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#128280 07/28/15 04:36 PM
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marty Offline OP
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I had some nasty food this summer. I have been at camp for over 15 years and I have seen it all-- the good, bad and the ugly-- as well as the eewww. We had a meal which was a cheesy piece of glop. The portions were so small that you were still hungry after each meal. If you go to the facebook page that Luke created, you will see a picture of how bad the food at my camp was this past year.


PM me if you want to sign up for the camp buddies for this summmer.
marty #128308 09/19/15 05:47 PM
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I saw the picture and I cant imagine eating that. The food at my camp was actually pretty decent this summer. They tried out a new scheme of serving the food, where the options were; Hot Lunch (always different but always Pizza on Mondays), Cheese Sandwich, Turkey Sandwich, Tuna Sandwich or Bagel (Plain, Butter Cream Cheese). As the group leader, I would receive an order form for lunch and I would mark down what the kids ordered and what my counselors wanted. I would then submit it to the kitchen and when we went to lunch, I would grab a tray and go to the food line and get the proper amount of each item. Of course, if the kids wanted more, they would be able to get it themselves. By doing this, the camp as able to generate an average amount of each type of food consumed and thereby reducing the cost and wasting of food. It was a great idea but there were some problems. 1 problem was pretty obvious; What if the children change their mind about what the want to eat? This was resolved by just allowing the children to go and get the food themselves after receiving their original meal and the lunch staff would gladly switch their meal with the one they wanted. Problem 2 occurred when certain children would order the same thing over and over again (bagels). This was an unresolvable problem though so we only forced a kid to eat something else when the childs parent called and complained, which was an extremely rare occurrence. The 3rd problem was that the food would somtimes make me a little sick. I remember one time after having chicken tenders and potato wedges, I was feeling extremely nauseous, we had this same meal one other time which did not make me sick. I had also heard of kids vomiting soon after lunch. This was NOT a rare occurrence which to me is NOT OKAY AT ALL. Honestly I began to consider bringing my own lunch on some days. The part that annoyed me the most was how the camp would just cover up when kids got sick by just saying that it was hot outside and the child was dehydrated and the parents would take the bait every time. Other then these problems which are only hiccups other then getting sick, the food was surprisingly good.

I'm going to create a forum on the topic of nurses at camp which is a huge issue that my camp needs to address


Most days, I cannot tell you what the date is but I can tell you how many days until camp starts!!
marty #128314 09/24/15 02:38 PM
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To be honest, I did not eat that meal. I had some word vomit about how bad the food was. We had 240 camp participants-- 107 campers and the rest volunteers. Our campers are all adults--18 and older and our volunteers were 16 and older-- a few volunteers (2 or so) were 14 or 15 years old. In past years, we were allowed to have as much food as we wanted. This year, we were given 1 plate of food with the kitchen staff determining how much or how little food we had. Our organization rents out the camp site from an Easter Seals camp, and there was a huge mix up and they ordered too little food for us, and they over-ordered food for the week after us (which did not arrive until 24 hours until we left.)

The food was so bad that many campers and volunteers complained of stomach issues at camp.

The only decent meals was breakfast and that was assuming you had oatmeal or cereal.

We had a cookout every night during or after the evening meals. At the cook outs we had hot dogs, hamburgers and mushrooms


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marty #128452 06/19/16 04:04 AM
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I've never been ecstatic about camp food. Even the private tution camps tend to have lackluster menus and preparation. I attribute it to campers and kids generally having the same food preferences regardless of their background, and that camp kitchens have to prepare menus that will appeal to the largest and most common preferences. This means a lot of pizza, chicken fingers, and various hot sandwiches (everything from chicken wraps to burgers). At my last camp I had a pretty good relationship with the kitchen manager (chef), who said that breakfast was the easiest to plan for as it was basically the same every day cereal (hot and cold) and then eggs (always scrambled), breakfast meats, and then a bread like pancakes, french toast or waffles. There was nothing to really plan, just rotate those various choices. He did omelets once, just once and never again, they take to long and require too much attention. One thing he said was that in his years of experience the kitchen crew was usually immigrant labor, who while some of them had some kitchen prep and cooking skill and experience, that language barriers usually meant keeping instructions simple.
Dinner was the hardest meal to prepare for because he had to prepare for so many different variations around a theme. Italian night might be some type of classical home style dish like lasagna and garlic bread (no actual garlic) then some kind of kids food like pizza, and then prepping the special diet alternative and the salad bar means that they start prepping the sheet pans of pizza and the lasagna at lunch time.

There were only a couple times I've had bad dining hall food and it was usually when the kitchen had to make something to feed staff and campers at the last minute, such as when campers would return early or late from an offsite trip or on the first day of staff arrivals which is basically van trips back and forth with staff arriving at different times of the day, and is basically one long day of make your own sandwiches or grilled cheese and french fries.

marty #128459 07/02/16 02:18 AM
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I noticed at all the camps I been at, we have the same food as well. The camp I was at last year was an adult camp for adults with physical disabilities. The food taste was bad, and the quantity was poor-- they thought adult campers ate as little food as 5 year old kids eat and there were no seconds


PM me if you want to sign up for the camp buddies for this summmer.

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