Bring a board nights?

[tequillaaa]

For anyone who doesn’t know what it is, you bring a board of food to someone’s house and it’s usually themed (countries, colours etc).

I’ve been to one and there was so much food left over it was an absolute waste. I did a dessert board but the host almost made a cake so it felt pretty worthless me paying for food that wasn’t eaten - and it wasn’t just mine.

I’ve been invited to another but now it’s expected to cater for lots of food intolerances- which I absolutely get. I just can’t be bothered to put so much effort in to have food left over, that even if I brought home I wouldn’t eat (because gluten free tastes quite gross to me). Aibu or am I just a misery? 😂

Not really; they've been around for years, I remember my church doing it once a month when I was a kid. Sometimes they're called potlucks or bring a plate.
Where everyone brings something - usually you take something you know you'll eat, and if it's organised correctly you get very little waste.

The expectation and scale of pot luck suppers is not the same, that's the issue.

If you think about it, no one should really be bringing more than they personally could eat if they just ate their dish. It never works out that way though! I think the idea of having doggy bags is a great one - encourage everyone to bring a container to take leftovers. But that’s down to the host, unless it’s the sort of situation where you can suggest something like this.

Pot luck things are fine. This sounds hideous.

It's called a potluck! Transporting boards of food around sounds so annoying. I recommend the traditional bowl or dish. 😀

It's not potluck though. That's the whole issue. She had to pile stuff up in a pleasing to the eye fashion on a board so that people can take a photo for The Gram.

I like the cocktail ones- seen some themed around what people do for work or people's exes. Then there's no waste,

But agree the food ones are stupid and wasteful. I wouldn't go

We did something similar. Everyone took their own leftovers home. No waste and they all had a plate or tub of one food the next day. Better than tupperware with loads of non matching food thrown on top of each other

If you are dealing with allergies just opt for foods that are gluten free anyway and use coconut milk for instance. What is your theme? I'm sure I can come up with something

This is always my issue with Bring & Share - noone would ever take the equivalent of just a single portion so there will always be too much. And inevitably there is waste.

And it ends up costing everyone a disproportionate amount for what it is.

Much better would be to pool resources and for 1 or 2 people to collate the food (and they don't have to pay, because they're doing the work). You'd have far fewer boards, and could even get more coherence (in the 'countries' example, you could easily end up with (eg) 4 cheese/meat boards representing Italy, Spain, Greece, France which are essentially all the same thing.

Same board described. Call it Greek.

Oh like those disgusting charcuterie boards where everything's touching? 🤢

That's why there's so much waste - no-one want to eat hammy-cheese, soggy-cracker and other mushed-together mess.

Just take a dish, with any supporting items in separate dishes, enjoy the evening and stop fannying about for attention.

OP I think youre over thinking this. Iv seen multiple bring a board nights and they dont have actual foods like a cheese board for example. If they've done a colour theme its packaged foods of that colour, so red would be packets of skittles / red pringles / cans of coke. That way there's no waste and the packets can all be taken home and wont spoil.
I assume you want to go to this night with your friends to socialise and continue to be invited to these events. So just go along with it, I really dont see the issue. Its not that much planning really.

I agree OP, it doesn't make sense for each person to bring a bigger quantity of food than one person would eat to these things.

I love a pot luck but they need some basic organisation and plans of what to do with the leftovers or they're just wasteful.

That’s just a fancy arse fuddle isn’t it. Been to many except it does not have to be on a board. I remember going to a fancy dress one about 20 years ago, MN would have been up in arms about that.

I have three wooden chopping boards all different sizes and would ask for numbers and take according to numbers. Just use a very small chopping board.

I would do a fruit board - colorful and cheap

In theory, this is a great idea. In practice, the same people will pay up and the same people will "forget" every time, and the same people will end up doing all the work all the time.

Some kind of bring and share is the best way to spread the load. (I find the "board" and "theme" element of it a bit pointless, but everyone bringing a dish works well and takes the financial and effort pressure off of the same few that put the effort in each time.)

Host needs to organise carefully with more instructions to guests on what and how much to bring.

no need for waste - host at end of evening give everyone a doggy bag / some bits on a board to take home at the end of the evening

I wouldn’t want to take any food home with me, that’s been hanging around all evening, probably uncovered, with people talking/laughing/coughing near it. A literal smorgasbord of saliva and germs!

If it bothers you that much, collect together what's left and take it to the nearest homeless shelter. They'd appreciate it much more.

Never heard of it. I thought it was bring a board game - which I'm up for!

Board game - yes!

Homeless shelter - no they bloody wouldn't! See post above yours. Opened, undated, mixed-up, sneezed-on food. Yuck!

It is a waste

YABU for this though because gluten free tastes quite gross to me. If it tastes gross, you're doing it wrong! Apart from bread. That's pretty shit (texture rather than taste though).