Meal-time 101A how-to for breakfast,

lunch, and dinner at camp

Does this stuff really matter???

• YES!!!! This is pretty important stuff.

• Hopefully this guide will help you feel more confident during camp mealtimes.

• Watch this presentation and next time you go to Winacka or Whispering Oaks you’ll practically be an expert.

How does the meal-time routine work?

• 1st: Hoppers arrive 30 minutes early to set the tables.

• 2nd: When Staff gives the “OK”, Adults enter lodge BEFORE girls, spreading out among tables.

• 3rd: Campers enter lodge and sit at tables.• 4th: Everyone sings a “greeting”.• 5th: Eat…YUM! • 6th: Everybody joins in singing a closing song.• 7th: CLEAN-UP!!!

Table Etiquette

• Pass food around the table….not across.• Remember that there are 8 people at each

table. Make sure everyone gets the same amount of food.

• FEED YOUR HOPPER!!! Don’t forget about her! She needs food too.

Meals at camp are usually served “Family Style”.

Seconds!• You can get seconds when the Rusty/Chewy sign is

turned around so you can see their face.

• When getting seconds, the hopper needs to take the serving dish with them, but not the serving spoon. They also need to know how many servings they need.

• Remember: BRING ONLY 1 DISH BACK AT A TIME!!!

Hopping• Each Table has only 1 hopper. But if a

table has “Buddy Hoppers” only 1 can be up at a time.

• Hoppers are the people who get food for their table.

• Hoppers come in 30 minutes early to help set up the tables.

• Please, carry the food with two hands!!!

BUDDY HOPPERS: Sometimes there are more hoppers than tables, so extra girls will be assigned as “Buddy Hoppers”

Just a note….

• When you are hopping, it isn’t necessary for you to actually hop to the kitchen.

• Remember, you are not a bunny rabbit.

At Whispering Oaks• The hopper will go up to the big window on

the left to get the food, carrying it with both hands.

• Hoppers must walk through the center aisle of the lodge to get to the big window.

• Be sure to form a single file line when you get there!

• Always enter behind the right of the stage.• There are red raccoon footsteps for you to

follow. Please, follow them!• The food will be found at the second window.• Once you get the food, keep following the

footsteps.

At Winacka

Footprints? What footprints?

Follow the Rusty footprints from the right side of the stage.

It’s not that hard….. you’ll get it.

Windows: Whispering Oaks

This is the window at Whispering Oaks where you get your food. The serving dishes also come back to this window.

This is the window at Whispering Oaks that the

mugs and pitchers are returned to.

Left (big) window

Right (small) window

Windows: Winacka

This is the window at Winacka that the racked dishes are returned to.

This is the window at Winacka where you get the food. The serving dishes also come back to this window.

Left (second) window

Right (first) window

Where do the hoppers sit?

The hopper sits here

The adult sits here

Stage/ front of room

The adult sits here

The hopper sits here

At Whispering Oaks, the right side of the room may have to sit a little differently (flip-flop version), depending on how crowded the lodge is, so please listen for instructions at mealtime!!!!

This is where the hopper sits…At Winacka:

Setting the table:

Start with the plate on the table…

Setting the table:

The bowl goes upside-down on top of the plate…

Setting the table:

The cup goes on the top right corner of the plate, also upside-down…

Setting the table:

A napkin goes to the left…

Setting the table:

A fork goes on top of the napkin…

Setting the table:

A knife goes to the right of the plate…

Setting the table:

A spoon goes to the right of the knife.

If you can’t remember which silverware goes on which side of the plate….this may help:

• LEFT & FORK have the same amount of letters.• RIGHT, KNIFE, & SPOON all have the same

amount of letters.

forkleft right

knifespoon

A helpful hint:

DISHESBefore taking your table’s dishes back, every person at the table needs to:• Separate their trash• Clean off their silverware, and• SCRAPE THEIR PLATE AND BOWL

WITH THE RUBBER SCRAPER!

DISHES (cont.)• If the dishes aren’t properly cleaned, you

WILL be eating sanitized bits of food from your last meal…So, make sure you clean every piece of food off of your dishes!

• The dishwashers aren’t like the ones at home, they just sanitize the dishes.

Another note…• If you have something sticky, like

syrup, on your plate, try using a leftover orange peel to help get it off…just make sure nobody wants the orange first.

• Banana peels also work.

The DISHWASHER

In order to get your dishes clean, they have to be racked the right way so they fit in the machine.

Dish Racks:This is what a PROPERLY racked rack of dishes looks like:

It has 8 plates, 8 bowls, and 8 cups.

Here’s what it looks like from another angle:

1

2

3

4

5

6

78

1

2

34

5

6

78

8

76

5

4

2

3

1

What’s wrong with this picture???

That’s Right!!!

1

23

45

67

1

23

4

56 7 7

65

4

3

1

2

There are only 7 of each thing…

There should be 8 of each.

What’s wrong here???

Wow…that was easy.

There should be one row of plates…

one row of bowls.

one row of cups,

Silverware

• The silverware needs to be cleaned off VERY well.

• On the table there will be a round white basket with small holes in it.

• Place your silverware into this basket with the handles up (this allows the sanitizer to come in contact with the silverware).

• Just remember: eating side down!

This area is for…..At Winacka:

Silverware basket

Side view

Top view

Side view of basket with silverware

Side view of basket with silverware

Contents of the basket:

basket

1 rubber scraper

8 forks8 spoons

8 knives 2 serving

spoons

Mugs & Pitchers

• At some point during camp, you may end up using a mug.

• You can find the mugs at the front of the lodge. • At Winacka, the mugs are on the stage.

At Whispering Oaks, the mugs are underneath the coffee maker.

• BUT, DON’T CARRY MORE THAN 4 EMPTY MUGS AT A TIME!!!

Mugs & Pitchers (cont.)• Once you have finished, take the used mugs to the

smaller window( at Whispering Oaks) or up to the stage (at Winacka), but make sure that there is nothing in them first.

• Pitchers (with leftover liquids) go back to the smaller window (Whispering Oaks) or to the cart (Winacka)…

• Chunky soup gets sent back to the kitchenWater pitcher Mugs Punch pitcher

• Take your pitchers to the smaller window (Whispering Oaks) or the first window (Winacka)

• Leftover drinks should be poured back into the pitcher (to be dumped down the sink by the kitchen staff.)

This is what the sink looks like. Staff will

be putting leftover drinks

here.

• The chunks from the soup can go into the trashcan.

• The liquids can go back to the kitchen to be dumped in the sink.

These are the soup pitchers

*Usually, a Staff Member will explain this before your begin clean-up!

Different kinds of pitchers

Water pitcher

Soup/hot chocolate pitcher….without lid

Soup/ hot chocolate pitcher with lid

Punch/lemonade pitcher

Soup/hot chocolate pitchers

Drink pitchers

Which one do you think is the Serving bowl?How about the Regular bowl?

Serving bowls v. Regular bowls

•They’re usually pink or blue & have an “S” on the bottom•Look carefully…Regular bowls & Serving bowls look VERY MUCH ALIKE!

Serving Bowl:

Bottom view of Serving bowl…see the “S”

Top view of Serving bowl

Regular bowl:• The Regular bowl is the bowl that you eat out of.• The Regular bowl is the one on top of your plate.• The Regular bowls also have a lip.

Bottom view of Regular bowl

Top view of Regular bowl

Serving bowl or Regular bowl?

SERVING BOWL!!!!

Which type of bowl is this?

REGULAR BOWL!!!

Salad Bowl:• The Salad bowls are

the ones that are generally used for serving salad.

• They are the clear bowls.

Greetings & Closings• Before and after every meal there is a song. • The song before the meal is called a greeting.

(Sometimes called a Grace.)• Don’t start eating until after the greeting.• Some examples of greetings are:– “Superman”– “Neath These Tall Green Trees”– “The Cowgirl Grace”– Etc.

Greetings & Closings (cont.)• The song after the meal is the closing song.• After the closing song, it is time to clean up.• Closing songs can be any short camp song.• Some examples of closing songs are:– “The Alligator Song”– “Buddies and Pals”– “The Dinosaur Song”– Etc.

The kapers for clean-up are:• Trash• Racking(as previously discussed) • Taking the serving dishes back to the counter• Sweeping and• Wiping the table and chairs• EVERYONE must be part of the clean-up process,

but give the HOPPER a break… she did her job already!

CLEAN-UP!!!

TRASH & COMPOST• Trash (non-compost) includes: Dirty napkins, empty

packets, sausage, bacon, and cereal containers.• Compost includes: oranges, bananas, apples, carrots,

and celery.• If you aren’t sure if something is compost

or not, ask an adult.

Compost

Non-Compost (trash)

*Note: it may not be compost season when you’re at camp.

SERVING DISHES• An important clean-up kaper is taking the

serving dishes back to the counter.• This includes:– Serving bowls–Pitchers– Salad bowls and–Various trays

TRAYS This tray is often used for veggies

This is used for main dish items, muffins, almost anything!

This one usually has eggs and things like that

A lot of the time, this will have fruit

You will see many differenttypes of serving

trays, each with its own purpose.

Baskets are used for rolls, chips. Etc.

SWEEPING• At Whispering Oaks go

through the door at the back of the room and go to the left. There will be a closet with brooms.

• At Winacka go through the big doors leading outside and go down the ramp. At the bottom to the right will be the brooms.

Don’t forget that after every meal you must sweep the lodge.

WIPING• Go up to the front of the room and get a

sponge from the bucket.• Once you’re done, squeeze out the sponge

and bring it back to the front.• Keep in mind: the sponges are NOT to be

used for dishes!!!• And don’t forget to clean the tables well,

especially in between the cracks.

Singing Tree• Once you’ve finished cleaning, ask the adult

at your table if you can go to Singing Tree.• The Singing Tree at Whispering Oaks is the

porch directly outside the lodge.• At Winacka, the Singing Tree is at the

benches outside the big doors.

Picture: Singing Tree at Winacka.

Water• Don’t forget to drink plenty of water!!!

You should drink at least 2-3 glasses at each meal. • Sometimes the water at camp is a bit

yellowish…..but it’s not dirty! It just has a lot of iron in it. The water comes from the wells shown here.

The hotter it is, the more water you should drink.

That’s it.• Now you know practically everything there is

to know about meal-times at Girl Scout camp.• DON’T FORGET TO THANK YOUR COOKS!!!!

They’ll appreciate it.

Girl Scouts are so good that they have an A rating!Just like your favorite restaurant

Here are some links:These links may help you find some greeting or closing songs:

• http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Meadow/3763/contents.html

• http://www.scoutsongs.com/categories/girl-scout-songs.html

• http://www.scoutsongs.com/categories/girl-scout-songs.html

• http://www.geocities.com/nickie101/songlist1.html• http://gsleaders.org/files/scoutsong.htm• http://www.scoutorama.com/song/

This power point was created by Taylor Ingalls (Troop 5007) as portion of her Silver Award Project, GSSDIC

2010.