Ward, Neighborhood Progressive Dinner Activity

When we first moved into our neighborhood, I wanted to get to know my neighbors quickly and on a more personal level.  My grandma had a great idea.  She suggested I host a progressive dinner.  I was thrilled with how well it turned out.  I ended up hosting a few myself and then my ward (a local LDS congregation) took it over as a ward activity.

Here's how it works.
First you send out invitations to everyone in the neighborhood.  The great thing about this activity is it is just a way to get to know everyone, it's not churchy, so invite everyone.

This is the invite we used this time.

Then you get all the RSVP's back.  Because everyone is so good at RSVPing, we called people, texted people and sent a signup in church to see who was going to be able to make it.  We also asked for people who would be willing to Host the dinner at their home.

Then the fun begins.  We printed up everyone's last names on a sheet of paper along with the words Salad, Dinner and Dessert, three different times.  

Example:  Salad Smith   Dinner Smith   Dessert Smith.

Then you print everyones names on a sheet of paper and cut them up.  So everyone coming to the dinner has 3 slips of paper.  

You do the same for the Hosts in a different color of paper.

Then you we spread out the hosts names on my table and assigned each couple to have salad at one house, dinner at another house and dessert at yet another house.  The goal is to never have the same two couples eating together twice and each couple gets to meet 12 couples through the course of the night.

Hopefully this picture explains it better than my poor attempt at words can.

The yellow slips are the host couples and the white slips are the guests.  So the top row or the rotation for the night for the Smith's (who are hosting) might go something like this.

(Yellow slips)

Salad Smith     Dinner Smith     Dessert Smith

(White slips)

salad Young     dinner Jorgensen     dessert Rivers

salad Kaelin     dinner Rawlings     dinner Bostons

salad Whites       dinner Miller     dinner Browns

(Each host will have a different rotation.)

After you have nearly pulled your hair out trying to match everyone up without having anyone together twice, you are ready to make up the schedules.

If you have a computer programer or an excel spreadsheet expert they might be able to find an easier way to do this.  I am only creative when it comes to photoshop, not in complicated programs so I use little slips of paper on my table.

The food assignments are as follows.  The couple who hosts at their home will only have four couples at a time including themselves.  They are responsible to provide the main dish for the dinner.  Then you assign one couple to bring salad, another to bring dessert and another to bring rolls and drinks.  Here is where some people get confused.  Everyone brings their food assignments to the first house (the house where they will have salad) and they leave their food assignment there.  Thus the only people who eat the food they prepared are the couple who eat salad and obviously the host couple who make the main dish and stay at their own home the entire night.

Here are the schedules.

Hope this makes sense.  

Now go out and meet the people in your neighborhood!