In charge of rest stop food...

[featuretile]

I have been managing a rest stop for the Strawberry Fields Forever ride in CA. We get about 1200 riders. The rest stop is at a farm and they make apple pies. So we serve apple pie, a Russian woman makes blinis (crepes). Our reputation is that we have the best food. We also have fruit, but the bananas and the oranges are not chosen, so I am not even going to have them this year. What the riders love is cut up watermelon and cantaloupe. We also have peanut butter pretzels and trail mix. Drinks are apple juice, lemonade, water and Gator aid. For this size group I needed 12 watermelons, 12 cantaloups and 60 pies.

There are other rest stop which have different foods, like the pb&j, hard boiled eggs and potatoes suggested above as well as energy bars,chocolate chip cookies and coffee. All the captains meet at Costco and purchase what they need the day before. All the fruit is ordered at a fruit stand type place and we pick it up from a central location. We get a lot of strawberries - some of which are donated. There is also a lunch rest stop and a post meal ride rest stop.

So, I would suggest that you coordinate with the other rest stops, so that you are all not serving the same thing. Group buying and seeing if you can get any donations from sponsors is also a possibility. You also need to have volunteers to serve the food and you should schedule more of them to be there at the times that you expect it will be more crowded (when most of the riders reach your rest stop). You also need to have trash cans & recycling cans (if you do that).

Hope that helps!

[IFjane]

Oh my gosh, that is a great idea. It is probably too late to delegate the responsibilities this year, but I will definitely look into doing that next year. I guess I was not clear about my responsibilities. I am responsible for the food and drink at ALL the rest stops. There will be five and each will be manned by a local group (little league team, churches, etc.). The food has always been provided for them, so making them each responsible is a new concept. Hmmmmm....the wheels are turning now! Thanks for your input, featuretile!

[jobob]

I don't have much more to add to the excellent advice here, only that if you have to make lots of pb&j sandwiches, it's much quicker & easier if you use plain (creamy, not chunky) peanut butter and a smooth-spreading jam. I once learned that the hard way ...

[TrekDianna]

Rest stop food on the ride I was on today was various fruits. Bagels with cream cheese, jam or peanutbutter, chips & salsa, energy bars, and lots and lots of cookies since it was sponsored by a cookie place.