A potluck usually runs on a clipboard in the foyer and somebody counting casseroles on Saturday night. A food sign-up puts that clipboard on the event: people say what they're bringing, everyone can see what's covered, and nobody brings the fourth tray of rolls.
Switch it on
Open the event and choose the Food tab, then switch food sign-up on. You can start from a menu you saved before, from one of four starters (church potluck, holiday dinner, fellowship breakfast, bring anything), or from a blank menu.
Food sign-up works on one-off events. Repeating events don't take it; make a one-off event for the meal.
The menu
The menu is a list of kinds of food. Each one can have a number, like Main dishes: 6, or no limit, like Drinks. Once a kind reaches its number it shows as covered and people pick something else.
Some things aren't a dish. Mark Paper plates or Coffee as a single item and people just say they'll bring it.
Don't want categories at all? Start from Bring anything. It's one open list with no counts: people just say what they're bringing, and everyone sees what's coming. Any menu with a single kind of food works the same way.
Under Menu and settings you also choose:
- Who can sign up: signed-in members, or members and visitors.
- Who sees the list: anyone who can see the event, or members only.
- Names on the list: first name and last initial, full names, or no names.
- Dietary tags (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, contains nuts) and how many it serves, if you want to ask.
- When sign-ups close: when the event starts, at a time you pick, or never.
- A limit per person, and a note from the church such as "Drop food at the kitchen door by 11:30".
Where people sign up
The menu appears on the event's page and on its landing page, if it has one.
Each event's food sign-up also has its own page at
/events/<event>/food on your website. Put that link in the bulletin, a
text message or a QR code.
To put the menu on a page you built yourself, such as "Thanksgiving dinner", add the Food Sign-up block and choose the event.
Members sign up as themselves. Visitors, if you allow them, give their name and an email or a phone number. Anyone who gives an email gets a confirmation with a link to change or cancel; a visitor who gives only a phone number can change it from the same browser or ask you.
People can change what they're bringing until sign-ups close, and cancel until the event is over, so someone who gets sick can still free the spot.
What gets sent
- A confirmation when someone signs up.
- A reminder the day before, saying what they're bringing.
- A cancellation notice if you cancel or delete the event, so nobody cooks for a meal that isn't happening.
On the Food tab
You see everyone who signed up, with any contact details a visitor typed in and the notes people left for you. You can also:
- Add someone who signed up on paper or by phone. Staff aren't held to a kind's number.
- Export the list to a spreadsheet, or print a sheet for the serving table with blank lines for walk-ups.
- Save for reuse, so next year's potluck starts from this year's menu. Duplicating an event copies its menu too.
- Switch on a daily email of new sign-ups. It comes to you each morning something changed, in the week before the event.
Saved menus live under Forms, in Food sign-up sheets.