How it Works

While the specifics of our group have evolved over time the basics have remained the same. For simplicity sake we will say there are 8 swappers and each swapper prepares meals that will serve 6 adults.

The basics:
Each month (usually the last Tuesday) our group meets at a specific location (a parking lot by the city park) at a designated time (7:00 p.m.). Each swapper arrives with 7 meals to swap having left the 8th meal at home since it is for their family. All 8 swappers then proceed to swap with one another and at the end of about 10 minutes each swapper has 7 different 6-serving meals to take home.
 
Some specifics:
Shauna is the coordinator for our group. She emails the group at the beginning of each month to confirm the number of meals to be made and the date of the exchange. While the last Tuesday of the month is the norm, due to holidays or vacations, the week of the exchange has been adjusted from time to time.

There use to be a 6-serving group and a 4-serving group; however, due to a decline in participation and/or increases in family size, there is currently only a 6-serving group and those who joined from the 4-serving group enjoy having extra leftovers.

There have been times when there were only 4 or 5 swappers and during those times each swapper made 2 different sets of 6-serving/4-serving meals. For example, one month I made five 6-serving Foolproof Burgers AND five 6-serving Marinated Chicken. After the swap, I had 10 different meals (my 2 plus the 8 made by the other 4 swappers).