By Carie Moore
My favorite part of summer: kid’s camps! Just kidding.
On one hand, I’m glad for the experiences my kids get to have across the state with a variety of children, teens and adults. On the other hand, I worry if they will sleep well, brush their teeth and use their manners. One thing I don’t worry about is their meals. Most of the time they get fed better at camp than in many schools or home. Plus, sometimes they come home with new ideas for us to try at meal time or snacks. When I dropped my son off at his first camp a couple weeks ago, I wanted to stay for supper. There were bananas, strawberries, cookies, and fresh buns all waiting to be eaten when we registered in the dining hall.
At camp, there is a lot of time spent planning and prepping for meals. I am grateful and thankful for the volunteers. I know feeding kids who are on the move all day must be a challenge. Some days I struggle with just 3 mouths reminding me they’re hungry, they’re bored, there’s nothing to eat here, can we go to town and get something, and when’s supper. Apparently, they need more things to do if they have time to complain about all that. It’s funny how during the school year it’s a struggle to eat breakfast and supper some days and all summer long you can’t keep enough food around.
I’m glad during camp weeks the kids are learning, staying busy and eating 3 great meals and a couple snacks. They are active and engaged which is great for the mind and body, just like the food they are eating. I’ll admit, I pack a few extra snacks in their bags for the “just in case” because that’s what moms do. What if he goes to bed and he’s starving? “I can’t bear to think about that,” always plays in my mind, but guess what? Every kid and every camp, those snacks have always come back home untouched.
So, whether you’re holding back the tears as they wave at you to leave or you’ve done this more times than you can count, it’s a good bet out of all the worries you have, their nutrition at camp doesn’t need to be one of them. So, hug them goodbye (if they let you) and tell yourself, “I’m really (NOT) going to miss them this week!”