Need Detailed Sample Menu for 2-week bishop food order

[BrianEdwards]

@KimPacker, thanks so much for sharing this with Forum members (current and future!). As I'm sure you know, there will definitely be future leaders who search the Forum with this need, and will find your resources. A good reminder to all of us, to circle back with solutions and post them so others can benefit.

[nalenc]

I finally created one for myself to use and I’m sharing it in Google sheets. Please reach out to me if you need it tweaked in any way for local differences. I started the calendar on Wednesday since that is the day Bishop Storehouse orders are picked up in our area. Reach me at [email removed]
Christina RS Pres in Cheyenne, WY

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 5Rpp0/edit

[Moderator note, I'd suggest contacting Christina though the forum via PM. Any emails posted here will be public and likely vacuumed up into the dealers of spam.]

[BrianEdwards]

@nalenc, that's a really great doc that I'm sure others will benefit from. Along with the meal planning lesson from a previous post, this definitely helps those who are looking for existing materials to help them get started.

As a side note, I think there's two potentially conflicting aspects to filling out these orders: (1) Will the members actually eat the food they are ordering? (2) Is it a healthy balanced diet?

My experience is that for most orders, (1) is the more important immediate factor, while (2) is a longer-term issue to work on with the members. That's why from my perspective, trying to force members into a specific food order that is balanced, may not meet their immediate needs. We definitely should always encourage members to balance their orders, but that may take time for them to adjust to. I know of members who have food order items that we suggested, and then those items go to waste, so it's something to keep in mind.

[nalenc]

Yes. Great comments. Thank you.

Look at this resource I found based through a non-profit group in the UK (need to convert to ounces or pounds). I also love the food calculator.

https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/foods ... tion-sizes

There’s lot of useful helps at this website. It would be great if the church could make something similar that reflects recipes etc to correlate with the Bishop’s Storehouse foods offered. Maybe I can get my developer husband to make something similar

[Kretzl]

I agree. We need changes to the menu to stop wasting food, teach people high level cooking skills so they can prepare healthy and highly appetising meals, particularly seasoning and sauces. Allow the people to make requests for cooking alternatives to preparing a meal that has ingredients they don't want that can be taken into consideration for creating other recipes.
1. Get a non-member company (to remove bias) to evaluate the nutrition availability of the provided foods to see if anything needs to be removed or or added to be able to live in a healthy way and provide variety.
2. Temporarily contract a company of chefs to make all the meals possible from the food provided and allow them to add other local ingredients not provided at the storehouse for each area of the world/country. Have them address the needs and specialties of vegetarians, vegans, allergies, omnivores, Paleo, sugar free, keto, etc. Keep finding other chefs to diversify the meals on a cyclical period and add to an accessible church web site. Have the chefs teach meal preparation courses online which includes advanced cooking skills that are found in higher end restaurants as well as the common secrets of good cooking and the kitchen tools needed. Other videos online could be recommended and re-share those if possible.
3. Provide those meals created by chefs and nutritionist on the church web site to allow people to select meal plans instead of just food items. This will reduce food waste and teach people how to cook better and as a result eat healthier. When the patrons come to the storehouse, they can shop according to recipes which can be printed out at the storehouse.

[russellhltn]

I agree. We need changes to the menu to stop wasting food, teach people high level cooking skills so they can prepare healthy and highly appetising meals, particularly seasoning and sauces. Allow the people to make requests for cooking alternatives to preparing a meal that has ingredients they don't want that can be taken into consideration for creating other recipes.
1. Get a non-member company (to remove bias) to evaluate the nutrition availability of the provided foods to see if anything needs to be removed or or added to be able to live in a healthy way and provide variety.
2. Temporarily contract a company of chefs to make all the meals possible from the food provided and allow them to add other local ingredients not provided at the storehouse for each area of the world/country. Have them address the needs and specialties of vegetarians, vegans, allergies, omnivores, Paleo, sugar free, keto, etc. Keep finding other chefs to diversify the meals on a cyclical period and add to an accessible church web site. Have the chefs teach meal preparation courses online which includes advanced cooking skills that are found in higher end restaurants as well as the common secrets of good cooking and the kitchen tools needed. Other videos online could be recommended and re-share those if possible.
3. Provide those meals created by chefs and nutritionist on the church web site to allow people to select meal plans instead of just food items. This will reduce food waste and teach people how to cook better and as a result eat healthier. When the patrons come to the storehouse, they can shop according to recipes which can be printed out at the storehouse.

I think we're straying far from the mission of the church. The purpose of the Bishop's Storehouse is to provide for those in need, not to rectify the food problems of society at large. Either way, this is a community forum to learn from each other not to advocate for changes in the church. There are no decision-makers here.

[monisha]

Iʻm an RS President who usually takes a more hands-off approach to doing the food order -- I just ask the recipient how much she thinks she needs for two weeks. But I like the idea of using a meal plan as a Storehouse "shopping" guide!

Just found this with a Google search. Might be helpful??
https://learning2bloom.com/unofficial-g ... torehouse/

[mclive22]

Hi Christina, can i get a copy of this document? The link is no longer working. I added you as a friend on the forum, but otherwise I’m not sure how to connect with you? We would be very grateful to have access to this meal plan if you are still open to sharing!

Thanks either way!
MLynn

I finally created one for myself to use and I’m sharing it in Google sheets. Please reach out to me if you need it tweaked in any way for local differences. I started the calendar on Wednesday since that is the day Bishop Storehouse orders are picked up in our area. Reach me at [email removed]
Christina RS Pres in Cheyenne, WY

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 5Rpp0/edit

[Moderator note, I'd suggest contacting Christina though the forum via PM. Any emails posted here will be public and likely vacuumed up into the dealers of spam.]

[BrianEdwards]

Hi Christina, can i get a copy of this document? The link is no longer working.

Also, a bit earlier in the thread, a different user posted three docs that might be helpful. Perhaps you already accessed them, but since for me that post appears on a separate page, it could be easy to miss.

[mclive22]

Thank you so much for pointing this out!!