Barbecue – charity
Barbecues for charity can be great fun on their own or combined with other events, such as a barbecue and dog show or a barbecue with children’s games. There are certainly a few things to bear in mind before you go ahead though:
- Insurance – any public event needs to have liability insurance.
- Permission – unless you’re doing it in your own garden or grounds, you need permission to use the site. Even if you are organising a charity barbecue at home, remember your neighbours may not be too pleased to have dozens of cars parking in the area, so give them advance warning!
- Hygiene – cooking for the family is one thing, cooking for large amounts of people who may be in a hurry is something else – make sure you have good hygiene procedures and that anybody who is helping you understands them and sticks to them.
- Public relations – you’ve got to inform people about the event and ensure that the charity you’re working for is given a good press – remember that many health charities may not have a high opinion of barbecue food so you may want to give your event a theme like vegetarian, healthy or fish barbecue. When it comes to press attention be innovative – if your press release is interesting enough, local media will keen to promote the event. Don't forget outlets like staff newsletters, parish magazines, notice boards and so on - the more people that turn up, the more successful your event will be.
- Sourcing – I know of one event that was scuppered when it was discovered that the drinks they were serving were purchased by a company that the charity in question had got on its ‘blacklist’ for using cheap labour overseas!
- Distractions – people often have to wait for food so try and provide things to keep them amused, a juggler, a couple of comic belly dancers, or even little hand-held quizzes they can fill in while they stand in line, anything to prevent the chorus of ‘why are we waiting?’ that can ruin a charity event.
Barbecue charity photograph by Urthstripe, used under a creative commons attribution licence.