When They Forget to Take You A Meal
MAUREEN WITMER
This week, a user wrote to us with this question:
"We have a current meal sign up and someone forgot dinner tonight. What are your suggestions on ways to handle that?"
We responded by suggesting sending a text to the person who is supposed to bring you dinner toward the end of the timeframe you were expecting the meal. That way, you could make other arrangements once you knew they were definitely not coming, such as heating up a freezer meal or ordering take-out.
We asked our wonderful Facebook audience for their suggestions and there were some excellent responses. Here are some ways to prevent it from happening and some gracious ways to handle the awkwardness when someone forgets to take you a meal.
To prevent it from happening-
"In our instructions I include 'please call the day prior to confirm drop-off times, etc'. If the receiver doesn't hear from the meal-bringer by the night before or the day of they sometimes call the coordinator to double check." -Vicki J.
"I try to send along a gift card for a local restaurant or something that could be fairly quickly heated from frozen in addition to my meal pretty early on in the meal cycle" - Heather F.
"I ask to be first to take a meal and I take two or three I let them know that the extra is backup until they are back to normal" -April J.
"Ask at least a third of the people on the list up front to make freezer meals. That way if someone forgets, you can call on someone else to bring one at the last minute." -Leslie Y.
"I run a meal ministry at church and I like to call people to remind them." -Jolene K.
"Another thing our church did is when we had meals with Bible study, we made extra and kept pans in the freezer or just brought them to families in need. We took a free will offering from the Bible Study participants and it always covered the ingredients." -Ida W.
"Give restaurant gift cards!" -Alice T.
"I forgot once and felt so stupid. Life happens though and all I could do was apologize and offer another date. Since then, I don't offer weekdays because I know work interferes." -Cheryl S.
"When I was facilitating meals for our mom's group I would personally send out texts to remind people so that never happened." -Carrie O.
If it happens-
"Ask them "Is everything okay? We wanted to check on you since the meal didn't arrive." At that point you will find out if something happened or if they forgot. Forgetting happens, give grace. They likely feel horrible and will come up with a way to make it right. Or they will feel so guilty they may not respond..if that is the case, let it be, and don't invite them to help in the future. If they do respond they forgot and ask what they can do, and you know they are financially sound, suggest they order a pizza to be delivered." -Robyn W.
"Let it go" - Carol F.
"The person in charge orders a pizza and has it delivered." -Kris. O
"The beauty of TakeThemAMeal is the reminder text/email. If someone forgot, I would assume that something important happened. I would not call. It's awkward and embarrassing. That's what frozen meatballs are for." -Sarah I.
What would you add?
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