Serve A Meal

Service With a Purpose.

Serving a meal at The Banquet is much more than just serving food. Volunteering can be done as a group or individually. Whether you volunteer as a group or as an individual, when you help at The Banquet you are nourishing our community. Be sure to visit our calendar to see dates available for serving.

Serving as a Group

Our groups come from all walks of life including churches, businesses, service organizations, schools, families and neighborhoods. When a group volunteers, they have committed to paying for the cost of the food that is served for that meal, preparing, serving and helping with light clean up. A group of 20 volunteers is needed to serve breakfast and 35-40 volunteers are needed to serve an evening meal, although more volunteers are welcome to allow for sharing fellowship with our guests. During the evening meal, The Banquet typically serves approximately 350-450 people.

Serving as an Individual

If you would like to help us serve a meal but are not affiliated with a group, please contact shiloh@thebanquetsf.org to schedule a time to serve. We do ask that you make a contribution toward the overall cost of the meal, as you will be assigned with a group that is responsible for funding that meal.

Volunteer Guidelines

For the safety of our volunteers, The Banquet provides guidelines for its volunteers on what activities are appropriate for what ages. Volunteers must be 13 years or older to work in the kitchen or pour beverages. Volunteers age 10-12 may only wash tables and carry trays. Children under age 10 will most likely be helping wipe tables. We ask that parents use their own discretion about whether their child will be able to stay at that task for one and a half hours. Young children must be closely supervised by their parents at all times for their own personal safety.

Volunteer Dress Code

We ask that you keep the following dress code in mind when preparing to serve at The Banquet. We recommend that our volunteers wear:

• Jeans
• Capris
• Walking shorts that fall no shorter than above the knee
• Sleeved t-shirts that are long enough to be tucked in
• Tennis shoes or closed–toe shoes

For your comfort and safety please do not wear:

• Short shorts
• Mini-skirts
• Tank tops
• Midriff-bearing tops
• Flip flops
• Sandals
• Hats

If you would like to volunteer to serve, please contact marvella@thebanquetsf.org.

The Banquet also has a “last-minute” call list of volunteers to help when a scheduled group is short on workers, so please request to have your name added if you are interested.