Post Campout Food?

[Gone]

In the present Troop (I see this in every Troop) the boys buy the food, with parental help, and then divvy up the expense. At the end of the trip/campout, they divvy up the leftovers. And there is always a lot of leftovers. The proliferation of available money (before the trip) makes this an expectation. The bill is paid to the grubmaster AFTER the trip. And sometimes , the planned menu is overbought when Jack and Joe say (on Saturday morning) they aren't coming. Grubmaster Scout is left with extra food. Patrol boxes NEVER have food left in them.

 

- Having a per scout budget before the camp out really helped us control costs.

- Educating scouts on quantities and portion allocation (slices per loaf, ounces per person, etc) taught the boys better purchasing.

- Completing the menu 2-3 weeks ahead of the camp out gave plenty of time for reflection and focuses shopping.

- Discussions around values shopping (buying low price, high quality goods) helped keep costs down.

- Making more Dutch oven or one pot meals keeps costs down.

- Making the "bail out" date the Wednesday before the camp out allowed us to make sure the per person cost set by the PLC stayed put.

- Sunday lunch is usually sandwiches and pot luck, which awards the patrol cook for inventive combinations of perishable items.

- Non-perishable staples keep well in the chuck boxes and help lower the costs for future purchases.

- We give an award (adult cooked special dessert) for those patrols who have the fewest leftovers.

 

Allow the PLC to get inventive. They come up with some great cost saving ideas.

Edited April 7, 2015 by Mozartbrau

[Stosh]

My boys keep a written record of all the meals they "learn".  They know how much to buy according to how many boys are coming.  Recipes are broken down so that when they go to buy they know how much of each item they need.  Recipe is for 8 boys, 4 going, cut everything in half.

 

The record also shows how much the stuff cost the previous time the meal was made so that they can budget and know how much to ask up front to cover the cost of food.

 

They also learn that as prices go up or down at the store, they can jump on a bargain if need be.  If hamburger is a bit high and there's a sale on chicken, spagetti and meatballs gets changed to chicken primavera over a bed of noodles on the fly.

 

A written record also makes good lessons for the newbies who have to come up with menus for their advancement requirements.  The only difference is the new kid has to come up with a totally new recipe, break it down, shop it, cook it, serve it and record everything so that it becomes part of the patrol's cookbook. 

 

Menu planning for an older boy patrol can take up to 5 minutes for a weekend.  We want this, this, and this.  6 are going, GM pulls those recipes, ball parks a cost based off last time's figures and announces it will be about $12 for food.  Bring it next week.  Done.

[Hedgehog]

Good suggestions by Mozartbrau and Stosh -- some of which i'm going to borrow!

 

We do a set price for food - $3 for breakfast, $3 for lunch and $5 for dinner (including dessert).  A typical campout is a Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and a Breakfast so the per person food allowance is $14.  For a patrol of 8, that is $112.  

 

This is one area our troop needs to move more toward being completely boy-led.  One of the newer scouts typically volunteers to do the cooking for his patrol so that he can fulfill the T-1st cooking requirements.  They come up with a menu and shopping list and show it to me for review.  I make suggestions based on experience - "plan for two eggs per scout"; "you don't need four gallons of milk even if you are making a dump cake"; "one bag of marshmallows should be enough";  "you might want to get a vegetable to go along with dinner"; "strip steaks are probably too expensive"oh wait, that was me shopping for the adult patrol -- they weren't too expensive).  I'm hoping to have a Grubmaster for each patrol next year (some of the boys who have earned the cooking merit badge with me) and have them be in charge of working with the new scouts on menu planning.

 

The limited budget and pre-shopping planning typically doesn't leave a lot of leftovers.  What is left over goes into a clear plastic tub that resides in my basement (our CO doesn't allow food in our storage space).  I let the boys who are planning the menu know what we have in the tub - typically pancake mix, syrup, hot chocolate, marshmallows, unopened peanut butter, unopened jelly, ketchup, mustard, etc. so that they can be thrifty.  Anything that is perishable goes home with the boy who did the shopping or one of the leaders for their consumption.  if it need to be refridgerated and won't go bad (maple syrup, cans of biscuits, mayonaise, etc.) it goes in my fridge and comes to the next campout.

Edited April 7, 2015 by Hedgehog

[Gone]

 

This is one area our troop needs to move more toward being completely boy-led.  One of the newer scouts typically volunteers to do the cooking for his patrol so that he can fulfill the T-1st cooking requirements.  They come up with a menu and shopping list and show it to me for review.  I make suggestions based on experience - "plan for two eggs per scout"; "you don't need four gallons of milk even if you are making a dump cake"; "one bag of marshmallows should be enough";  "you might want to get a vegetable to go along with dinner"; "strip steaks are probably too expensive"oh wait, that was me shopping for the adult patrol -- they weren't too expensive).  I'm hoping to have a Grubmaster for each patrol next year (some of the boys who have earned the cooking merit badge with me) and have them be in charge of working with the new scouts on menu planning.

 

We do a few meetings where we have a menu planning game. The SPL gives the patrols a sample meal to plan and they have to develop the shopping list for a group of 6 Scouts. They have 10 mins. When done they see the answer (i.e., how many boxes of pasta, ounces of sauce, slices of bread, etc.). Then they go outside and cook it.

[jpstodwftexas]

Ever Hear of Cooking Merit Badge...and not the One Scouts earn at Merit Badge Colleges...

Maybe Scouts will learn from it...

 

We never Had Left Overs....

How Many Pancakes can you get out of a Box of Mix..????

How Many Eggs do you need per person..Depends Eggs Only or you tossing in Bacon, Toast, Sausage...Are you Portion Controlling...if Not your Gonna be in for a surprise...and a few will not get any...

How many People does a 5# or 10# bag of Potatoes feed.....How are you cooking them...are the Small or Bakers?

[StillLoomans]

Our troop does it all in patrols. The PL collects a set amount ($10) before the trip, the patrol writes the menu and the PL asks for volunteers to food shop. The shopper takes the food money with them. The scouts mostly shop at the same store the night before so they can ask for help as needed, but older scouts will shop independently. They stay in budget because that is what they have to spend. The scouts don't like to clean up so for the most part, the food choices are pretty simple. After a campout, shelf stable items are stored on the trailer, like oatmeal and pancake mix. Everything else is divvied up in the patrol. My son always grabs the ketchup. No idea why. We always have 'scout ketchup' in our fridge. We've tried to re-use it from outing to outing, but it was often forgotten and it's cheap so now the scouts just buy a new bottle for a buck. I suppose if we could keep it at our meeting place, it would be easier to not replace it every month.

[jpstodwftexas]

Having Set "Cost" per Person per Event...leads to excess Food. Not really a Problem when your trying to feed 3 Boys on a Trip...but if a Patrol has 12... 120 goes a long long way for feeding just 4-5 meals

 

Now If everyone had to pay a share each time..there might be less of a Chance that Things just get Bought over and over each time...Waste not want not... Simply put..If you have the Money you will waste it buying stuff you don't need...How many of yall return excess money after a trip because it broke down to $4.37 per person instead of $10.00..People who buy feel Obligated to spend the Full Amount each time otherwise they think they are cheating the people out of their money..

 

Before any Food is Purchased any and all left over food should be accounted for and Factored into purchase and planned Meals. 

 

Also Storing Auto purchases will lend itself to wasted food...for what ever reason, like Rotation and menu changes on spur of the Moment..you find youself with a Box of Cake mix that is 5 years old..or a Can of beans rusting out in the Trailer

[mattman578]

This is a fun topic I was in one pack that charged a per person fee and they supplied all the food and the person always over bought to the point to were the other parents in the pack even me were starting to think that she was skimming not only money but food of the pack.  I changed packs and now this pack they your feed yourself the pack does not provied food.

 

but there is somthing that I am missing and that sitting around the campfire eating as a group so this year I am going to try and do a pack pot luck for dinner and see how that works out should be a happy medium

[StillLoomans]

Having Set "Cost" per Person per Event...leads to excess Food. Not really a Problem when your trying to feed 3 Boys on a Trip...but if a Patrol has 12... 120 goes a long long way for feeding just 4-5 meals

 

Now If everyone had to pay a share each time..there might be less of a Chance that Things just get Bought over and over each time...Waste not want not... Simply put..If you have the Money you will waste it buying stuff you don't need...How many of yall return excess money after a trip because it broke down to $4.37 per person instead of $10.00..People who buy feel Obligated to spend the Full Amount each time otherwise they think they are cheating the people out of their money..

 

Before any Food is Purchased any and all left over food should be accounted for and Factored into purchase and planned Meals. 

 

Also Storing Auto purchases will lend itself to wasted food...for what ever reason, like Rotation and menu changes on spur of the Moment..you find youself with a Box of Cake mix that is 5 years old..or a Can of beans rusting out in the Trailer

 

Good points. Our scouts do return any monies left unspent after shopping for outings. Since a patrol averages 4-5 scouts per outing, the cost does break down to around $10 for cracker barrel x2, breakfast x2, lunch and dinner. 

 

Extra goods stored on the trailer are under the supervision of the quartermaster and regularly gone through and tossed. Occasionally a mom will check on the trailer supplies, get totally grossed out, and have the scouts clean/dispose of items accordingly. I promise that our troop does not have any boxes of 5 year old cake mix or rusting cans of beans.