1. 2pm Friday - RSVP to your event and tell your group what you will be cooking that weekend. (Each household nominates the dish they are cooking (one dish from each category so there is variety across the week) by commenting in the Event they are attending.)
2. Each household prepares their nominated dish to the required size for the group they are meeting (refer to our Portion Guide). e.g. 2 person households meeting a group 4 = 8 adult-sized portions. They package up the meals in the containers provided in the starter kit.
3. Attend your Fast and Friendly Swap Event on Sundays at 4pm.
4. Everyone enjoys delicious home-cooked meals all week!

Our meal-swap approach is designed for households of 1 or 2 adults (or equivalent). If you are a single parent and have two small children they may eat the equivalent of 1 adult-sized portion together so you would join the 2 Adult Household groups. 

Any more than 2 adult-sized portions per household becomes a practical challenge when you are meeting and swapping with up to 4 other households. A household of 3 adults in a group of 5 means that members are preparing 15 adult-sized portions which is beyond the capability of typical home cooks with limited cooking space and cooking equipment.

TIP: If your household is larger (say 3-4 adults) consider creating two accounts and cooking two different meals each week and joining the same swap event. So you could create a tray-bake meal (e.g. roast chicken and vegetables) and a stove-top meal (e.g. paella) concurrently, to portionds of 10 each.

If you have any suggestions as to how to improve this, or think you would be able to manage with larger households and have some ideas for how other people could manage, please do let us know via email support@villagekitchen.com.au. We would love to hear from you!

If you require medical attention please contact your local doctor or dial 000 if it is an emergency.

Please email support@villagekitchen.com.au at your earliest convenience and outline what has occured.

If possible, please keep any remaining food including dirty dishes in case we may be able to conduct testing.

Please remember we are not responsible for any adverse health effects and you are participating at your own risk, as per our terms and conditions. However we will certainly notify the member who cooked the food and keep a record of this type of correspondence on file to the best of our ability (although again we make no guarantees or warranties).

Please refer to our Terms and Conditions for full disclaimer and our Liability Waiver which you must agree to in order to participate in Village Kitchen.

Selling food is strictly prohibited within Village Kitchen. We are an events business, not a food business. If we permitted the sale of food it would require additional food licenses, random kitchen inspections by your local council health inspectors, and many other requirements. This is why we take a very strong stance on this matter. So strong, that if any member who is suspected of or proven to be selling or attempting to sell food will be banned from Village Kitchen. If you suspect a fellow member is attempting to sell food please notify the Village Kitchen team immediately via support@villagekitchen.com.au.

For more information refer to our Terms and Conditions and Liability Waiver.

Unfortunately, sorry, no.

All our members must purchase a Starter Kit which includes the storage containers and labels to get you started. This way, when you attend a Swap Event and swap your meals you receive the same brand and type of containers back, thus nobody loses out due to different container sizes or monetary value of containers. We have an exclusive partnership with Décor which means we can offer exceptional prices on their glass containers so we can afford to send them out with free shipping for ultimate convenience right to your door. Their range is Oven, Microwave and Dishwasher safe, which makes it great for the environment, our health and very convenient when you are freezing/cooling/reheating your meals. It also means you don't accumulate lots of different brands and sizes which can make storage a challenge.

You will need to label your containers with the labels supplied. If you need to order any replacement labels you can do so via the platform. 

If you need to replace any containers please purchase from your local Woolworths, Coles or BigW, or you can purchase via our website and enjoy our exclusive Village Kitchen discounts.

Meal-swapping is a new concept with a bit of a learning curve for everyone. This is why we encourage constructive and kind feedback by way of the Weekly Surveys. If you find that one member is consistently providing food below what you would consider to be acceptable please email support@villagekitchen.com.au. We also encourage giving kudos to really great cooks as it can unlock rewards (more information coming soon on this).

Sometimes in life there are emergencies and unforseen circumstances. If you're unable to attend your Swap Meet and it is past the Commitment Deadline please let us know via support@villagekitchen.com.au and withdraw from your event.