I feel meals are important, as it sets the mood and experience. It’s hopeful that a lodge would be conscientious of its presentation and perception; visually and olfaction for its cleanliness and stimulus, as well as sound, for the ability for all to hear well and gustation for it fulfillment and satisfaction. If bland food is served so will the lodge already disappoint one of the five senses.
If I were to be completely honest, I’ve never been blown away at any lodge dinner. I think what could be done to improve it, is ask beforehand does anyone have special request for food, i.e. ask about food allergies, are they vegan or vegetarian.
Where I am this is a bit of a mess. Everybody says good meals are important. But the meals aren't high quality (mostly the cheapest stuff we can get) with the lodge taking in $10 for a meal and certain past masters viewing the meals as a needed profit center for the lodge. We thank the stewards every time for their efforts, but as one of our stewards is an excellent cook, he could actually do way better than he does (and he knows it) given good supplies.
Great food though costs money, which implies that we'd either lose money on the food or people need to pay more. There's a lot of worry where I am about anything that even slightly smells of elitism. People feel very strongly that Freemasonry be financially accessible and be as cheap as possible. Which is a good principle, but it's taken to a bit of an extreme, as some of the brothers who would complain about $15/head for a meal are the same brothers dropping $25-30 on a bar tab after ritual practice.
What it boils down to from what I can tell is a disagreement about what reasonable costs are in Masonry. It seems there's near universal agreement that the meal is important and people want to have a nice one. It's a component of fellowship
one of the best meals I ever had was a festive board after a meeting at an English lodge. It was GBP 40 per person at a restaurant near the lodge. They take their meals seriously. The brethren back at home loved the story and were absolutely horrified at the cost and were convinced that something like that wasn't really possible. :/
Some years ago, my Lodge, Mississauga Lodge A.F.&A.M. No.524 G.R.C., moved the meal to before the meeting. This had an immediate, immense and positive effect. More brethren were able to attend an early banquet (6:30 p.m. start- SHARP!) than a late banquet held after Lodge (9:30 or even 10:00 p.m.). It has also increased the amount of time spent in fellowship we can have with one another. Many of us in the Lodge were shift workers with 4:30/5:30 a.m. wake-up times. Needless to say, if a brother had a 5 a.m. wake-up, he did not remain for the banquet. Now that the timing has been changed, nearly every brother, and many visitors, attend the banquet! WRT meal quality, I solved that issue two years ago, when I was JW. We contacted a few local restaurants and got a price on a variety of meals. We increased the fee/bro. from 10CAD to 20CAD, but we now get much better meals, at an excellent price point. We have now also begun to have our banquets catered, the caterer does all set-up and provides cutlery and china. Many visitors are happy to attend and pay the 20CAD meal fee. Bro. JW has one less worry not having ot source a meal every month, we have an excellent meal and it is served on china, instead of paper plates, as we had been doing it. As our most senior brother said, "Why do we dress up in our best clothes (tuxes or business suits) only ot sit down to a meal on paper plates and plastic cutlery?" Elitism? I don't think so. I think it shows the brethren, that the fellowship aspect of Masonry is equally important as the Ritual.
I have no idea where the ideas about the meals the lodge provides came from, but finding a lodge with a good meal is the exception, not the norm. In the book observing the craft by andrew hammer, he goes at length about the meal and its importance in masonry.
The meal should reflect quality, and should be no different than a meal you'd expect that a decent restaurant. If the lodge doesn't have someone that can cook meals for large groups of people, then cater it, or go to a restaurant that has a semi-private dining area where you can gather.
I think part of the problem is that we have little time from our busy days to take time off to cook a decent meal for a bunch of people. When I was JW, I took the entire day off from work when we were meeting just to take care of the dinner, as it takes hours to cook and prep for several dozen people. I also made an agreement with the rainbow girls mom, who would do the dinners for the masons, the girls would serve (for points) and any money we made above the cost of her meal the girls kept as a fundraiser. She was amazing, and everyone was happy.
But with progressive lines like we have here in the states, we have men coming up the chairs that may not have any skill at cooking (or are just plain lazy) and the meals devolve into sandwiches potato chips and soda. And the lodge thinks that's ok. I've been guilty of that myself, and it was especially egregious for degrees.
But it's a process of learning, and a desire to do things right.
And yes, we are an elitist organization. We don't let just anyone in. That in itself is elitism.
Breaking bread is the best way to get to know someone and have fellowship. Our lodge typically shares a dessert and snacks after lodge. When we do have dinner before lodge it is provided by one of the youth groups. The meals aren’t steak and potatoes but it is an opportunity to support the youth and get to know them at the same time.
At Robert Morris we eat after the 0meeting ,, we open lodge at 7 pm. Are meeting are usually an hour more or less. Our dinners are potluck with the Stewart's supplying a main course paid for by lodge the Brothers always bring more food than needed and we dont ever charge anyone for dinner. It's our belief if a Brother travel's to our meeting a no cost meal is a way of saying thank you for attending. It works for us
Meals at lodge do become an important time for us to talk among ourselves and whats happening in the broader community. The quality and cost of those meetings I believe is most important. For those JW's who just do not cook or simply do not have the time to cook a meal you can be one of the best by simply going to Costco or a store Deli and find your meal. There are some mighty good ones out there and a lot of variety to be found. The mistake often made is to get something cheap and expect it to be great.
You can make this store bought meal become even greater by simply thinking of how it looks in being served. The standard is to put the store container out and have the brothers dig in. Yet in a cubbord close to you is probably some fine looking serving dishes when used make the meal look very nice to the point of at times the question will come "did you make this yourself"?
And then there is desert. The desert should be the crem de la crem of the meal. So what do I see most of the time.......a package of store bought cookies. Good grief!!! Many stores have wonderful deserts that will set the evening aside. Again use the serving dishes that are there. Add some whipped cream or ice cream but please lets get a bit fancy with deserts.
And then there is the cost. If your lodge can afford not to charge more power to you. Mine can not. We put out a special donation jar with a suggested amount ($10 but probably should be raised with food cost going up) for the meal followed by the plus? What the plus for? It is explained as a way for us to cover the cost of guests, brothers who simply forget to donate and certainly for those who can not afford the meal. My lodge covers the cost of the meal and often comes out a few dollars extra.
So what to do during Covid? Every lodge has to decide on their own but considering the age of our group and the direction this terrible virus is heading I personally would be reluctant to go to a meal during these times. At this time our lodge is serving a desert after lodge but have not yet gone to the meals before as we have done in the past.
For the after meeting dessert, I to am horrified that the best we can come up with is a package of cookies. When I was JW I made it a point of having something better - cake or pie and ice cream, or something similar. It was a running joke in our lodge that a past JW, at every single meeting served ice cream and peaches. So, I made sure that at least one meeting during the year to serve it, as homage to the past JW (Past Master). The old timers always got a kick out of that.
Honestly, how is it that much harder to provide a nice store bought sheet cake or a couple of varieties of pies, and a gallon or two of ice cream, over buying a package of cookies? It takes exactly the same amount of time to buy them, and you have (supposedly) two stewards you can send down before closing the lodge to prepare the dessert. What, washing a dozen spoons and a knife that hard?
The fellowship after a meeting is just as important as the fellowship before. Sit down, relax, have a nice dessert, talk, joke, maybe have a dram of scotch, and socialize.
My lodge budgets for a stated meeting meal each month and one that is not just pizza or subsandwiches. Our Junior Wardens have been top notch in cooking and providing a balanced dinner. These meals are very important as we invite the entire family to join in for the meal. Most often the ladies remain in the dining room when the men open lodge and conduct business. The meals offer a chance for candidates to soicialize and meet with the members of the lodge and get to know each other better beyond what the 6 step program can provide. The meal also teaches service to others, which the Stewards and JW learn in a very hands on way. This is an important lesson regarding Freemasonry.
Another topic of the "cheapening". Lodge dues should be high enough to provide a quality professionally catered meal at every fellowship meeting. $50/plate is common. If you're dues aren't at least $600/year, you're not charging enough to provide a quality meal.
In my view a great meal is very important to a quality Lodge Experience that will keep men coming back to Lodge.
If the Lodge is able to do a great meal on it's own, then all is well. If however it can't, then it should cater the meals instead of serving questionable ones.
Men will not object to paying for good meals, as long as they are truly good!
I have found this to be exactly the case in my Lodge. We doubled the fee/meal, but now have it catered: saying goodbye to paper plates and plastic cutlery at the same time! Double bonus!! The brethren are more than happy with the improved quality of meals and look even more forward ot the fellowship of the banquet.
I think another great benefit of catering is that someone else takes care of most of the cleanup. Having a couple of guys in the kitchen until the early hours of the morning, doing dishes and cleaning everything makes Lodge more of a chore for those guys than an event they will look forward to.
The post-banquet clean-up was one reason we had originally gone from using real china and cutlery to all disposable. Nobody wants to be doing dishes until midnight. It really detracted from the enjoyment of the banquet and the fellowship. Now, clean-up is all up to the caterer and nobody has to remain until midnight.
I feel meals are important, as it sets the mood and experience. It’s hopeful that a lodge would be conscientious of its presentation and perception; visually and olfaction for its cleanliness and stimulus, as well as sound, for the ability for all to hear well and gustation for it fulfillment and satisfaction. If bland food is served so will the lodge already disappoint one of the five senses.
If I were to be completely honest, I’ve never been blown away at any lodge dinner. I think what could be done to improve it, is ask beforehand does anyone have special request for food, i.e. ask about food allergies, are they vegan or vegetarian.
Where I am this is a bit of a mess. Everybody says good meals are important. But the meals aren't high quality (mostly the cheapest stuff we can get) with the lodge taking in $10 for a meal and certain past masters viewing the meals as a needed profit center for the lodge. We thank the stewards every time for their efforts, but as one of our stewards is an excellent cook, he could actually do way better than he does (and he knows it) given good supplies.
Great food though costs money, which implies that we'd either lose money on the food or people need to pay more. There's a lot of worry where I am about anything that even slightly smells of elitism. People feel very strongly that Freemasonry be financially accessible and be as cheap as possible. Which is a good principle, but it's taken to a bit of an extreme, as some of the brothers who would complain about $15/head for a meal are the same brothers dropping $25-30 on a bar tab after ritual practice.
What it boils down to from what I can tell is a disagreement about what reasonable costs are in Masonry. It seems there's near universal agreement that the meal is important and people want to have a nice one. It's a component of fellowship
one of the best meals I ever had was a festive board after a meeting at an English lodge. It was GBP 40 per person at a restaurant near the lodge. They take their meals seriously. The brethren back at home loved the story and were absolutely horrified at the cost and were convinced that something like that wasn't really possible. :/
We just decided to move our meals ahead of the meeting rather than after. That should be an improvement.
But what do we make when we don’t know if we’re cooking for six or sixteen?
I have an idea. We’ll see how it works out.
It's better to have too much food than not enough.
Always my view, I cook for at least 5 more than I expect. Strangely, it all disappears anyway haha.
Some years ago, my Lodge, Mississauga Lodge A.F.&A.M. No.524 G.R.C., moved the meal to before the meeting. This had an immediate, immense and positive effect. More brethren were able to attend an early banquet (6:30 p.m. start- SHARP!) than a late banquet held after Lodge (9:30 or even 10:00 p.m.). It has also increased the amount of time spent in fellowship we can have with one another. Many of us in the Lodge were shift workers with 4:30/5:30 a.m. wake-up times. Needless to say, if a brother had a 5 a.m. wake-up, he did not remain for the banquet. Now that the timing has been changed, nearly every brother, and many visitors, attend the banquet! WRT meal quality, I solved that issue two years ago, when I was JW. We contacted a few local restaurants and got a price on a variety of meals. We increased the fee/bro. from 10CAD to 20CAD, but we now get much better meals, at an excellent price point. We have now also begun to have our banquets catered, the caterer does all set-up and provides cutlery and china. Many visitors are happy to attend and pay the 20CAD meal fee. Bro. JW has one less worry not having ot source a meal every month, we have an excellent meal and it is served on china, instead of paper plates, as we had been doing it. As our most senior brother said, "Why do we dress up in our best clothes (tuxes or business suits) only ot sit down to a meal on paper plates and plastic cutlery?" Elitism? I don't think so. I think it shows the brethren, that the fellowship aspect of Masonry is equally important as the Ritual.
I have no idea where the ideas about the meals the lodge provides came from, but finding a lodge with a good meal is the exception, not the norm. In the book observing the craft by andrew hammer, he goes at length about the meal and its importance in masonry.
The meal should reflect quality, and should be no different than a meal you'd expect that a decent restaurant. If the lodge doesn't have someone that can cook meals for large groups of people, then cater it, or go to a restaurant that has a semi-private dining area where you can gather.
I think part of the problem is that we have little time from our busy days to take time off to cook a decent meal for a bunch of people. When I was JW, I took the entire day off from work when we were meeting just to take care of the dinner, as it takes hours to cook and prep for several dozen people. I also made an agreement with the rainbow girls mom, who would do the dinners for the masons, the girls would serve (for points) and any money we made above the cost of her meal the girls kept as a fundraiser. She was amazing, and everyone was happy.
But with progressive lines like we have here in the states, we have men coming up the chairs that may not have any skill at cooking (or are just plain lazy) and the meals devolve into sandwiches potato chips and soda. And the lodge thinks that's ok. I've been guilty of that myself, and it was especially egregious for degrees.
But it's a process of learning, and a desire to do things right.
And yes, we are an elitist organization. We don't let just anyone in. That in itself is elitism.
Breaking bread is the best way to get to know someone and have fellowship. Our lodge typically shares a dessert and snacks after lodge. When we do have dinner before lodge it is provided by one of the youth groups. The meals aren’t steak and potatoes but it is an opportunity to support the youth and get to know them at the same time.
At Robert Morris we eat after the 0meeting ,, we open lodge at 7 pm. Are meeting are usually an hour more or less. Our dinners are potluck with the Stewart's supplying a main course paid for by lodge the Brothers always bring more food than needed and we dont ever charge anyone for dinner. It's our belief if a Brother travel's to our meeting a no cost meal is a way of saying thank you for attending. It works for us
Meals at lodge do become an important time for us to talk among ourselves and whats happening in the broader community. The quality and cost of those meetings I believe is most important. For those JW's who just do not cook or simply do not have the time to cook a meal you can be one of the best by simply going to Costco or a store Deli and find your meal. There are some mighty good ones out there and a lot of variety to be found. The mistake often made is to get something cheap and expect it to be great.
You can make this store bought meal become even greater by simply thinking of how it looks in being served. The standard is to put the store container out and have the brothers dig in. Yet in a cubbord close to you is probably some fine looking serving dishes when used make the meal look very nice to the point of at times the question will come "did you make this yourself"?
And then there is desert. The desert should be the crem de la crem of the meal. So what do I see most of the time.......a package of store bought cookies. Good grief!!! Many stores have wonderful deserts that will set the evening aside. Again use the serving dishes that are there. Add some whipped cream or ice cream but please lets get a bit fancy with deserts.
And then there is the cost. If your lodge can afford not to charge more power to you. Mine can not. We put out a special donation jar with a suggested amount ($10 but probably should be raised with food cost going up) for the meal followed by the plus? What the plus for? It is explained as a way for us to cover the cost of guests, brothers who simply forget to donate and certainly for those who can not afford the meal. My lodge covers the cost of the meal and often comes out a few dollars extra.
So what to do during Covid? Every lodge has to decide on their own but considering the age of our group and the direction this terrible virus is heading I personally would be reluctant to go to a meal during these times. At this time our lodge is serving a desert after lodge but have not yet gone to the meals before as we have done in the past.
For the after meeting dessert, I to am horrified that the best we can come up with is a package of cookies. When I was JW I made it a point of having something better - cake or pie and ice cream, or something similar. It was a running joke in our lodge that a past JW, at every single meeting served ice cream and peaches. So, I made sure that at least one meeting during the year to serve it, as homage to the past JW (Past Master). The old timers always got a kick out of that.
Honestly, how is it that much harder to provide a nice store bought sheet cake or a couple of varieties of pies, and a gallon or two of ice cream, over buying a package of cookies? It takes exactly the same amount of time to buy them, and you have (supposedly) two stewards you can send down before closing the lodge to prepare the dessert. What, washing a dozen spoons and a knife that hard?
The fellowship after a meeting is just as important as the fellowship before. Sit down, relax, have a nice dessert, talk, joke, maybe have a dram of scotch, and socialize.
My lodge budgets for a stated meeting meal each month and one that is not just pizza or subsandwiches. Our Junior Wardens have been top notch in cooking and providing a balanced dinner. These meals are very important as we invite the entire family to join in for the meal. Most often the ladies remain in the dining room when the men open lodge and conduct business. The meals offer a chance for candidates to soicialize and meet with the members of the lodge and get to know each other better beyond what the 6 step program can provide. The meal also teaches service to others, which the Stewards and JW learn in a very hands on way. This is an important lesson regarding Freemasonry.
Another topic of the "cheapening". Lodge dues should be high enough to provide a quality professionally catered meal at every fellowship meeting. $50/plate is common. If you're dues aren't at least $600/year, you're not charging enough to provide a quality meal.
In my view a great meal is very important to a quality Lodge Experience that will keep men coming back to Lodge.
If the Lodge is able to do a great meal on it's own, then all is well. If however it can't, then it should cater the meals instead of serving questionable ones.
Men will not object to paying for good meals, as long as they are truly good!
I have found this to be exactly the case in my Lodge. We doubled the fee/meal, but now have it catered: saying goodbye to paper plates and plastic cutlery at the same time! Double bonus!! The brethren are more than happy with the improved quality of meals and look even more forward ot the fellowship of the banquet.
I think another great benefit of catering is that someone else takes care of most of the cleanup. Having a couple of guys in the kitchen until the early hours of the morning, doing dishes and cleaning everything makes Lodge more of a chore for those guys than an event they will look forward to.
The post-banquet clean-up was one reason we had originally gone from using real china and cutlery to all disposable. Nobody wants to be doing dishes until midnight. It really detracted from the enjoyment of the banquet and the fellowship. Now, clean-up is all up to the caterer and nobody has to remain until midnight.