Cooking for 12 on a budget - help?!

johanne

hiya thanks for the replies. Will definetly look in to all the suggestions made via prices etc.

Re: allergies/vegetarian etc... The kids have been given medical/information/ forms and i will deffo double check with parents too... even thought about kids who are allergic to antiseptic creams or eggs etc!!! I wanna know EVERYTHING about them as being mostly girls and me the only female leader i'll be the one dealing with them if they are sick.... Plus anyway last thing we want is an ill child at any time while they are in our care... but specially not at our first camp!!

Re:fruit and veg.. Ive got that covered My local greengrocer does bags of bananas and apples for 50p so were getting a few of them! Main idea though is to provide the kids with something hot and that they'll eat hence the burgers etc as much as i hate the thought of giving them processed rubbish. The other 2 leaders (both lads) have been in scouts etc over 12 years each so they have sorted the menu based on experiance. They just dont know about prices as both still live at home with their parents so thats why its my job! :rolleyes:

Re other items : Already got lots of other things on the list such as squash and tomato ketchup, bread, marg, tea, etc but im pretty sure i know where to get the best deals on these things so didnt include them! Its our VERY first camp so were having to get everything... completely starting from scratch so its a bigger list of basics than it should be next time.

Re parents help: The group has only been together 2 weeks so far and so hasnt even got uniform yet (i havent even met the kids yet either as i only joined as leader on wednesday and we dont have a meeting till 2moro! ) This means that the level of parent support is an uncertainty at the moment...

Then we have the added problem were in a really "low income" area and i do happen to know that we have one struggling single mum (a friend of one the other leaders) and we also have a mum with 2 kids in the group so they are having to fork out double! And at the present cost of £32.50 per kid for friday evening till sunday afternoon... we cant expect THAT parent especially to offer much more financially! We do have enough at present to cover this camp.. but we still wanna do it on as little as possible as we dont want parents thinking scouts will be too expensive and pulling the kids out!

We really wanna build the group up and get some team spirit etc... myself and the 2 other leaders had a major meeting on friday evening/night (till 3am :eek: ) sorting stuff like fundraising for the future ...activity planning for next couple of weeks... etc etc so were sorted on everything else.... BUT the priority is to finish costing camp so we are well prepared as only have 8 more 1-2 hour sessions with the kids until we go.

Thanks everyone anyway!!!

homersimpson_3

just a few thoughts-
a) try and get local supermarket/co to sponsor you so you get food for nothing?
b) what about fruit and veg?
c) i assume you've checked whether anyone is vegitarian.

Penny-Pincher!!

Hi

Aldis baked beans are 13p a tin ATM and are delish, also their tinned toms are nice. Hot choc made with water from Aldi too is 60p and lovely/creamy. I would go to a local butchers for the meat. I dont like most of the value bacon as I find it very salty, but Lidls/Aldis do lovely back bacon-think 16 rashers for £1.99 and is very nice. They also do nice sausages with high meat content.

Personally, for breakfast I would just offer beans or scrambled egg on toast, as cooking a cooked breakie I think maybe difficult. Would suggest you stick to simple as poss. Or, ask what their preferance is. Maybe they would all like cereal and juice, it should be warmer then so a hot breakfast may not be needed.

Does the scout group have a news letter? If so, maybe ask for donations or ask local schools to chip in and mention their names in the news letter thanking them for their generousity. You could also do this with the butchers etc, so they get a free advert IYKWIM.

£32.50 is a lot of money, if you could get this down to at least £20 per child, that seems a little easier to swallow..LOL. You could also ask kids to bring fruit/crisps etc.

Remember, true camping is about roughing it and simplifying everything.

Good luck hun. Your such a nice person to be doing this.

PP
xx

johanne

problem with local supermarket is main we only really have sainsburys and tesco.. apparently the others have approached sainsburys pre starting the group and they offered £10 donation thats it.... and tesco.. well 2 of us out of the 3 leaders got fired from there 2 months ago!!! (i was fired for being off ill for 3 months.. other person was fired for theft! ) so we strongly doubt THEY'd help!!!!

Were trying to pull in any favours we can at the moment thinking of ANYONE we know that might be able to "do us a deal".


Fruit n veg is covered... cheap at the local greengrocer and am waiting back on the vegetarian front... but apparently according to the kids none of them are! (they were asked last week)

hardpressed

Sainsburys Basic Hot Chocolate is very nice, can't remember the price. If you put the powder in a mug mix with about an inch of cold water, give it a good stir the pour on boiling water you get a nice frothy mug of hot chocolate and the little dears are less likely to burn their mouths.

born_blonde

If you have the time talk to the other large shop chains like Boots, they may not be able to give you donatons but might stump up prizes for a raffel which then goes towards costs. Most head offices will have a department that deals with charitable donations if you e mail them.
Your menu sounds just right, toast might be tricky on just a small gas stove.
If you can make a camp fire don't forget baked potatoes cooked in foil in the ashes.
The most important thing is that it will be exciting and different to their day to day life- have fun.

johanne

Penny-Pincher!! wrote:

Personally, for breakfast I would just offer beans or scrambled egg on toast, as cooking a cooked breakie I think maybe difficult. Would suggest you stick to simple as poss. Or, ask what their preferance is. Maybe they would all like cereal and juice, it should be warmer then so a hot breakfast may not be needed.

I said this too.. but the lads "with experiance" have said full breakfasts will be better as the kids are spending alll day doing activities (and the schedule of activities runs from 7am-about 9pm so they will be very busy and up from 5-6am till 10pm) Lots of the activites involve getting cold and wet too so hot filling food inside them will be best..

Does the scout group have a news letter? If so, maybe ask for donations or ask local schools to chip in and mention their names in the news letter thanking them for their generousity. You could also do this with the butchers etc, so they get a free advert IYKWIM.

To be honest i dont think so.. like i said were only a new and small group.. and ive only been involved since wed! (talk about being thrown in at the deep end!!) BUT its something i will be looking into as i had thought about that too Gotta be a woman thing! hehe

£32.50 is a lot of money, if you could get this down to at least £20 per child, that seems a little easier to swallow..LOL. You could also ask kids to bring fruit/crisps etc

Yes i thought it was alot too but the other groups in the district going are all charging at least £35 a child!! The place were taking them is a big event/competition for all the scout groups in merseyside called the "great esacpe" where they all compete at different tasks (15 in total) to try and win..... admission per child set by the place were going is £8.50 per child... then weve got to factor in £7.50 for each leader going (so theres £3.75 each to add onto each kids cost making it £12.25 admission per kid as weve been told by our "bosses" the kids payments must cover this too :mad: ) then theres the other costs of a gas canister , transport as none of us drive - (will be expensive to hire anything as its grandnational weekend) and been told theres possibly a problem getting our parents to run us and the kids up in their cars as they wont be Police checked!! :mad:, then theres food.. and im sure other things ive forgotten as i missed the total breakdown of WHY its that expensive as i was making a cuppa in the kitchen But know were all pee'd off weve got to charge that much and have been told NOT to put money out of our own pockets into it. :rolleyes:

(I will be taking marshmallows out of my own money though... for a treat if the kids behave.... and my OH (one the other leaders ) has promised them all a maccies meal out of his own pocket if they end up in the top 5 of the competition..... our group (different kids and leaders though) came 53rd last year!!! :rotfl: :rotfl: )

barron_2

Try talking to you local community development worker or local counciller ,both can be contacted through council offices ,as a new YOUTH group ,you might find your'e entitled to some grant aid ,for set up cost's ie ,equipment etc .

The idea of s/mkt packing was agood one ,over 1 weekend the kids should get enough so you could get cost's down to next to nothing.

Local carwash ?.Scouts round here do it all time .What happened to the old BOBAJOB week?

robowen

barron wrote:

Local carwash ?.Scouts round here do it all time .What happened to the old BOBAJOB week?

Bobajob was stopped after people abused their services by asking them to do large manual jobs like tidieing up gardens...then paying the kids 50p each :eek:

We have scouts in the supermarkets packing bags for customers. Maybe you could arrange an afternoon doing the same in exchange for food supplies Ask the manager of the supermarkets.

rob

barron_2

Oh! i suppose time's change ,back in the old day's ,we used to do everything ,wash cars ,gardens, anything to help or earn a shilling (bob),sign of the time's,.

Just thought ,when we were having supper,we used to get a stick ,wrap it in dough,stick it in the hot ash of the bonfire ,untill cooked ,brush the ash off and smother in jam !!.Cheap & filling ,YUM YUM!!. GING GANG GOOLY GOOLY !!!!.