Looking for a fun, easy way to connect with people? Host a Drive Thru Soda Bar! This idea could be used for a church group, a party, a fundraiser and more.
To meet the needs of the ladies in our ward (church congregation), we wanted to do something simple, fun and low pressure. I suggested doing a drive thru soda bar. The idea wasn’t mine – it had come from the previous ward I attended. But it was so much fun that I thought it’d be perfect for this congregation as well.
When the pandemic first started, the ward I met in (we have since moved and now meet in a new ward), made a drive up soda station. It was their way to connect with us, even though we couldn’t meet for church in person. It was nice to get out, to see other people and to enjoy some soda!
Soda Bar Logistics
While each ward (this would work for any party, fundraiser, etc), has different needs, amount of people, and things to think about, this is how we set it up.
What you will need:
- Different flavors of soda – we had Sprite, Cream Soda (lots of people chose this!), Coke, Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper
- Water
- Ice – we used pebble ice (my personal favorite)
- Syrups – I purchased mine from Smart and Final and World Market
- Syrup pumps – not a *necessity* but very helpful, mine were purchased at Smart & Final but can be found on Amazon as well
- Half and Half
- Cups
- Straws
- Drink stirrers – not a necessity but ended up being helpful!
- Cherries, lemons, limes
- Checklists (below)
- Soda Sign (info below)
- Clipboards
- Pens
We set up a table with everything laid out. Our theme was Valentine’s Day related since it was a days before that holiday. On the table we had the syrups lined up, half and half, the cups and straws, drink stirrers all set up. In a bucket with ice we had the sodas and water. There was a cooler full of pebble ice.
As people drove up, they saw the big soda bar sign that they could order from. We handed them a mini clipboard that had the drink order form, a ministering checklist and their ministering assignment too. We checked in to see how they were doing and then took their soda order form. Two of us were doing this part as the other two were making the drinks.
After they were done filling out their ministering forms, we handed them a sugar cookie. And placed the forms in the a basket to look at later.
How to create a soda sign
My go to for design is Adobe Illustrator. I use it for everything. Any software could be used to create your own (Canva is a popular alternate). Because there are LOTS of flavors of soda and syrups, I’m not including this sign in my free printables.
Make sure to include: soda base, syrup flavorings, and optional add ins.
I found some posts that had silly references and puns related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that I used for the drink names. There are so many good ones!
In my sign I used:
I uploaded my design to Walgreens Photo and had it printed as a board print. It is my favorite way to create signs as they are sturdy and well made. I can get them on the same day as I order. They always have a coupon code to get them at a discount too. I had this sign printed as a 20″x30″ and set it on an inexpensive easel.
To make things run smoothly, I created a checklist for each person’s drink order(s). This checklist was based off of what we had on hand, but the options here are endless. We used clipboards so that they had something hard to write on.
In our church, we’re assigned to people in our congregation to look after or “minister” to. It’s our way to check in with each other, assist with anything going on, and be there for one another. The point of our drive thru soda bar was to check in and see how ministering was going for the ladies at church. I created checklist for this too so that people could write it down and we could look at them later.
Download these Drive Thru Soda Bar Printable Checklists.
