Mess Kits or Patrol/Troop/Pack Table Settings?

[Pack18Alex]

Philosophically, any scouts personal observances should be based on his home. However, as a group, we encourage observance during the camp out. As adults they will make choices in life. I want them to know that they can be as observant as they want. Well have dads donning Tefillin and praying with their son's Sunday morning... The same dads that are helping back the trailer after breakfast (or lunch, whenever we break)... That's a hugely important life lesson. I try to undermine this strange lack of self confidence amongst American Jewish men about their manhood.

[perdidochas]

paper/disposable for cub packs

I'm a fan of every boy having their own kit..... I think we should almost always camp as if we are really camping.... that means that you can carry your stuff on your back (or in a canoe, etc...). Depending on the menu, but a flatware set or spork + a plastic bowl from the dollar store usually can get the job done. Maybe add a plastic plate form the dollar store if needed. The only problem I see with it is that, as Jblake pointed out, these can't double as cook ware..... but for me most of my camping food is dehydrated, and I use the pot on my jetboil for the water. Otherwise, it'll almost always be something that we're grilling, tin soldiers, etc....

That being said, I just splurged and bought my Bear son a mess kit.... one of those plastic odd shaped Light my Fire ones. He saw a Boy Scout at the recent WEBELOS AKELA weekend with one and thought it was the best thing ever. He especially wanted the 2-ended spork with a knife built on the edge of the fork end. I tried to explain that he can't hold his food with his fork while cutting with the thing, but that didn't matter. The important thing is he thinks it special and values it. It's his to take care of and his to keep up with.

 

 

Actually that spork works fairly well as a knife--not for steak, but for softer meats-chicken, fish, porkchops,etc. I want the titanium version of it, because I break and melt the plastic ones.

[Pack18Alex]

Was at Target last night and found red plastic (dishwasher/microwave safe) red plates, 2/$1.39. I now have 50 red plates for around $40… Walmart has bowls in Blue/Red at 4/$2 that I'll probably pick up. Party City has washable cutlery in colors (210pc set of red and/or blue) are each $10… I'm guessing that in the $150-$250 range, I can outfit out Mess hall, and build storage boxes.

 

This will actually enhance the duty roster, because we can't cook on Shabbat, there are few tasks for the boys to do around meal times, this will let us assign one Den to cleaning pots/pans, one Den to setting up the meal, and one Den to cleaning up the mess hall (after washing their own dishes). While we had 4 Dens this year, usually two required combining on any given campout because of numbers/leaders.