Tips to assist in planning a Thursday Night Feeding event:

·         Since the boys will coming straight from practice, please make sure hand sanitizer is on deck!

·         Decide what you want to serve and pick something that you can afford and that won't be too terribly difficult to produce.

·         Plan large portion sizes. Remember, teenage boys can often eat two to three times as much in one meal what a grown man would eat in a day. Combine that with the fact that football players are exercising each day for three to five hours and you've got a recipe for some hungry teens. Make sure that you plan to have more food than you expect to require.

·         Plan, plan, plan to set up the logistics of the Thursday Night Feeding dinner well in advance and think them out thoroughly. The easiest thing to do when you're hosting such a large-scale event is to forget something simple like seating, silverware, napkins or the chance of inclement weather. Such mistakes will only be worsened and exacerbated if you wait until the last minute to set the dinner up.

·         Host the dinner with a relaxed attitude. Remember you will have teenage boys running around in your house or backyard, there's a good chance that something may get broken, stained or generally dirty. This all comes with the territory. As long as things aren't getting out of hand, just relax. The players always remain relaxed and respectful, they are pretty tired after a tough day of practice.  

Words of Wisdom:

·         Please try to make your food options healthy and simple. This will help maintain proper nutrition for the players while still accommodating the oftentimes limited tastes of the teenage players. Good options include pasta, pizza, sub sandwiches and BBQ.

·         Hosting a Thursday Night Feeding can be a very costly, time-consuming, frustrating process, so make absolutely sure that it's something you want to do,  make sure you are aware of all the associated costs and time restraints.  To reduce cost, try teaming up with other parents from the team to host an event or donating toward events already planned.

·         If you have any problems with players acting out or being disrespectful, don't deal with them yourself. Instead, let their coach know. The coach will have ways of dealing with players who get out of line which will be more effective.