Pickup Day Guide

Pickup day is the fun part — but it moves fast and it gets messy. Here is what to expect, what to bring, and how to keep the line moving. Skim it once now and once the week of your pickup, and you will be in good shape.

Before Pickup Day

Send the reminder. The day before, send your supporters the pickup reminder from the app — it tells them the day, the time window, and where to go. One click, everybody knows where to be.

Decide how you will look up orders. Bring a laptop or tablet if you will have service at your pickup spot, or print the Pickup Sheet from the app and bring it on paper.

Line up your people. Two or three helpers is plenty for most fundraisers — see how we staff a table below.

No service where you are picking up? The printed sheet does everything the screen does — just bring a pen and mark orders off as they go out.

Meats and Coolers

Your BBQ meats arrive in coolers. The products are wrapped, but they will still be messy — dress accordingly. For most fundraisers we wrap in heavy-duty foil and restaurant-quality plastic wrap. Sauce comes in 16 oz deli containers.

For Boston butts and turkey breasts we generally put 30 pieces in each cooler. Use that to plan how many coolers you will be handling and how much table space you need.

The products are hot — potentially VERY HOT. Take precautions, and keep kids and curious hands away from the coolers.

Supplies Provided and Needed

We provide hot gloves, food-safe nitrile gloves, extra foil, take-out bags, and a 5-gallon bucket when one is available.

The extra foil is for rewrapping — some pieces get messy in transit, especially at the bottom of a cooler. There will not be enough to rewrap everything, but there will be enough for the few that need it.

Please plan on bringing your own bucket. We may not have one available, and you will want it (see below).

Your Grease Plan

You need a grease plan. It sounds worse than it is — manage it as you go and it is easy. Ignore it and it becomes the worst part of your day.

Have a place to pour grease out, or a container to pour it into. Empty each cooler as soon as it is emptied of product, while the grease is still hot — about 95% will pour right out. Wipe out what is left with paper towels, then a little dish soap and a short soak and the cooler cleans right up.

If you can travel with the grease, bring it to us when you return the coolers and we will dispose of it. Coolers must be returned clean.

The one thing we always do is stay ahead of the coolers and the grease. Once grease congeals, it is a real nuisance.

How We Run a Pickup

There are plenty of ways to do this. Here is how 2 Men and a Pig staffs a pickup day, in case it helps you plan yours. We split into greeters, cooler people, and assistants.

  1. Greeters. Someone meets supporters as they arrive. Keep an eye out for anyone who may need help — we are quick to walk out to a vehicle rather than make someone come to us.
  2. Find the order. At the table, ask for their name and pull up the order. In the app you can search by name, email, phone, or — best of all — the Order ID from their confirmation email. Orders are sometimes placed under a spouse's name, so having several ways to search saves the day.
  3. Hand it off. Once the order is confirmed, your cooler person and assistant pull the product and hand it over — rewrapping anything that needs it on the way.

Taking Payment

Most supporters have already paid online, so this is usually a short conversation. For the ones who have not:

Cash or check — take it and mark the order Paid in the app right then.

Card — send the supporter their payment link from their order and they pay on their own phone, right there at the table. The order marks itself paid when the payment clears.

Mark every order paid, no matter how the money arrived. That is what keeps your totals honest and tells you at a glance who still owes at the end of the day.

If we cook it, we bill it. An order that is never picked up — or never paid for — is still charged to the fundraiser, because the meat was bought and smoked.
You do have an out: before we cook, you can cancel unpaid orders. We reach out about outstanding orders as the cutoff gets close so nobody is surprised.

Using the App at the Table

Pickup Mode is a full-screen view made for a laptop or tablet at the table. Search a name, the order appears, tap to mark it picked up. No scrolling through a paper stack while a line forms behind someone.

Mark paid as you go for anyone paying at pickup, and the outstanding list shrinks in real time.

Credit a seller on the spot. If a supporter meant to buy from a particular student or team member and it never got recorded, you can credit that order right there — their sales total updates immediately.

After the Last Order Goes Out

Say thank you. Send thank-you emails from the app — admins can send for the whole fundraiser, and if your sellers have logins they can thank their own supporters personally.

Download your records. Export a detailed spreadsheet of every sale, broken out student by student when that is how your fundraiser ran. Good for your booster records, and good for handing out credit fairly.

Chase what is left. Anything still unpaid is right there on your dashboard, and the app can send a reminder for you.

Return the coolers clean — and bring the grease if you can travel with it.

Questions before your pickup day?

Call or email us — we would much rather talk it through beforehand than have you guessing at the table.

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