How to run a canteen roster

Decide how the canteen actually runs

It’s Thursday night and the canteen roster for Saturday still has two gaps. Before you fix this week, step back and decide the basics once, for the whole season. Most canteen trouble comes from things nobody ever decided.

• Opening hours. Match them to the game times, not the other way round. If the first game starts at 8:00, the urn needs to be on by 7:45.
• What you sell. A short menu (sausages, toasties, drinks, fruit, coffee if you have a machine and someone who can use it) is quicker to learn and easier to run with strangers.
• Shift length. Two to three hours is long enough to be worth turning up for and short enough that people don’t miss their own child’s game.
• How many on. Work it out from the menu, not habit. A sausage sizzle and a till might need three; a fridge of drinks and a box of muesli bars might need one.
• Who opens and who closes. Opening and closing are different jobs. Opening means keys, the float and the urn; closing means cleaning, counting and locking up. Give them their own shifts.

Roster families, not just individuals

In junior sport, the canteen roster usually works best by family. One name per family keeps the count simple, and parents can decide among themselves who goes. A family with two children in the club is still one family on the roster, unless your club has decided otherwise.

Do the sum before you start. Count the shifts across the season and divide by the number of families.

Example: 18 Saturdays × 2 shifts × 2 families per shift = 72 places. With 60 families, most families do one shift and some do two. With 36 families, everyone does two.

Tell families the number at the start of the season: “Every family does two canteen shifts this year.” A clear, small ask is much easier to say yes to than a vague request for help, and it stops the keen families quietly doing five.

Some clubs roster by team instead: each team covers the canteen for a whole round, and the team manager sorts out who does which shift. That works well if your team managers are organised, and it puts the work with the people who know the families.

Build the roster

1. 01

   Get the draw first

   Wait for the fixture so you know the home games, byes and any finals before you roster.

2. 02

   Ask for away dates

   Send one message: “If your family is away for any Saturday this season, tell me by Friday.”

3. 03

   Fill by fewest turns

   Go date by date. Each place goes to a family that isn’t away and has had the fewest shifts so far.

4. 04

   Check the hard dates

   Make sure the first round, the cold June mornings and finals day aren’t all on the same families.

5. 05

   Publish the whole season

   Send it out before round one, so families can plan around it.

Pair first-timers with families who have done it before. New families are often keen but nervous, and one shift alongside an old hand teaches them more than any instructions sheet. The canteen roster template is a printable starting point if you want to work on paper.

Make the first shift easy

Many parents will never have worked in a kitchen. A few small things save a lot of phone calls on Saturday morning:

• A one-page sheet on the wall: how to turn on the urn, where the float is kept, the price list, what to do with the takings, who to call.
• Prices in round numbers. $3 and $5 are quicker than $3.50 and $4.80 when the queue is twelve kids long.
• A float of coins and small notes, counted and written down at the start and end. Keep a simple sheet: date, float in, takings, float out, two initials.
• Labels on the cupboards and fridges so stock goes back where the next shift will look for it.
• Closed-in shoes, hair tied back, hands washed. Put it in the reminder, not just the sheet.

Food safety

Clubs that sell food usually need to follow local food safety rules, and the requirements differ between states, councils and the kind of food you sell. Check with your local council what applies to your canteen, and whether someone on each shift needs particular training. Keep that person in mind when you roster.

Byes, washouts and finals

• Byes: if there are no home games, there is no canteen. Leave those dates off the roster entirely rather than rostering and cancelling.
• Washouts: decide in advance who calls it and how families hear. A washout shift doesn’t count as a turn; the family goes back in the queue.
• Finals and gala days: busier days need more people. Add places for those dates and roster them like any other, rather than relying on whoever turns up.
• School holidays: if your season runs through them, ask for away dates again before the holidays start.

When a family can’t make it

Ask families to tell the canteen coordinator as early as they can, and to arrange a swap with another family if they like, as long as the coordinator hears about it. When you need cover, ask the families with the fewest shifts first, not the ones who always say yes. The guide on what to do when someone can’t make it has messages you can copy, and roster reminder messages has a canteen reminder ready to send.

Running the canteen roster in FairTurns

FairTurns is a free web app that keeps the canteen roster on one link. Make two teams, Canteen open and Canteen close, since they run at different times. Give each one how many people it needs, and set each to repeat every Saturday at its own time. Add families by email, with a join link, or by name only. Families mark the Saturdays they’re away, and Fill gives each place to whoever has had the fewest turns, leaving away families off those days. The public roster link opens on any phone with no sign-in, so you can put it in the club newsletter. See the club canteen roster page.

Questions