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How to serve food
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Written by Wei-Jing Zhu
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You can help by offering suggestions to the problem we face:
Challenge:
As in any large group gathering, food distribution is always a challenge, facing potential problems of long lines, unnecessary waiting, people taking more in the beginning, and running out of food for people at the end of the line, etc.
You can offer your views, experiences, ideas, or comment on what others propose below. With each person writing ideas in a few minutes, the consensus can be more useful than hours of discussion in meetings. Such a web discussion will benefit any future gatherings as well.
To start the discussion:
If we have only a few items, and plenty of supply for each item, then it will always be easy to anticipate. Everyone will feel that there is plenty of food, and will not take too much. Hence, there will unlikely be shortage either. For example, pizza at children birthday parties never runs out.
However, when we have many dishes, (as in a Chinese banquet), then everyone will want to sample a little bit of each dish. As is often the case, even a little bit from each of the many dishes will lead to too much food for one person, and there is waste.
Furthermore, in the case that each dish is not enough for everyone to sample, there will be the expectation of running out of food. This situation escalates, since people in the front of the line expects the dish to be out before they return for seconds, and hence will likely want to take as much as they can, even if they end up not eating them. Ex. Shrimp dishes are always the first to go.
Precisely because of the fear of scarcity, people will want it more, leading to definite shortage and running out of food before the people at the end of the line get a chance.
The previous phenomenon doesn't just stop at a single dish, but goes for the entire food supply, especially since people’s past experience in Chinese community gatherings is always that the food likely runs out. The expectation of shortage will make early people get more, and causing the later people to have less or none.
What strategies, rules, techniques, etc, should a food distribution team adopt to reduce waste, increase belief that everyone gets a fair share, and have latecomers taken care of as well, so that there is no shortage of food, and everyone to be satisfied?
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Comment without logging in
Written by Guest on 2006-01-26 14:41:11
If you don't register and login, you can still leave comments under the name "Guest". If that is the case, it'd be helpful if you leave your initial. Thanks. WJZ | Save some food for people coming late
Written by Guest on 2006-01-26 15:50:33
There could be two solutions:
1. Recruit some people to help serve the food instead of leeting everybody grab his own food. In that case, everybody gets a fair share.
2. Do not put all foods out on table at one time. Divide every dish into multiple portions, and only leave one portion on the table at one time. So, once the plate gets empty, it could always be refilled for people coming late. | What rate to put out food?
Written by Guest on 2006-01-27 09:43:57
Regarding 2 above, exactly how much food to put out at the beginning, middle, and end?
Perhaps assume 80% in the beginning. Also, pre-filled plates in the beginning, so that people don't pick and choose. That will speed up the long waiting line in the beginning. | Pre-packaging: Steak or fish
Written by Guest on 2006-01-27 10:21:00
In western banquets, they ask you to choose "steak" or "fish". Similarly, in prepackaging a plate/box, you need not stuff it with every single item available, since a subset is fine.
This way, it is easier and quicker to fill each plate/box, and a family can get a combination of different types of plates to share the variety. | this is more an art than science
Written by Guest on 2006-01-29 22:52:17
I recently visited a local Chinese church which happened to serve dinner and there were a large crowd (probably ~100 people). I am amazed that everything was calm and peaceful. It was a buffet-style potluck dinner, but I don't see the typical chaotic scene I frequently witnessed in such gatherings (like in HXNY).
After speaking with the organizers, I realized that it would not happen without their painstaking planning: 1) they asked all families to bring some extra food so they are prepared even with a sizeable "visitors"; 2) They made it a rule that friends/visitors get food first. The message was clearly communicated to all families. I saw kids in a regular church-goer family wait after visitors have their first plate before getting their own food. It's not easy, but it was well done. 3) Last but not least, most people know each other, which may have some bearings on what I saw.
This writing is more about sharing with you guys that it is possible to have an orderly dinner among a large crowd of use. Clearly the structure of participants to the upcoming party may very well be dramatically different from people going to a church, and I am certainly not advocateing blindly to take the same approach.
| balance 2 needs
Written by Guest on 2006-01-31 12:08:37
The basic problem is that people want speed (get food immediately) and quantity (get a lot of food), which we cannot supply simultaneously to everyone's satisfaction at the same time.
To balance the two, the food distribution team should announce clearly the following guideline: (thanks to ideas from the previous post):
1. the round-1 servings are for children or elderly, who should not wait too long. However, the serving size will be small. (Speed but no quantity).
2. the round-2 servings will be for adults, with more quantity. The cost is that you wait a little.
Hmm, you may think food distribution is a mundane and hence simple problem. But it is getting as complex as condensed matter physics where the system tries also to balance two elements (energy and entropy in that case.) | Simplicity
Written by Guest on 2006-02-03 10:08:27
what if someone just go back multiple times in round 1?
then you would need to stamp people's tickets to prevent them from doing so.
Then the rules will become too complex.
Simple: How about just serve more rice and less of the dishes that may run out in the beginning? |
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