Planning a parish supper
A parish supper is a small logistics project run by volunteers. The meal is rarely the hard part. Knowing how many people are coming, and when, is. Here is a timeline that works for most suppers, and what the invitation can do to make the counting easier.
Eight weeks before: set the frame
Set the date, book the hall, and decide who is in charge of what: the kitchen, the room, the welcome table, and the invitations. One person should own the guest list. When three volunteers keep three lists, nobody knows the real number.
Set a simple budget as well: the hall, the food, the supplies, and what you hope to raise if the supper supports a cause. It tells you how many guests you need for the evening to cover its costs.
Also decide whether the supper is open to everyone or limited to a set number of places. A hall with eighty chairs is a limit, and it is easier to say so on the invitation than to turn people away at the door.
The timeline
Here is a timeline that leaves room for the unexpected. Adjust it to your parish, but keep the order: the reply-by date comes before the shopping, never after.
- Eight weeks before: date, hall, team, budget.
- Six weeks before: menu and quantities per person, the invitation ready.
- Five weeks before: the invitation goes out by email and text, and the link and its QR code appear in the bulletin (replies open to anyone with the link).
- Three weeks before: an announcement after Mass, and a reminder to those who have not answered.
- Ten days before: replies close; you place the order or plan the shopping.
- The day before: a reminder to everyone who said yes, with the address and the time.
- On the day: the welcome table with the list of households.
- The week after: a thank-you note to volunteers and guests.
What to put in the invitation
Say what is being served, at what time doors open and when the meal starts, where to park, and whether the room is accessible. If there is a contribution at the door, say how much and how to pay it, since the invitation itself does not take payments. If the supper supports a cause, one sentence about it is enough.
Ask for what the kitchen needs to know: the number of adults and children, and any dietary restrictions. If you offer a choice of dishes, add it as a question so the kitchen has the count per dish, not a guess.
Reaching parishioners
No single channel reaches everyone. Older parishioners may read the bulletin or answer a text; younger families check email. Use several: send the invitation by email and by text to the people you have contact details for, print the QR code in the bulletin and on a poster at the back of the church, and mention it after Mass. For the bulletin’s QR code to work, set replies to “Anyone with the link”, so parishioners who are not on your list can answer too.
If your parish holds several suppers a year, keep the guest list. On invitesyou, an organization can save the list of an event and reuse it for the next one, so you do not start from a blank page every autumn.
On the day
Put two volunteers at the welcome table with the list of expected households. Families arrive together, so search by family name rather than by first name. Checking people in as they arrive tells the kitchen when to start serving and gives you a real attendance figure for next year.
On invitesyou, the check-in list works on a phone: volunteers search by name or household and mark each arrival, and the count of people present updates as they go.
Keep a few extra places for people who come without replying. There will be some, and a parish supper is no place to turn a neighbour away.
After the supper
Write down what you learned while it is fresh: how many replied yes, how many came, how many arrived without replying, what ran out and what was left over. Those numbers are the best planning tool you will have next year.
When you are ready to start, create your invitation, choose an organization event template, and send it to your parish list.