Changes

Potlucks can be done in many different ways. Three There can be a theme, such as "dishes from your heritage" ; "(or holiday food ) from your heritage" ; salads; comfort food; soups, breads, and salads; food of xx(team) colors; food produce from your garden/local; desserts only . . .

Provide places to eatmicrowave, eating oven, refrigerator if necessary. Eating and serving utensils and utensilsand dishes.Arrange for places to eat.The organizers could provide a portion of the meal, such as beverages, desserts, and/or the main dish.Cards and markers for each person to indicate ingredients (these could be distributed ahead of time, so that people can bring them already filled out)- they could be printed checklists or fill-in-the-blank for commonly allergens.

Because individuals may have food allergies and dietary restrictions, it is good to communicate about this ahead of time. Circulate a memo or post on a bulletin board : a list for people to add to be filled out by individuals, of foods and ingredients they cannot haveeat. It could be set up to maintain anonymity, if preferred. Ask people everyone bringing in food to find alternatives to such ingredients if possible, and if not, to make sure they note the presence of the ingredients. Schedule the event when everyone could will attend and have adequate time for sharingeating and socializing. Potlucks could be "put the food in the break room and everyone just come and get it when you can," but it is much more conducive to team-building for all gather and eat together.Seating in small groups where everyone in the group can see and hear each other is more conducive to conversation than are long or very wide tables.

If the group is large and/or not everyone knows each other, the people can be encourage to sit with others they are not familiar with. The organizer could ask people to switch places periodically as a mixer, e.g., halfway through the meal mealtime, or before each course, as a get-to-know-more-people mixer. 

Discussions can including include how to do a different differently-themed or organized potluck the next time, whether people would like to such as: collaborate on making dishes together, inviting invite other teams, selling sell each other the food leftovers and donating donate the proceeds to charity . . .

A coopertively6 cooperatively themed dish, such as build-a-taco, -tortilla pie, or -salad, with everyone bringing any appropriate ingredients to add in.