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Show Bishop Robert Porcaro, left; High Councilor R. David McDougal and Bishop Romel Mackelprang map Church dinner "strategy." 3,800 Persons Invited To Christmas Dinner UTAH By HAL KNIGHT Every ward and stake in the Church has put on dinners, but none has ever faced the problems Taylorsville Deseret News Staff Writer TAYLORSVILLE, fund-raisin- g West Stake is trying to solve. For example, how do you go about washing, wrapping and cooking one ton of potatoes? Or obtaining 467 pints of sour cream? ever sit down in one place for a meal in Utah and the Taylorsville West Stake has contracted with the Church employes to event put on the dinner as a A staggering amount of planning has gone into the affair and the entire operation has been mapped out with the precision of a military campaign. More than 600 people have been recruited from the stake while another nearly 200 are on standby as reserves. The battle e timeplan includes a table of objectives to be achieved, supply routes have been laid out and training sessions held for the participants. The dining area in the Salt Palace is bigger than a football field and will contain 475 tables. Unfortunately, kitchen facilities at the center do not yet exist. fund-raisin- g How do you prepare and serve a half ton of peas, carrots, celery and lettuce, 760 apple pies and 635 dozen rolls? Have you ever gone to a store and tried to buy 238 pounds of cheese? These are just a few of the difficulties the stake has encountered as it prepares for the biggest dinner party ever held in the state of Utah. The occasion is the annual Christmas dinner party few Church employes and their partners. An estimated 3,800 people are expected to attend in the Salt Palace. It will be the largest group of people to minute-by-minut- Mrs. R. David McDougal shows MIA girls Melanie Barker and Marcie McDougal how to serve dinner. Each ward has been assigned a loading dock at the Salt Palace and has three Instead, 21 portable serving areas will be set up and the food trucked in piping hot or cold as required. One waiter or w aitress will be assigned to each table and a traffic pattern for their movement will be taped to the Salt Palace floor. The general for this vast operation is R. David McDougal, a Taylorsville West high councilor who heads up a stake committee to handle the dinner. The dining area has been divided into seven sections, each one assigned to one of the seven wards in the stake. Bishops have appointed a supervisor fen- each of the three serving stations in his section and six supervisors for the tables being served. Each ward has the responsibility foi about 70 tables, including decorations, place settings, serving of foal and cleanup. vehicles for transportation. The waiters and waitresses will be in white shirts and blouses. The men will have black bow ties. Trying to purchase 30 dozen black bow ties was just one of a hundred similar minor, yet troublesome details. (They had to be shipped in from California). Glazed paper plates and cups were bought by the stakes purchasing committee for the dinner, but each ward had to come up with the silverware for the tables. Some was rented from restaurant rental firms until that source was about exhausted. Other wards begged and borrowed from every conceivable source. The decorations called for huge candles on each table, done up in ribbons. These had to be poured to order because nobody had 500 candles that size just waiting around to be sold. The one ton of baked potatoes will be farmed out to homes in the stake and then transported the 10 miles to the Salt Palace the night of the dinner by truck. Women in the stake Relief Society ran many experiments to see how long the wrapped potatoes would hold their heat just to be sure they would be served hot. About 1,825 pounds of beef will be cooked commercially although it was difficult to find someone who could handle the giant job. The same goes for the rolls and pies. Training sessions have been held tc teach the amateur waiters and waitress?-ho- w to walk, hold the food, how to serv and in what order the serving and cleanu1 should occur. Theyve even been timed on how long i takes them to make the trip from t tables to serving stations and bade. D runs have been held at the stake and t! Salt Palace. Weve all been excited about it, said Stake Pres. Richard A. Barker. The en thusiasm has been wonderful and everyone has accepted the challenge. It's just great to see how the members have responded and work together on a job this big, he said. -- Stoke Relief Society women moke hundreds of decorations for Church dinner. WEEK ENDING DECEMBER 13 196? CHURCH- -5 |