Patty's Thought on Food Prep for 30 Work Campers

My "blog" on food preparation: Carter is right. The homemade snacks and packaged snacks were an act of love. We ate a great deal of what was sent and there is no comparison to homemade versus store-bought. I think next time (did I just say that?!) I would have a sign up list at church listing specific items needed. That should cut down on the overages. Making a couple of entrees ahead of time was helpful but not totally necessary. I could have made everything down there. It sure did help with that arrival-day dinner though. Grocery shopping on a daily basis was a necessity. I do recommend bringing spices and staples of which I only used a little bit. It would have been wasteful to buy an entire canister of cinnamon when I only need a few teaspoons while we were away. We absolutely needed the papergoods, but again, I could have purchased them down there...it was just very convenient to be all set up with that stuff. Had we not have been provided with spring water, that would have been a major, additional expense. We had few leftovers and the extra snacks and
staples were donated to the food pantry and were well-received. The fact that there was only one oven and range, made the church's roaster oven and the Moyer's roaster oven assets to meal preparation. We also came more prepared than we probably had to because we were told the kitchen was very
different than what we found. We were very lucky that the contractor from Pensacola did such a nice job on the church kitchen. Having a small crew to assist with meal prep and serving was critical...especially for making lunches. Although there was balking about making "group" lunches versus
everyone making their own sandwiches, I think after the first day, people realized it was the smarter and easier approach. In that people move around during the day and that it can be laborious to mark and find one's personal sandwich, group lunches make sense. I was also happy that I preplanned menus with variety , only made some food ahead of time and went into job with a flexible mind-set. This flexibility was important. You never know what ingredients or produce will be available in a particular location and one night I was surprised by the fact that the church prepared our meal. Let me know if you need further details or if you have other questions?
Patty (Le Cook) Picardi