Youth Group Camp Catering Recap
I have just gotten back from catering the youth group camp and I am exhausted but I thought I would do a recap before things get fuzzy.
I catered last years camp to much success and then I offered to cater this years camp if I was able (which I was). I was actually more stressed catering this time round as it was more people and it wasn't at the church unlike last years. I also didn't know the exact numbers until the Monday afternoon before. I ended up catering for around 35 (including myself) and that included 22 teens and the rest were leaders, all with varying appetites!
The camp went from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon and I had to do 2 dinners (we got fish and chips for dinner the first night), 2 lunches, 3 breakfasts and snacks.
I sat down with A (the organiser of the camp) Monday before the camp and told him my menu based on last years menu with a few tweaks and differences. I actually typed it up in a table along including what ingredients I would need and prep required, he was really impressed with my organision and couldn't believe how well thought out it was.
A bought the things I wouldn't need prior or would require refrigeration and I did the rest of the shopping on Thursday and then spent Friday prepping and doing as much in advance as possible. I shredded the chicken for Sunday lunch, grated carrot (in the food processor), shredded lettuce, baked brownies, pre weighed ingredients for the cinnamon scrolls, made nacho mince and did a few other things that helped make life easier.
Also the camp was nut free to make things easier and the only other dietary requirement was one person who was pescatarian (doesn't eat meat but eats fish), so I did a vegetarian nacho mix for her on Sunday night and fried fish for her on Monday.
This was the menu:
Sunday:
Breakfast - cereal and toast
Lunch - chicken and salad rolls with avocado.
Dinner - nachos followed by cinnamon scrolls.
Monday:
Breakfast - bacon, eggs and toast
Lunch - salami, ham and salad wraps
Dinner - sausages, potato salad, garden salad and a crunchy salad (bought from Aldi) followed by brownies
Tuesday:
Breakfast - cereal and toast
Snacks (morning tea and supper) were a mix of the following:
cookie sticks, fruit (grapes, apples, oranges and watermelon), microwave popcorn, shapes biscuits, jatz crackers, hummus and carrot sticks and rice crackers.
We brought down everything except the bread, bread rolls and milk which we bought down there so they would be fresh.
Breakfast was at 8.30am, lunch was at 1.00pm and dinner was at 6.00pm. I spent the mornings doing stuff in the kitchen and then during the afternoons I would hang with the teens before starting dinner at 5.00pm. Night times I would put out the supper and then do whatever depending on what was required.
The camp was at a church campsite 2.5 hours away on the beach and the kitchen had an amazing view of the beach which was nice. It was also very hot on Sunday so it was great to be down on the coast.
The theme of the camp was Mission Impossible and I was impressed by the activities that were put on. The leaders had profiles written about them, with various characteristics (that they were required to fulfil throughout the camp) and the teens had to figure out who were the three moles. This was done through challenges and cracking codes.
The mornings they had talks and a few games that helped them earn points for their teams (which there were three of).
The first night they had a session followed by supper and the kids played spotlight among themselves.
On the second day (but first full day) after morning tea they had 5 (I think) stations they had to move through but if they failed one they had to go back to the previous. These were gross challenges and I was happy to be in the kitchen and watching from afar. One was playing ultimate frisbee using bananas, another was crawling through flour and water mixed together (thankfully these challenges were done on the beach) and there were a few others.
After lunch we drove to another beach where some inflatables obstacles were set up not far from shore and they all had fun climbing on those before we grabbed an ice cream and they did a photo scavenger hunt in their groups.
After dinner and another session, there was meant to be a big capture the flag game but a lot of the teens were exhausted so they played board games instead.
The third day the morning was the same but instead of going anywhere we stayed at the beach and the senior pastor brought down his boat for the day and the teens went sea biscuiting (I went on the boat) until we went to one of the best ice cream places for ice cream and ultimate frisbee.
That last night there were 3 stations and one of the stations required them to work out a code and use it to "hack" into a computer which would give them more clues. Of course this was challenging as they had to try not to get caught by the leaders and provide excuses as to why they were in these areas. Two of the leaders had accents, one a German one the other a Russian one and it was hilarious seeing them interact and the teens had no idea what to think.
Another station involved a VR headset and defusing bombs and the other station required them to dodge lasers and compete in challenges.
The final day was clean up and the winning team was announced before morning tea and heading home via a lunch stop.
I arrived home at 2.30pm and immediately unpacked and did a load of washing before hugging a very clingy ginger cat then collapsing and eventually heading to bed early.
Catering a camp is no easy task but thankfully the leaders and teens made things a lot easier and were always so eager to help and thankful to me for doing it, which makes all the difference (also I may not have stashed some lollies in the kitchen haha).
I catered last years camp to much success and then I offered to cater this years camp if I was able (which I was). I was actually more stressed catering this time round as it was more people and it wasn't at the church unlike last years. I also didn't know the exact numbers until the Monday afternoon before. I ended up catering for around 35 (including myself) and that included 22 teens and the rest were leaders, all with varying appetites!
The camp went from Saturday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon and I had to do 2 dinners (we got fish and chips for dinner the first night), 2 lunches, 3 breakfasts and snacks.
I sat down with A (the organiser of the camp) Monday before the camp and told him my menu based on last years menu with a few tweaks and differences. I actually typed it up in a table along including what ingredients I would need and prep required, he was really impressed with my organision and couldn't believe how well thought out it was.
A bought the things I wouldn't need prior or would require refrigeration and I did the rest of the shopping on Thursday and then spent Friday prepping and doing as much in advance as possible. I shredded the chicken for Sunday lunch, grated carrot (in the food processor), shredded lettuce, baked brownies, pre weighed ingredients for the cinnamon scrolls, made nacho mince and did a few other things that helped make life easier.
Also the camp was nut free to make things easier and the only other dietary requirement was one person who was pescatarian (doesn't eat meat but eats fish), so I did a vegetarian nacho mix for her on Sunday night and fried fish for her on Monday.
This was the menu:
Sunday:
Breakfast - cereal and toast
Lunch - chicken and salad rolls with avocado.
Dinner - nachos followed by cinnamon scrolls.
Monday:
Breakfast - bacon, eggs and toast
Lunch - salami, ham and salad wraps
Dinner - sausages, potato salad, garden salad and a crunchy salad (bought from Aldi) followed by brownies
Tuesday:
Breakfast - cereal and toast
Snacks (morning tea and supper) were a mix of the following:
cookie sticks, fruit (grapes, apples, oranges and watermelon), microwave popcorn, shapes biscuits, jatz crackers, hummus and carrot sticks and rice crackers.
We brought down everything except the bread, bread rolls and milk which we bought down there so they would be fresh.
Breakfast was at 8.30am, lunch was at 1.00pm and dinner was at 6.00pm. I spent the mornings doing stuff in the kitchen and then during the afternoons I would hang with the teens before starting dinner at 5.00pm. Night times I would put out the supper and then do whatever depending on what was required.
The camp was at a church campsite 2.5 hours away on the beach and the kitchen had an amazing view of the beach which was nice. It was also very hot on Sunday so it was great to be down on the coast.
The theme of the camp was Mission Impossible and I was impressed by the activities that were put on. The leaders had profiles written about them, with various characteristics (that they were required to fulfil throughout the camp) and the teens had to figure out who were the three moles. This was done through challenges and cracking codes.
The mornings they had talks and a few games that helped them earn points for their teams (which there were three of).
The first night they had a session followed by supper and the kids played spotlight among themselves.
On the second day (but first full day) after morning tea they had 5 (I think) stations they had to move through but if they failed one they had to go back to the previous. These were gross challenges and I was happy to be in the kitchen and watching from afar. One was playing ultimate frisbee using bananas, another was crawling through flour and water mixed together (thankfully these challenges were done on the beach) and there were a few others.
After lunch we drove to another beach where some inflatables obstacles were set up not far from shore and they all had fun climbing on those before we grabbed an ice cream and they did a photo scavenger hunt in their groups.
After dinner and another session, there was meant to be a big capture the flag game but a lot of the teens were exhausted so they played board games instead.
The third day the morning was the same but instead of going anywhere we stayed at the beach and the senior pastor brought down his boat for the day and the teens went sea biscuiting (I went on the boat) until we went to one of the best ice cream places for ice cream and ultimate frisbee.
That last night there were 3 stations and one of the stations required them to work out a code and use it to "hack" into a computer which would give them more clues. Of course this was challenging as they had to try not to get caught by the leaders and provide excuses as to why they were in these areas. Two of the leaders had accents, one a German one the other a Russian one and it was hilarious seeing them interact and the teens had no idea what to think.
Another station involved a VR headset and defusing bombs and the other station required them to dodge lasers and compete in challenges.
The final day was clean up and the winning team was announced before morning tea and heading home via a lunch stop.
I arrived home at 2.30pm and immediately unpacked and did a load of washing before hugging a very clingy ginger cat then collapsing and eventually heading to bed early.
Catering a camp is no easy task but thankfully the leaders and teens made things a lot easier and were always so eager to help and thankful to me for doing it, which makes all the difference (also I may not have stashed some lollies in the kitchen haha).
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