2025

• Agendas
• Food Team Roles
• Reno Work Weekend Brief

Agendas

Apr 23rd, 2025

Attendees: Jon C, John B, Alejandro R, Brooke D, Ed H., Christophe L.

tldr:

Walk through of Shift Lead role instructions. Reminder on food sensitivities. Food sensitivity survey to go out end of current week.

Can expect 6 hours of Turtle labor during food shifts. Some meals might possibly be assigned an extra turtle if they require extra labor, but you should expect 6 hours labor total.

Walk through of Meal Planning Spreadsheet and critical tabs (2025 Meals).

Run through of Food Fort equipment photos and previous year's equipment list.

Reno work weekend team: Alejandro, Brooke, Michael S, John B

Meeting notes:

• 2 key roles: Food shift lead and food czar; food shift lead has more prep needed

• Will get a food allergen/preference survey to the turtles soon

• Comfort food: Christophe: Spicy Korean Pork (potential meal), Ale: Mom’s tostadas (likely not meal), Jon: 10pc nuggets and Filet o Fish (likely not meal), Brooke: Caprese salad, Edward: cheesy baked beans on toast (potential meal), John: Norwegian pastries (likely not a meal)

• Burning man first time: John, Edward, Brooke

• Returning burners: Jon, Christophe, Ale

• Consider components of the meal and planning when we do them for freshness, etc

• Kitchenette: may do a self serve station where folks can build their food items such as fajitas or quesadillas 

  • Maybe consider jacket potato station 

• Refer to Discord links for food team job descriptions

• Food czar - nothing too urgent to do yet for those roles. Think about roles you're interested and tell Christophe

• Main one to focus on now is the Food Shift Lead

  • Refer to the Food Planning Google Sheet: 2024 tab for past ideas

  • Think through what you want to make for folks; be mindful of care for the camp and feasibility

  • Shift lead 2 hour commitment and 2 hour food prep, more turtles will come in part way into this to help with final food prep and clean

  • 6 hour of labor for this

• Want to be mindful of folks not having to cook too long

• Be mindful of the ingredients you need and you do not need to buy ahead of time unless it’s a specific ingredient. Looking for ingredients that will be straightforward to order and bring to Playa from an existing provider

• Will review the meals as a group for the final list

• ACTION: Think through 2 - 4 meal ideas, will winnow those down

  • 19 total meals or so to plan for 

  • Will try to match skill level for folks on the shifts 

• There is a wiki that has pictures of the kitchen to get a sense of what we have to work with and a google sheet with list of appliances we have

• Oven is great for quick cooking, have an ice maker, 2 food prep spaces, walk in fridge, ovens

• Should be able to cook most meals - basic appliances 

• Consider vegetarian versions of the meals you want to make

• Most food last year was good; one complaint the veggie meal was same meat meal with tofu 

• 19 meal parts hoping to get 8-10 shift leads

• 3 shifts per food team person

• Vegetarian meals were largely a hit last year; lots of chicken meals as well

• ACTION: Fill out the google sheet (2025 tab) with meals you plan to make with ingredients ahead of time

• Trying to get as much prepped food as possible 

• Reno work weekend

  • Some food prep activities: looking at where things are and how things work

  • Things we want to get done: inventory and cleaning + testing equipment

    • Inventory + cleaning: Pull anything out of truck and ensure things work; if it doesn’t, throw it out; also review dry goods and see what we need 

      • Will organize materials into a bin and take a picture so we know what is where

    • Testing Equipment: Also good to test to ensure things work; can do this during build week, but better to do this ahead of time. Freezer, ice machine are higher priority for testing

Follow ups: To do for next meeting (3rd week of May):

• SHIFT LEADS BY MAY 15: Think of 2-4 meal ideas you want to lead. Input in one of the rows on 2025 Meals page
• List out the major and critical ingredients your meal will need. List doesn't need to be exhaustive but cover critical dependencies so no surprises later. Try to stick to ingredients already in the ingredients column data validation, if possible
• Think through feasibility of recipe with Food Fort and Playa. Ask questions in Discord async! Or will discuss at next meeting

Apr 6th, 2025

Overview of tasks and roles before the Burn (see below from Feb 26th).

Expressed interest to participate: Martin (NYC), Ben Schmid, Adam, Edouard, Brooke D, Sean L, Ed (via Alex)

Next steps:

• Register your interest in Food Team in the Google Doc Form so we can make sure Food Team meetings happen at a time convenient for you
• Think about meals you'd like to prepare or czar roles you'd be interested in
• Food Team meeting week commencing April 13th to begin planning

Feb 26th, 2025

Attendees: Romain D, Alejandro R, Will S, Jon C, Sean E

Introductions

Meet and greet

Roles and Tasks

Food team members: pick 2

Shift Lead: leads ~3 meal shifts on playa, working with a team of 2-3 sous chefs to deliver a delicious experience. Responsible for choosing the meal, scoping the required ingredients for ordering and laying out the recipe ahead of time

Work Weekend / Build Week: attend one of the off-Playa events to help get Food Team ready! Primarily will be Reno Work Weekend and Build Week

Czar Roles: take a leadership role in either executing or improving a critical food team function!

Czar Roles

Build Week:

Food Fort Driving and Testing Czar: test all key components of food fort and drive it to Playa

Procurement Czar: ensures all the ingredients, equipment and stuff food team needs gets ordered and makes it to Playa

Advance Prep Czar: ensures we have prepped as much of the shift work before getting to Playa as possible, working across ingredients sourcing and if necessary an advance prep team function during build week

Planning:

Recipes Czar: ensures complete meal recipes (following last year’s template) are collected from shift leads, compile a recipe book with 4 copies of each recipe to bring to Playa

Training Czar: develop and roll out a training plan for food team members on key food fort processes (propane, water, griddle, sinks, cleaning)

Ingredients Czar: ensures ingredients for meals are correctly formatted and are compiled into a master order list for Build Team

Supplies Czar: review current supplies list and identify any additional equipment and supplies required for BM’25. 

Dry Snacks Czar: review and update the shelf stable snacks list 

Kitchenette Czar: develop and organize a new freely accessible kitchenette in the dining area for Turtles to reheat 

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Czar: ensure food fort, fridge, kitchenette, snacks is organized and develop standard operating process for how food fort and food spaces are left between shifts. Signage

Food Team Initiative Ideas for BM’25

Pre-preparing ingredients

Reconfigure shift responsibilities to relieve food shift duration

Operation Flexible Dinner

Food Team Roles

This doc provides an overview of the various of roles for the Food Team who help plan and prepare everything food related for the Burn. It is also intended to act as a reference guide for what needs to get done by each role in a concise but comprehensive way.

The three buckets of roles for Food Team Turtles are: Food Shift Lead, Food Czar, and Reno Advance Team.

Some helpful reference docs are compiled here:

Master Planning Spreadsheet

Turtle Recipe Book

Food Training Doc

Standard Operating Procedures Guides (to come)

Food Shift Lead

The Food team prepares and serves 19 meals over the course of the Burn (from Friday dinner through to Strike Dinner on Sunday). Each meal is planned and led by 1 shift lead with the assistance of 2-3 Turtle chefs.

Food Shift Leads should plan to lead 2 or 3 meals.

Planning for a meal consists of:

• Choosing what will be served. Make it something you'd enjoy preparing and sharing with your fellow Turtles!
  • You can choose to serve something of your own creation and new, or pull inspiration from the Turtles recipe book!
  • Meal choices should be inclusive and accommodate dietary restrictions. Common dietary restrictions include vegetarian / vegan, shellfish / pork sensitivity, peanut or other food allergies, and others which are raised by Turtles at camp . A survey is sent to Turtles in the Spring to collect dietary restrictions and responses are collected prior to meals choices getting finalized. Many dietary restrictions can be accommodated by serving meal components separately, e.g. meat and vegetarian proteins served apart.
  • Meals are typically served buffet style.
• Listing out required ingredients and order quantities ahead of Reno Build Week.
• Documenting the meal recipe in the Turtle recipe book, ensuring it is clear and up to date. Recipes are used to build Turtle tribal knowledge year to year as well as to hang in the Food Fort during meal shifts so shift members can prepare the meal correctly and successfully.

Leading a shift meal consists of:

• Ensuring the food shift team has what it needs ahead of service. If you need a frozen protein to be thawed, think ahead!
• Shift Leads will have 2-3 shift Turtles to help in the preparation, cooking and cleaning of the meal for 2 hours prior to service (10-12pm for lunch, 4-6pm for dinner).
  • Shift Leads are welcome to spend more time preparing their meal before arriving to Playa or in the hours or days before the shift time for their meal, however this is your individual responsibility. Do not count on Shift Turtles for help outside the designated 2 hour shift. 
  • Food Fort is not accessible to any Turtles not assigned to that shift during shift times.
• Turtles get hungry. Hungry Turtles are Sad Turtles. It is important that meals are served on time. Lunch is served at noon and Dinner is served at 6pm.
• Dinner service: ensuring that "reserved for later" signups are prepared separately and bagged away for Turtles who signed up by 4pm that day.
• Ensuring Food Fort is cleaned and checklist procedures are completed for every shift. Do not leave leftover work for the next shift.

Meal choices will be coordinated during 2-3 Food team meetings in the Spring and early Summer before the Burn. We collaborate out of the Master Planning Spreadsheet.

Meetings serve to ensure meal choices are appropriate for the Camp and feasible within the constraints of the Playa. They are a helpful way to prevent any SNAFUs when we're miles from civilization :)

Food Czar

Food Czars lead a workstream, station or initiative. Food Czars do not necessarily do everything required for that division, but they are responsible for ensuring it is done.

Food Czar roles are tentative and may change in the lead up to the Burn and from year to year. Some Czar roles may be consolidated in the lead up to Burn.

Czar Role	Description	Turtle
Facilities and Training Czar	Final expert in all things Food Fort operations (equipment and facilities). Ensures Food Turtles are all trained on safety and SOPs.	Alejandro R
SOP and Recipes Czar	Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and documentation. Ensure food fort, fridge, kitchenette, snacks is organized and develop standard operating process for how food fort and food spaces are left between shifts. Lots of Signage. Ensures complete meal recipes (following last year’s template) are collected from shift leads, compile a recipe book with 4 copies of each recipe to bring to Playa.	Ben S Assist: Alejandro
Operation Kitchenette Czar	Defines the new Health Snacks and self-serve Turtle Kitchenette in the Dining Area. Define and roll out process for Operation Dinner Freedom.	Ben B Assist? Adam J?
Dry Snacks Czar	Plan the dry snacks ordering list. Organize and prepare Turtle self-serve dry snacks station. Ensure hot snacks: frozen burritos, sandwiches, etc (figure out w Kitchenette)
Master Planning Spreadsheet Czar	Ensure spreadsheet linking and formulas work, especially ingredients. Ensure ingredients for meals are correctly formatted and compile into a master order list for Reno Build Team. Update supplies list based on Reno Work Week inventory and collate additional equipment and supplies required for ordering.
Operation Advance Prep Czar	Defines and leads the effort to pre-prepare ingredients and meal components prior to the Burn to minimize Food Shift labor once the Burn begins. Work with ingredients and Reno Build Week team to implement ideas. Will likely require being at Reno Build Week.	Adam J? Assist: Christophe
Procurement Czar	Ensures all the ingredients, equipment and stuff that Planning scopes are ordered and loaded for entry to Playa. Requires being at Reno Build Week.
Food Fort Driving and Testing Czar	Test all key components of Food Fort and ensures it arrives to Playa on time and in one piece! Requires being at Reno Build Week.	Sean E?

Reno Advance Team

There are two group Turtle occasions in the Spring and Summer where a few Turtles are on the ground to audit, verify and prepare the Food Team for success on Playa: Reno Work Week and Reno Build Week.

Advance Teams have one designated lead and Turtles supporting the effort.

Reno Work Week (May 9th-11th)

Reno Work Weekend is our first opportunity to get eyes on the Food Fort, gather intel for the Food Team that plans, and perform testing and maintenance to get ahead of any issues ahead of the Burn.

Key Tasks:

• Inventory
  • Empty Food Fort of all equipment and leftover dry goods (if any).
  • Audit equipment and supplies. Throw out stuff which is broken, unnecessarily duplicative, or not useful.
  • Basic cleaning and maintenance of equipment, as appropriate and necessary.
  • Organize and group remaining equipment, align to numbered and labeled boxes.
  • List equipment in master inventory sheet by box (location) and photograph the contents of boxes. Save photos to Wiki
  • Pack and put away boxes
• Cleaning 
  
  • Wipe down and clean Food Fort, Walk In Fridge, Freezer, as necessary and appropriate
• Test Equipment
  • Test major equipment and ensure operational, so that repair orders can be placed ahead of time, if necessary, to the extent this is feasible. Testing will require hooking up to a generator / power source
  • Log testing results
  • Testing checklist. Priority Items designated with (*):
    • With power generator:
      • Lights and power to Truck
      • Freezer* (high propensity to have issues)
      • Walk in fridge*
      • Microwave
    • With propane
      • Griddle
      • Stove
    • With water hooked up
      • Ice maker
      • Water system and sinks
      • Drainage

Reno Build Week (August 18th-23rd)

Simultaneously to Build Week team arriving on Playa and building camp, a Food Advance Team goes to Reno to prepare the Food Fort, acquire supplies, and make any last preparation and 

On Friday some of the Reno Build Week team head to Playa along with the Food Fort to join Build Team and prepare Food Fort for all Turtles arrival Saturday.

Key tasks:

• Ensure the Food Fort is operational, all equipment is tested and, if needed, repaired (see above)
• Receive, unpack and prepare supplies and equipment
• Purchase, acquire and load ingredients
• Execute Operation Advance Prep, as scoped
• Set up Food Fort on Playa and Food stations
  • Organize walk in, freezer and dry ingredients
  • Snacks Station
  • Kitchenette

Reno Work Weekend Brief

The goals of Food Team at Work Weekend are to clean, to inventory, and to test equipment to scope any necessary repairs.

Reno Work Weekend Team: Alejandro, John, Brooke, Ben

Clean and Inventory

Cleaning and inventory can be bundled into one task and will be described together.

Task list:

• Find the Food Fort and secure entry
• Pull everything (within reason) out of the Food Fort and lay it out on the ground outside. In past years Turtles have found rotten surprises and items that should not have been left behind after the Burn - do a sweep through the Fort once emptied
  • Pots, pans, supplies, shelf stable foods, spices - yes
  • Bolted down ice machine, large scale equipment, shelving - no
• Cleaning: demoop food fort floors, drawers, shelving, storage, fridge, etc. Clean down griddle, stovetop, fridge, freezer
• Organize the stuff pulled out of the Food Fort into categories "piles", as they seem to make sense (e.g. cooking utensils, spices, cleaning supplies, etc.)
• Dispose of any items that are obviously broken, unsalvageable, unnecessary (duplicative), useless. This will require exercising some discretion and common sense
  • Make note of items that are disposed of which may need to be replaced (e.g. unsalvageable but no adequate duplicate in stock)
  • Make note of items which we do not possess but you think we should procure ahead of the Burn
• Note items and counts in inventory spreadsheet, as we did for 2024, in 2025 Inventory tab. I am leaving last year's inventory in place in case it is helpful or a guide for this year and will leave it to you to decide whether it is easier to wipe it clean and start fresh or update line by line
  • SPECIAL REQUEST: please test and note which pots and pans work on the induction stove vs not. We will want to clearly know so that we can delineate the equipment between the new self-serve Kitchenette vs what's in the Food Fort for Food Team
• Pack away items into numbered and labeled boxes, noting the box number which the item was packed into on the 2025 Inventory tab. Before packing the box, take a photo of the box and the contents which are about to go in as this will be helpful during Build Week and during the Burn

As you are going through the process of taking and fulfilling inventory, wipe down and clean surfaces, equipment and the Food Fort as it sensible and logical. The Food Fort should be in pretty good shape following the 2024 Burn (fingers crossed, knock on wood, hoping I don't jinx it) and the cleaning should be straightforward, but you will be able to evaluate the situation once you are on the ground and have eyes on the truck.

Testing

Part of the task during Build Week will be to ensure the Food Fort is fully operational and to order and coordinate any necessary repairs before driving it into Playa. If we know about issues or broken equipment earlier (e.g. now) this is very helpful in giving us more time to have the issues addressed without the panicked rush of the impending Burn.

It is not strictly necessary to test every item in the Food Fort. The items are listed by dependency and are in order from the most important to least important to test. By test we mean ensure that the equipment will power on / run once plugged in.

Electricity:

Requires hooking up the generator. The generator should be inside the Food Fort.

To test:

• Lights and power working in the Food Fort
• Microwave
• Walk in fridge
• Freezer
• Ice machine (also requires water hooked up)
  

The freezer and the ice machine are both highly liable to breakage and have a history of breaking down in the year between Burns and sometimes also on Playa. If all you can test and verify are these items, it will be a win.

Propane:

The Food Fort should have two propane tanks attached to it, of which at least one should have propane. It should be relatively straight forward to get the propane hooked up and turned on although it requires someone who knows how. Alejandro may remember from '24 Burn or ask for help from someone at Work Weekend.

To test:

• Griddle
• Stove - burners and oven

Water:

This will be the most difficult utility to connect as it requires getting a hose up to the truck and hooked in. If possible, it's a very nice to have. Imagine the heroic stories you will tell if it works!

To test:

• Ice maker (also requires electricity)
• Water system (sinks, etc.)
• Drainage, disposal and leaks

Following testing:

Log what was possible to hook in and achieve, what was tested, the results of testing and any repairs required.

Resources

You can find instructions for operating many appliances and food fort systems here as a first line of information.

You will likely have questions and run into snags and need help from experienced Turtles. Even experienced Turtles don't know everything and they themselves may need extra help. When you need help, the following points of contact are yours. They are listed in first line of support first and then in escalation order:

• Alejandro - Previously Food Team Turtle and knows the boiler plate basic workings of the Food Fort
• Romain - Previously Food Team Turtle, 2x Turtle, may have additional knowledge but may be busy coordinating Reno Work Weekend to focus on Food lane fully
• Spacemaster (John) - Previously Food Team Turtle, knowledgeable in how things work, where things are, and alternative solutions to problems. Find him around the Tool Fort (which he is leading). 
• Joel (Jetpack) - knows pretty much every thing, bother him last when all other avenues have failed

Also - Me! (Christophe) I'm available all weekend for you to reach out and will be monitoring Discord to the extent any activity is there. If you need to reach me my number is 415-269-1339. Don't get stuck, don't hesitate to reach out.