Starting A Sunday Spread

The TikTok trend of creating a farmers market style weekend swap for homemade goods.

My top goal for this year is to build community, with people I know and those I’ve yet to meet. (Want to read my other goals? Check my last post here!) Just before the new year, I started seeing videos on TikTok about The Sunday Spread. Watch the video that started it all from Jackie Bordignon on TikTok below.

Bordignon gathers people in her home, each bringing several of a homemade good to swap. As the items are laid out, guests share snacks and community, and they each get to leave with a bag of homemade goods. Bordignon shares in other videos how she runs the event to help people start them in their own communities. Other people have adapted the event for their own communities meeting weekly, monthly, or even once. One in particular I liked, she called hers “Second Sundays” hosting the event on the second Sunday of every month.

I decided I want to try to do the same. My first event is February 15th. (I know, it’s technically the third Sunday, but I needed some extra time to get my ducks in a row, and I know better than to compete with Super Bowl Sunday.) For my first event, I created a Canva Website to answer common FAQs, and I’m going send that to a few friends and ask if they’re interested.

Picking The First Guests

The main thing to consider when inviting people to Sunday Spread is to invite people who like to make things. For my first event, I’m aiming for about a half-dozen people who will actually attend. The only flakes invited this time are flaky salts. (Yum!) I’m inviting a few friends who I’ve hosted before for craft or game nights, a few new friends from work, friends I haven’t connected with in a while but would like to. As I hear back from those people, I plan to open up more spots to my local networking groups or friends of friends. (That’s also the expansion plan, with the goal to be to have a group of around 12-15 each month.)

To each of my friends I’m sending the text: “Hey! Have you heard of Sunday Spreads? It’s a homemade goods swap I keep seeing on TikTok. I wanted to start hosting my own, and thought of you. Would you want to come to my first event? It’s Sunday afternoon 2/15 and you’ll need to bring half a dozen of something homemade to share. Here’s a link with more info, let me know if you’re interested and I’ll be sending the RSVP in February. <Insert Canva Site Link>”

Running The Event

On February 1st, two weeks before my event, I’ll send out an invite via Partiful, the site recommended by the original host. She recommends this site because it has a chat feature where everyone can share what they’re bringing to avoid overlap and share allergies. I do not plan to enforce accommodations of every allergy. I am asking guests not to bring anything with avocado or avocado oil because I have a severe allergy that can flare when I even touch them. If someone has a similar allergy I will do the same for them, but for most allergies, I’d love people to share so we can accommodate when possible, but not guaranteeing it. I will also hav everyone share the ingredients they use either on the event or the package.

Come February 15th, I have the event scheduled for people to arrive between 3-4. As people show up I’m going to be making match and cold brew for them and I’ll bake something for them to enjoy. During this hour, we can chat, stage the goods on the dining table, and generally hang out. At 4pm everyone should’ve arrived and we’ll each go around the table packing our bag with one of each item. Or I might pre-pack the bags and we can go around sharing what we brought and why we love it. (You’re seeing the experimental phase of this project in this blog post.)

After the event, people are free to leave or to stay and hang out. We can put on a movie, pull out a game, or just sit and chat. This is specifically designed so that people with busy weekends can stop in quickly for 30-60 minutes, grab their goods and go, or stay and gather in community. Speaking of timing, this event specifically works best on Sundays because most of my people have weekends off and can prepare their homemade goods fresh on Saturdays right before the event.

What To Bring

You can set your own rules for your event, but for me the core of this event is homemade goods. I don’t care if it’s boxed cake mix doctored up into lemon lavender cupcakes (one of my signature baked goods) or flour milled in your own pantry. What I don’t want to see is a box of grocery store cookies. (yeah they’re great, but not for this.)

I also want people to bring a few servings of each item for each person take home. I don’t want each person to be brining home one cookie from someone. So I set it as 2-4 servings. Think: 2-4 cookies, a mini loaf of bread, a 6-8oz jar of dip or syrup, a handmade lip balm has dozens of uses, etc.

I also specified consumable goods: food, personal care, cleaning, etc. I’d love to do craft swaps in the future, but I want to make sure that this event doesn’t result in more clutter in people’s homes and gives them something they can actually use.

Expanding The Event

I’m trying (very very very very hard) to not get ahead of myself planning this event, but I’d love to see it expand! I’m open to hosting it twice a month, maybe a general one and a themed event for the second one. I’d love to partner with local companies or network marketing girls for the first hour snacks. (Eventually I’ll have my own Arbonne Matcha Bar ready to go for one of them.) I’d love to do holiday events like a Christmas cookie swap, holiday decor swaps, puppy goods swaps, etc. I’d also love to share my resources like making a template of my website for others to use.

What else should I add? What questions do you have? Would you start or attend Sunday Spread in your area? Are you in Orlando and want to be invited? Drop it in the comments.