Options for handling campout food and supplies purchasing

[perdidochas]

Too much adult involvement. Patrol makes the menu.....Grubmaster duty rotates each boy has his turn' date=' some boys love doing it, others will miss a campout to avoid it. Grubmaster goes thru the food pantry and then goes to the grocery store and purchases the menu items. If they forget condiments, then they learn for next trip... Had pancakes with no syrup or butter not too long ago..... Food is a good place to learn lessons in my book. Most of our boys are well feed enough a mistake here isn't going to kill them. [/quote']

 

Pretty much what we do. Food is handled by the patrols. No real rotation, but with the younger scouts, has to do with who needs the First Class requirement. We generally have the parents go with the Scout, and give them the budget and the basic guidelines--let the Scout do the picking, guide them as to cost, and if needed, amounts. Pay for it, will be reimbursed by troop. I do agree that this is the best place for them to learn lessons and to pay attention to detail.

[King Ding Dong]

Too much adult involvement. Patrol makes the menu.....Grubmaster duty rotates each boy has his turn' date=' some boys love doing it, others will miss a campout to avoid it. Grubmaster goes thru the food pantry and then goes to the grocery store and purchases the menu items. If they forget condiments, then they learn for next trip... Had pancakes with no syrup or butter not too long ago..... Food is a good place to learn lessons in my book. Most of our boys are well feed enough a mistake here isn't going to kill them. [/quote']

 

Pretty much what we do. Food is handled by the patrols. No real rotation, but with the younger scouts, has to do with who needs the First Class requirement. We generally have the parents go with the Scout, and give them the budget and the basic guidelines--let the Scout do the picking, guide them as to cost, and if needed, amounts. Pay for it, will be reimbursed by troop. I do agree that this is the best place for them to learn lessons and to pay attention to detail.

Same here. You just have to trust the parents to actually let the scout do it. Some get good at it. Our budget for a two night is 12.50. Last fall a new scout picked up some steaks on sale. That patrol ate better than the Old Goats.

 

Sometimes we look at the menu and tell them it is not balanced and go back to the food pyramid, but it is their job to figure out what is wrong and fix it. I know some feel you should just let them buy pop tarts for the whole weekend and let them learn their lesson when they feel like crap by Sunday. That approach may be faster, just seems a little extreme to me and some kids (like mine) would not get sick and be just fine with it.

 

Occasionally we will hold an Iron Chef Scout and the Patrols feed the Old Goats. Then we announce the winner Sunday morning. (No prizes, just bragging rights) Last time we did it the patrol that won did not have the best food but they made sure their guests ate first. A Scout is courteous.

[Brewmeister]

FWIW, here's how we handled this.

 

Patrols were responsible of course for their own menus and quantity planning.

 

Patrol grubmasters were given the option of A) buy it on your own, or B) buy it on such-and-such day when I would be there with a troop check because I was buying for the adult patrol. (Our troop prefers to bill, rather than collect up front. But it does not matter.)

 

Grubmasters did their own thing in the store (so no clogging the aisles) with the troop grumbaster-instructor working with the less-experienced patrol grubmasters. We met up front when everybody was done and ran the carts through in sequence. Everybody took their own stuff home and was responsible for getting it to the campout.

 

This worked very well and the extent of adult involvement was writing a check so I can live with that administrative decision. YMMV.

 

[King Ding Dong]

FWIW, here's how we handled this.

 

Patrols were responsible of course for their own menus and quantity planning.

 

Patrol grubmasters were given the option of A) buy it on your own, or B) buy it on such-and-such day when I would be there with a troop check because I was buying for the adult patrol. (Our troop prefers to bill, rather than collect up front. But it does not matter.)

 

Grubmasters did their own thing in the store (so no clogging the aisles) with the troop grumbaster-instructor working with the less-experienced patrol grubmasters. We met up front when everybody was done and ran the carts through in sequence. Everybody took their own stuff home and was responsible for getting it to the campout.

 

This worked very well and the extent of adult involvement was writing a check so I can live with that administrative decision. YMMV.

If we can just get the boys to clip coupons at troop meetings.....