Ugh. That's appallingly tone-deaf in any established community, but especially a religious community! And you're not asking them to cook differently, just to label! Sheesh. Or just segregate -- my synagogue has a table designated for gluten-free food after services each week, for example.
I saw an approach to labeling at an SCA event (pot-luck) that's easy and mitigates against the "writing out a card is too much trouble" complaint -- color-coded stickers. (This is the same idea as the pre-printed cards with checkboxes, but might be easier as you don't need to custom-print anything.) When people show up with their food they're asked to write at least the name of the dish (in case cards get moved accidentally) and their own name on the card and apply the correct stickers -- contains meat, contains gluten, contains dairy, contains nuts. Ideally people write the ingredients, but at least you get the ingredient warnings, and if you have questions you can find out whom to ask. Do you think that approach would work in your church?
no subject
I saw an approach to labeling at an SCA event (pot-luck) that's easy and mitigates against the "writing out a card is too much trouble" complaint -- color-coded stickers. (This is the same idea as the pre-printed cards with checkboxes, but might be easier as you don't need to custom-print anything.) When people show up with their food they're asked to write at least the name of the dish (in case cards get moved accidentally) and their own name on the card and apply the correct stickers -- contains meat, contains gluten, contains dairy, contains nuts. Ideally people write the ingredients, but at least you get the ingredient warnings, and if you have questions you can find out whom to ask. Do you think that approach would work in your church?