Comments on draft tree chipping food report

["Don McGorman" <mcgormd@hotmail.com>]

Andrea:

Overall the food service Sunday was excellent; kudos for all involved,

Here are some comments on the draft food report.

1.  I was not around between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on chipping day so I 
can not say if the tables were cleaned before they were returned to the 
mall; they should have been, if not the mall may not want to lend them next 
year.  Ask Kip B. and Peter McLarty.

2.  As in past years, I brought a 60-cup electric coffee urn from the MNR 
office to brew coffee at 6:00 a.m. on chipping day.  As in past years I 
purchased 250g coffee and a litre of cream along with two party packs of 
Timbits for which CN reimbursed me ($16.10).  Another year this could be 
part of the donations you collect and would be delivered to the tree site 
the day before.

3.  The tree chipping stopped for lunch at 11:00 and the first servings of 
chili were reported to be cold; I'm not sure what the problem was; when I 
went for chili it was perfect.

4.  No one that I know was expecting baking on Saturday; if it was part of 
the plan it was not communicated (see point 8 below).  When Doug Cuddy 
dropped of a baking bundle on Friday I assumed it was for Sunday and stashed 
it in the trailer.  On Saturday when you told me that it was for that day I 
opened it up and put out the cookies.  There was also a Christmas cake but 
with no provision to serve it, it went unused.  I would recommend ready to 
eat dry finger foods rather than sticky cake that requires knives, forks and 
dishes to serve and consume; on the other hand maybe that cake could have 
been delivered already cut up.

5.  I did not know that drinking water was available on Sunday even though I 
was thirsty and thinking about it.  Maybe this is related to the fact that 
there were no signs or labels on containers; Good idea for next year.

6.  Any chance next year that you (or someone you designate) could stick 
around at the beginning and look after the fine details?  The Scouts do a 
fantastic job but unless there is someone from Clean North who knows the 
plan and can be there to look after fine details, small things can fall 
through the cracks.

7.  In my opinion it would show appreciation to our depot if there were food 
and beverages available at the depot throughout the period from Dec 26 
onward; here are some ideas:

- there should always be a supply of small sugary things like cookies, 
Timbits, etc. available in the trailer;  perhaps if we started getting 
organized in September we could get corporate donations of such?

- there should always be a supply of drinking water available in the 
trailer;  I'm thinking of several ways to do this:
---bottled water in small recyclable containers.  A company like Pure Lacqua 
probably would donate water by the case, particularly cases that have 
defective labels which they can't sell anyway.  There would need to be a 
blue box in the trailer to collect empty recyclable containers.
---a bottled water dispenser in the heated trailer with disposable paper 
cups which could be composted.

- keeping any beverages fresh and hot in the trailer would be tricky as if 
anything is plugged in at the same time as the heater the fuse may blow.

- my suggestion on how to provide hot beverages to depot volunteers is to 
work out an arrangement with one or more commercial vendors in the area for 
free or discounted beverages using a coupon system.  Say that for every 
shift there were five coupons for a free small beverage at Rome's, Second 
Cup, A&W, Mr. Sub etc. (or maybe the coupon would be for a discount on a 
beverage, say a small beverage for 50 cents)  At four shifts per day over 18 
days (next year) that would be 360 coupons.  Again we would need to get 
working on this in September and not wait until two weeks before Christmas.

8.  One final comment.  It would be useful to me, if the detailed 
food/beverage plan could be circulated (to the tree-chip list) early in 
December.  That way everyone on the committee would know what the plan is 
and there would still be time to make comments and suggestions.

Don




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