21: “Bring & Share Supper”?? What Ever is That??!
I am sure nearly everyone must know what an “American Supper” is. In an American Supper, everyone brings a contribution for a buffet table. Typically, the organisers provide plates, serviettes, cutlery, teas/coffees, and perhaps a tipple.
An American Supper can be a very effective solution to catering for a party. It shares out the labour and cost amongst all who attend (presuming they don’t cheat and deliberately free-load). However, there are also drawbacks. One is that people tend to over-cater. If 40 people contribute to a buffet (or, more likely, 20 couples make one contribution each), they may well do enough of their particular thing to go around — so then there is enough food for 40 people to have 20 items on their plate each! What happens to the surplus? It has to be taken home, or get thrown away.
Another drawback is if it is a small group, or fewer than expected turn up. To take an extreme, with five couples for example, three might bring sausage rolls and the other two cheese sandwiches. You see the problem. And invariably there is a lot of clearing up.
For those reasons, I will sometimes announce a Bring & Share Supper. This is not an American Supper. What I mean by that is bring everything you need (as an individual, or couple, or small self-organised group) for yourselves, eat and drink it yourselves, and take any leftovers (and rubbish) home with you — like a picnic. We might gather around a communal table for it as a party, and we might do swaps, but it is not trying to cater for the whole group, and the food is not going to be set out on a buffet table beforehand.
There is one tiny exception: sometimes, somebody (for whatever reason) doesn’t get the memo, doesn’t expect a party, and arrives empty-handed. Rather than leave them out, if people cater just slightly more than they need for themselves, we can share out and include anyone in that position... including me (the DJ, with plenty of other things to worry about) — thanks in advance!