Planning Meal Campaigns: A Comprehensive Guide

Meal-sharing at scale can be difficult. Here we break down the logistics, piece by piece.

Photo by Klara Kulikova on Unsplash

Here at OpenSeat, we believe that meal campaigns are a powerful tool for bringing people together, fostering connections, and promoting the objectives of campaign organisers. In this second part of a two-part series about meal campaigns, we delve into the various logistical aspects that campaign organisers should consider when planning their meal campaign.

Keen to start a meal campaign? Fill out the form below and let’s collaborate:

Internal or External Campaign?

Firstly, how you organise your campaign depends on whether it is internal or external to your network or organisation. This will often affect how you finance the campaign, how you find hosts, and where meals will be held.

Internal meal campaigns

For instance, if you represent a network and your main meal objectives are to: 

• have conversations about an important topic

• foster new social connections between people

• strengthen existing connections or communities

• fundraise for a cause

…then you may want to host meals for those only in your network, and not for anyone else. If you are a religious congregation, for instance, you may want to help newcomers feel at home and get to know other members of the community. This would be an internal meal campaign, as the participants would be only for those within a specific network – it is not public-facing.

As in the example above, internal meal campaigns are appropriate for large and growing networks and organisations where there is a need for relationship-building. A couple more examples would be for

• Business and governmental organisations aiming to foster and deepen connections between colleagues, to improve organisational culture.

• Nonprofit and philanthropic organisations wanting to engage with and strengthen connections among beneficiaries

If you are an organisation or network and would like to run an internal meal campaign, let us know. The OpenSeat Hospitality Hub will soon be in the piloting stage, which will provide a customised portal to OpenSeat events, allowing members of an organisation or network to host and attend events that are visible only for those within the network.  

External meal campaigns

Other meal campaigns are external to an organisation or network and public-facing. An external meal campaign is typically more focused on getting new people involved and engaged around a campaign theme. Similar to internal campaigns, this may be to: 

• have conversations about an important topic

• foster new social connections between people

• strengthen existing connections or communities

• fundraise for a cause

But in addition to the objectives above, further objectives for external campaigns might be to:

• help market products or services

• engage in market or academic research 

• enjoy a common interest - food, sports, games, etc

Dining for Democracy and the Play With Your Food campaign are two examples of external meal campaigns.

Finding a Campaign Title

Whether internal or external, you will need to think through a title for your meal campaign. 

Keep it short and punchy, reflecting the fact that meals are involved and the objective(s) you want to achieve (see the previous post on this topic). Try to summarise the objective with a keyword and then integrate it with eating-related words like ‘Dine’, ‘ Feast’, ‘Taste’, ‘Flavour’, ‘Food’, ‘Meal’, ‘Cuisine’, ‘Table’. 

Finding the Hosts

It is one thing to organise another meal campaign: it is another thing to actually host a meal. Depending on the level of support and financing, choosing or finding hosts for meals can be a difficult task. 

While for smaller campaigns, the organising team can act as hosts, for bigger campaigns where meals occur across multiple areas, it’s more feasible to find hosts from within an organisation or its network. Hosts can be nominated by organisers directly, particularly when they will need to act as facilitators for an activity or conversation, or the organiser can send out a call for volunteers to act as hosts if they are willing for the campaign to be more decentralised. It’s easy to create a volunteer survey form on Typeform, Tally.so, Google Forms or another similar service to get the details of volunteer hosts. Consider adding an incentive to be a host!

Once you have identified who the hosts will be, provide them with the necessary details about your campaign and the extent of their involvement. Ask them to register on OpenSeat, and then either add them as co-hosts to meals (if you will be creating all the meal events on OpenSeat), or ask them to create the events themselves. Much depends on how much control and curation you want as an organiser, and on whether you will be paying for catering and venues – or if this is something hosts themselves will organise. 

If more responsibility is placed on hosts, make sure to put measures in place to mitigate against ‘hospitality fatigue’ – the condition of being overstretched as a host. Hosting a meal takes time and energy, both mental and physical. It would be wise to minimise responsibilities for hosts, particularly when it comes to catering – the most time-intensive element in preparing for a meal. 

Selecting Meal Venues

You will need to identify the areas where you'd like campaign meals to be held. If your meal campaign is external and public-facing, you may want to focus on multiple regions, such as Johannesburg/Gauteng, Cape Town/Western Cape, Durban/KwaZulu-Natal, or to focus on a specific region where your network or targeted guests are based. 

Meal hosts can be asked to organise their own venue for the meal (whether their own home, or elsewhere) – alternatively, if the campaign organiser possesses its own venue for meals, this could simplify the hosting process. Another consideration is whether the organiser is willing to hire external venues on behalf of hosts.

Host's homes lend an intimate and personal feel, while cafés after closing hours offer a casual but exclusive setting. Restaurants and cafés during opening hours provide a vibrant backdrop with easy access to catering. Community venues, such as schools, churches, galleries, dance studios, community centers, parks, etc., offer diverse environments suitable for various campaign themes.

If you are outsourcing venues and meals won’t be held in hosts’ homes, then it is important to think through the different options: booking a table at a restaurant may be easy, but a loud, non-exclusive meal environment may compromise the objective of the meal if guest struggle to hear each other.

Catering Arrangements

Catering is the next important factor. The hosts can make the food themselves, get an outside catering service, or let the campaign organiser take care of it. 

The decision depends on the campaign's size and the resources available. If hosts are asked to outsource their catering by campaign organisers, they have a few options.

They can hire professional caterer companies who can either cook at the event or deliver the food. Another choice is to work with local food entrepreneurs who can also cook on-site as private chefs, or deliver their food – depending on the venue's kitchen facilities. Lastly, hosts can opt for "takeaway" catering, where food from cafes or restaurants is delivered. 

Each option has its benefits, and the organiser needs to think about what suits the campaign best, ensuring a good dining experience for everyone involved and helping hosts to avoid ‘hospitality fatigue’ as far as possible.

Financing Your Campaign

When planning your campaign, it's important to establish how meals will be financed. There are various approaches, each with its own implications. 

• You might opt for a "free to attend" model, where the campaign organiser or host covers all costs. 

• Alternatively, a sponsor could fund the event, making it free for attendees, with the campaign organiser disbursing funds to hosts where necessary. 

• If you choose to finance a campaign through guest fees, it's essential to decide whether the meals will be not-for-profit, with a lower price per seat to enhance accessibility, or whether the meals will be for-profit or fundraising initiative – justifying a higher price per seat. In the description of meals, it’s best to state clearly what guest fees are being used for, especially if the meal is not-for-profit! 

Create a Campaign Timeline

Campaign Launch

As a way to market your campaign, consider hosting a launch meal event to get hosts and other core stakeholders around the table to hear and experience the vision for the campaign. Decide on a date, figure out the venue and catering, and host the meal. If your campaign is centred on conversations, be sure to model this around the meal table. If it’s about social connection, model the use of icebreakers and conversation prompts. Whatever your objective, try to make the launch event a vivid experience of what all the other meals should be like. Record as much footage as you can, and use this when advertising your campaign to those who couldn’t attend.

Frequency of Meals

It’s best to set a timeline from the beginning, as this will give hosts a better idea of when and how often they will be expected to contribute their hospitality skills to the campaign. Determine how many meals you would ideally want to occur during the campaign. It may be a fixed number, based on a set of topics (if conversations, marketing or research are the objectives). Based on feedback from hosts and the logistics of catering and venues, decide whether you want meals every week, fortnight, or month, and get feedback on the precise days when hosts can welcome guests to their table.  

If your campaign is indefinite – for example, integrating new members in an organisation where there is gradual membership turnover – you may want to set up processes and allocate responsibility to someone to ensure hosts’ needs are attended to, so that hospitality fatigue doesn’t set in. 

Marketing the Campaign 

If an internal campaign, marketing will be relatively easy. Communicate the details of meals with your stakeholders through messaging platforms, and where relevant use social media to promote upcoming events. Make sure everyone has easy access to a meal campaign page (either on the OpenSeat website or your own) that provides details on how to host and attend a meal using the platform.

If an external campaign, follow the above steps but also decide if you'd like OpenSeat to actively advertise your meal campaign through its marketing channels and if you want OpenSeat to create a dedicated campaign page on its platform. For example, https://openseat.co.za/dining-for-democracy

Conclusion:

Organising a meal campaign is a dynamic and impactful way to bring people together for various purposes. By carefully considering the elements outlined in this guide, you can create a successful and meaningful campaign that resonates with your target audience and achieves your objectives. 

If you have an idea for a meal campaign, whether internal or external, and would like to collaborate with OpenSeat, fill out our specially-made Meal Campaign form: