Creating a Kitchen Serving and Cleanup Schedule

The kitchen serving and cleanup schedule can only be created after the participants groups have been made. Once the education director has the groups assigned, the camp director should create a schedule and assign groups for serving and cleaning the dishes and kitchen after each meal. Keep the following points in mind:

• The Twinkles, Stars, and Moons are too young to be included in the serving and cleaning schedule. Most adults are assigned other jobs, so the serving and cleanup is assigned to the groups of Suns and older.

• Children under 12 years are not allowed in the kitchen and can’t be servers or cleanup crew inside the kitchen. Suns (ages 10–11) can help with cleaning the dining hall (sweeping the floor and wiping tables). That means, however, that a group of Suns always needs to be paired with an older group for cleanup, so that the older kids can do the cleanup work in the kitchen.

• Groups should be rotated to help with different meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner) and different assignments (serving and cleanup) as much as possible.

• If a group leader has a leading role in an afternoon or evening activity, his/her group should not have to do the cleanup right before that activity.

• For cleanup after dinner on the night of the Dodgeball Tournament, it’s best to ask for a group of cleanup volunteers who are not involved in the tournament. This way the tournament can start early.

• Volunteers are also needed for both serving and cleaning at dinner on arrival day, as the groups have not been announced yet at that time. Ask for volunteers during announcements before dinner.

• The kitchen serving and cleanup schedule should be posted near the kitchen for all to see, and the groups in charge of serving and cleaning should be announced before each meal.

Review a sample cleanup schedule here: