How To Host A Freezer Meal Planning Party

Have you ever thought about freezer meal planning but been hesitant since it takes so much time and effort?

A meal planning party is a great way to take some of the burden off of yourself and also reap the benefits.  Gathering with friends or family to build quality meal plans that everyone will enjoy is a fun way to spend an afternoon, and can give everyone amazing meals to share and enjoy.

How To Host A Freezer Meal Planning Party

A meal planning party is simply a time when you gather with a few other individuals and help each other prepare freezer meals to feed your families.

Usually, you will have 4-5 people who are all willing to buy ingredients for several meals (10-20) and meet with you to create those meals and exchange so everyone has a variety.

Having more hands helping means less time preparing and an easier freezer meal planning event.

Want to download this freezer meal plan complete with grocery list? Click here and we will send them to you.

Find 4-5 friends to join.  You can start by asking the people you think are most likely to want to be involved.  Send out an email, text message, or even social media status asking for others who are interested in participating.

When recruiting others for your meal planning party, you want to make sure you are being clear about what you will be doing and find their willingness to commit.  You will also want to set a budget for each person so you can easily break down recipes to fit into that budget.

Freezer meal planning is all about saving money and time.  That means you need to be considerate of others budgets.  Nobody wants to feel short changed, but everyone needs to be willing to put some money into ingredients.  When finding others to join, it is a good idea to consider the budget they may have to work within. 

Pick an easy to use venue.  If you want to gather a few friends for a meal planning party, you really need to make sure you are doing so in a place that has plenty of space for everyone to work.  The idea behind a meal planning party is to get everyone involved in preparing foods and then sharing those recipes.

Make sure the kitchen has plenty of counter space.  You may also want an area with multiple sinks or a large table to work at as well as the kitchen counters.  This helps you to not be too crowded but still manage to get everything done with ease.

Some people recommend asking a church or club that has an industrial kitchen available for time to use their facilities.

Assign menu items.  Sometimes a meal planning party works best when you assign menu items instead of having others pick what they want to bring.  This helps everyone to invest a similar amount of money into the meal planning and leaves nobody out.

Chat with each other about specific menu items everyone is okay with having, then create an ultimate list of ingredients and supplies.  At this point, you can easily divide them out and send grocery lists to each person.  You want the grocery expenses for everyone to be fairly similar.

We’ve put together some of our favorite freezer meals and planned out the groceries in our freezer menu plan. You can cook 7 meals in less than an hour with this.

If you have a big group and want to make some extra meals, check out our second freezer menu plan for some more ideas.

Arrange for childcare.  This is one of the toughest things to manage.  Having multiple moms with kids attending can be tough to manage without childcare provided.  Enlist an older child, neighborhood teen, or another parent that isn’t participating to take care of the kids.

If possible, arrange a space where your meal planning party will be held to make it easier for kids to be supervised nearby while the kids play games, color, or watch movies.

Create a checklist.  Once you have everyone assigned, create a checklist for the event.  This should include things like a breakdown of how each menu item or recipe should be prepared, how much of each supply you will need, and who will be creating or buying what items.

This can help you keep track of everything on the day of your event.

Send out reminders.  A week before your meal planning party, send out a friendly reminder making sure everyone knows what they are suppose to bring.  You want to make sure everything is covered and double check to make sure everyone is going to be in attendance that promised to help with this event. Email, text message, or post in a group chat to remind everyone and verify they will be attending your meal planning party.

When you send out this reminder, make sure to let everyone know to bring their own cooler for transporting recipes once created.  You can also remind them to bring their kitchen tools like cutting boards, knives, etc. along with ingredients.

Have supplies on hand to meet your needs.  While it is recommended that everyone bring their own set of knives, cutting boards, and even things like stockpots or saucepans to help make the planning easier, you want to also make sure you have your own supplies ready and a few extras if possible.

This also includes things like getting more freezer containers or bags, labels, markers, and measuring cups to have on hand for making things easy for everyone to assemble.

I strongly recommend getting a few of these hands-free freezer bag holders. They make it so much easier to fill your freezer bags and seriously limit the mess in your kitchen (and the risk of cross-contamination).

If you want to go above and beyond, you could even provide an apron for everyone to keep clothing clean.

Have snacks on hand.  There is nothing harder to do than prepare a meal and not eat when you are done.  Meal planning can be frustrating when you are having a freezer meal party and get hungry while cooking, slicing, and preparing items.  Make sure you have plenty of snacks on hand.

Grab items like:  bottled water, granola bars, fresh fruit or veggies, fruit dips, veggie dip, pretzels, sandwiches, chips, cookies.

Clean before everyone arrives.  To start your meal planning party, you want all of your work surfaces clean and ready.  That means you may need to spend a few hours going over your kitchen cleaning and sanitizing as well as moving things off the counters to create more functional space.

Move your mail, kids backpacks, extra appliances, and such out of the way until after your meal planning party has been completed and everyone has gone home.  This frees up space to work and keeps things clean and sanitary.

Want to download this freezer meal plan complete with grocery list? Click here and we will send them to you.

Hosting a meal planning party is a great way to make meal planning for your family manageable.  It can also help build some fun new relationships with others who are seeking an easier and more manageable weekly menu.  Organizing help for large monthly menus can take a ton of stress off of each individual family, and build lasting friendships in the process.