Over the past few years, my Campaigners group has met on Sunday nights. Because it's delicious, bonding, and Biblical- we often begin with a meal.
Feeding hungry high school guys can be expensive, so I'd typically ask each of them to bring 5 bucks to help cover costs. Without fail, half would forget and never have cash.
This semester, I decided to try a new approach: charging a food fee of $75. The schedule has us meeting 12 times this fall. That comes to $6.25/meal, a reasonable amount to charge for dinner.
11 guys x $75= $825 total Campaigners food budget
$825/12 weeks= $70/night
If you go cheap one week, you can get 5 pizzas for $40, plus $10 for drinks and cookies- so you spend $50 that night and save $20 from your budget of $70. The next week you have $90 and can get Chipotle to cater!
You can even write up the budget and show your Campaigners group- teaching them a valuable life skill.
Advantages to Charging
- Parents often appreciate that you're feeding their kids and they don't have to worry about dinner, and $6.25/night is pretty reasonable for feeding growing teenagers.
- By paying $75 up front, instead of $5 each time, you don't have to worry about tracking down the money each week and people forgetting.
- Parents are used to paying for their kids' activities: sports, school supplies, trips, etc...
- THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGE is that kids are pot-committed. Now that they've made an upfront financial investment, they're less likely to miss Campaigners.
*We often don't realize when families might be struggling financially. One of the biggest stressors on teenagers is that they don't want to be a financial burden on their parents. As you communicate with parents and kids about the new system, make sure to mention that if it's a financial burden, to let you know. You could also ask a couple families to pay more in order to help balance out those who are currently on a tight budget.
*Also, talk with your Area Director to determine if parents should write a check to Young Life or to you directly.
Here's a sample e-mail you could copy, paste, edit and send to parents:
Parents of Junior Guys,
My name is Bam-Bam and I'm thankful to have the privilege to lead a weekly Young Life Campaigners group for your sons this semester. We're starting next week on Sunday nights in the Smith's basement from 7-9pm. Each week we'll begin our time with dinner together.
In order to simplify meals, I'm asking that each guy pay $50 for the semester. This will cover 8 meals ($6.25/meal.) Some weeks I'll order pizza, some weeks we'll grill out, other weeks we'll grocery shop and cook together, and some weeks we'll get Chipotle to cater. If you'd like to send a dessert any Sunday night, I promise you that it will be devoured with great delight. If the $50 is too much of a financial burden at this time, please let me know.
At our first meeting, I'm going to sit down with the guys and we're going to plan out the meals and a food budget for the semester. Hopefully, it will be a fun exercise and valuable life skill to learn.
Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions!
Yours,
Bam-Bam Baker