past. As the season progresses, we will send updates through Meal Train to inform volunteers and donors of the recent guest numbers we have been serving, allowing them to better estimate the number they need to provide on their sign-up night.
Each night will, of course, be a community effort! Different participants can sign up to bring different meal components from different locations on any given night; we just ask that each person who signs up leave a note on Meal Train specifying their phone number and what items they plan to provide so that other volunteers will be able to coordinate filling in gaps accordingly. If you plan to cook in the church kitchen, please include that information in the "meal description" or "notes" lines on the meal train sign up. We will coordinate with cooks to be sure there is a food manager on site for your time cooking in the church kitchen.
For anyone interested in providing all meal components for a night, please sign up for all meal slots (dinner entree, dinner sides, & dinner beverages) and include item descriptions and your contact information for each. Reminder that volunteer slots & their descriptions can always be edited and cancelled as needed; please just provide as much advance notice as possible.
Note: Providing any portion of a meal or tomorrow bags includes transportation/delivery of items to Union Church by 5:00 PM on their selected night, unless other delivery arrangements are made.
If ordering from a restaurant, please provide businesses at least 3-5 days lead time ahead of your sign-up date when placing orders.
We will be operating every night from January 1st - March 15th, meaning we will be asking the community to provide 65 nights worth of meals. While things will be looking much different, we know that our Madison County community will act to meet this need, just as you all have supported us across the last seven seasons! We can only do what we do because of friends like you!
*Special thank you to Union Church for providing dinner every Wednesday this season*
TOMORROW BAGS:
We will continue to provide “tomorrow bags” each night to our guests, which include food for breakfast and lunch the next day. However, every item included in the tomorrow bags must be pre-packaged and shelf-stable. For example, we cannot serve sandwiches assembled at home. Fruits are accepted and encouraged! But they must be whole/not sliced.
Suggested items (this list is just a starting point):
Protein/fat sources
peanut butter packets
tuna/chicken pouches
beef jerky
beef stick
Carbs/grains
crackers
granola bars
fruit/grain bars
individual oatmeal
trail mix pouches
Fruits/veggies
applesauce pouches
dried fruit
pop-top canned fruit/veggies
individual fruit cups
whole fruit (apple, banana, orange, tangerine)
Drinks
water bottles
shelf-stable juice boxes
Individuals/groups interested in assembling and providing tomorrow bags can sign up for those volunteer slots on Meal Train.
