How to Plan Food for Girl’s Camp {And Other Large Groups} – Menus, Tips, and Resources
Last year I was in charge of all the food for a large girl’s camp for church. We fed 260-270 people for nearly a week, and I made a deliberate effort to take lots and lots and lots of notes along the way in order to share everything with you!
For those in charge of planning food for youth camps and the like, there are many constraints and circumstances unique to each situation, like:
- Budget
- Size of group
- Location and services available for cooking/serving (stoves, refrigerators, power, etc)
- Food allergies to work around
- Length of the event
I won’t be delving too much into budgets and cooking on a budget as that factor will vary widely between groups.
I also recognize that some people might be cooking out of coolers and over a campfire for all the meals while others have a gourmet kitchen and five refrigerators at their disposal. (VERY jealous of that last group 😉)
The information I’m sharing in this post is focused on:
- prep tips
- quantities
- suggested menus
- helpful resources
- food allergy workarounds
- etc
My hope is that this Information will be helpful and applicable no matter if you’re in the mountains at a church camp or on a beach for a family reunion.
MY TOP THREE TIPS FOR SUCCESS
Tip #1: Get Yourself a Committee That Will Go to the Ends of the Earth With You
A good committee is everything! I had six of the most amazing women on the committee with me, and they were so incredibly helpful.
I could not have done it without them, and if I ever manage to get myself into this situation again, it would come with the clear caveat that I would only do it if I had the same committee. (Also, if my budget could be increased by $2,000, that would be fantastico, k’thanks.)
Executing food for this size of group isn’t just a week-of kind of thing. We planned for months to make it happen. I think officially we held two actual in-person meetings to plan. Otherwise, we did most of our planning/strategizing via texts.
Several on my committee worked full-time and/or had major life events going on leading up to camp, so their main responsibilities were brainstorming, grocery shopping (extremely helpful! especially the few days leading up to camp), and hands-on help up at camp.
Others had more time available in the months leading up to camp and were instrumental in helping prep and freeze food.
The week of, everyone that could make it was all hands on deck. Every day of camp, we were up at 5:30 a.m. and on our feet until 9:30 p.m.
Each night before we hit the sack, we’d look at the next day’s schedule together and decide who would tackle what. Of course, we all pitched in where we saw a need, but assigning the tasks helped us be effective with our time and allow everyone to have a quick break here and there.
Honestly, it could not have run smoother for us up at camp. The fact that my committee was low-drama, high-working, and fun-loving was such a huge blessing.
Find yourself a committee you can plan with, laugh with, work with, and still love each other after it is all said and done!
Tip #2: A Note About Food Allergies
Yes, this step comes before any of the menu planning. As early as you can, work with those who are attending to figure out what food allergies you will need to work around.
Identifying the food allergies at the beginning allowed us to plan many of the meals to be naturally gluten- and egg-free. We also had several girls who had peanut/nut allergies, so we made a concerted effort to make all meals, snacks, and the entire camp kitchen peanut- and nut-free.
For the meals or food items that weren’t gluten- or egg-free, we provided a gluten- and egg-free version – planning the menu after identifying food allergies helped us to streamline what meals to make.
For most of the baked goods, we also made a gluten-free version mostly just subbing in gluten-free flour 1:1 for the all-purpose flour.
The only exception was the homemade brownies. I used this brownie mix {aff. link} because it has such great reviews (and I can attest from snitching: DELICIOUS).
I also talked with parents and did research on how to make sure we didn’t cross-contaminate while prepping and cooking at camp.
Most of our egg-free girls could have gluten, so I made several batches of these egg-free cookies ahead of time (regular chocolate chip and double chocolate chip) for them.
For the few attendees that were gluten- and egg-free, I made the boxed brownies above using applesauce for the eggs and also had Heavenly Hunks {aff. link} available for snacks/treats as well as an EF/GF blondie bar.
Tip #3: Make Everything You Can Ahead of Time and Freeze It
Making food ahead of time was our committee’s superpower when feeding 260 people for girl’s camp.
After we met as a committee and set a menu, I put together a calendar from March until the first week of June, and I set a food priority for each week.
I texted my committee the week before and said “next week is pulled pork week” (or cookie week, etc). Anyone who could help cook/bake for that week texted back and we divided and conquered.
I, or one of my committee members, would go to the store on Monday and then farm out the ingredients to whoever could help.
I tackled all of the gluten-free and egg-free desserts and meal adaptations and reserved specific days for that where I wasn’t cooking or baking anything that could cross-contaminate.
We basically prepped and cooked everything ahead of time that would freeze well.
This meant that we had to transport A LOT of frozen food up to camp (it was about two hours away). The beauty of this is that we didn’t need coolers for all of it.
Because most of it was frozen in freezer bags, we piled them in layers in large totes and they stayed frozen on the way up to camp where we put them in the fridge and they thawed slowly there.
The other upside to prepping and freezing much of the food was that it meant we weren’t handling or prepping or cooking any raw meat while we were there.
(One of the main reasons we prepped so much ahead was because our camp kitchen didn’t have a working oven until the week before…and we knew it was a possibility the oven wouldn’t be working at all. In the end, it *kind* of worked, but we were glad to have cooked almost everything beforehand!)
We did have to find a lot of freezer space in the months leading up to camp.
We sent out a message to several church congregations and found a couple people who had a lot of space in their large chest freezers, and it was plenty to freeze everything that we prepped.
PREP AHEAD TIPS
- All of the meat was cooked ahead of time in large electric roasting pans (and a few slow cookers) {aff. links}.
- These liners for electric roasting pans and these liners for slow cookers were revolutionary – not only for the prep cooking but also up at camp for reheating. It saved HOURS on scrubbing out crusty roasting pans and crockpots {aff. links above}.
- These 2-gallon freezer ziploc bags {aff. link} were so helpful with the vast quantity of food we were freezing. They helped minimize the number of bags we had to use and remember to transport.
- Cookies were all baked, cooled and frozen in gallon freezer ziplock bags and these containers {aff. link}
- Even the Swig sugar cookies were baked, frosted, sprinkled and frozen. They freeze and thaw great even frozen (and were the hit dessert at camp!).
THE MENU + PRINTABLES
Below was our menu for camp.
My goal was to have one FRESH item for dinner (in the end, this was one of the highlights for the girls, especially the caesar salad, cucumbers and watermelon) and one FROM-SCRATCH item for a home cooked feel.
I saved the menu above as a high resolution .pdf in photoshop and printed it as an engineering print at Staples (very inexpensive to get a large black and white print). We hung this up in the camp kitchen, as well as the day-by-day schedules, which I’ll share below.
Below are details about each meal that we served up at the camp.
**For a printable/.pdf version of these details with larger font, click here**
(Keep scrolling because there is A LOT of additional info below these menu charts.)
Hawaiian Haystacks Dinner (for 60)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaiian Haystacks | Used this recipe but made the entire batch gluten-free using cornstarch instead of flour. Made it the day before, refrigerated it, and reheated up at camp. | 8X batch fed 60 people | ||
| Rice | Cooked the rice up at camp (baked it by combining 8 cups rinsed rice + 1 1/2 tablespoon salt in a large disposable roasting pan and pouring over 2 1/2 quarts boiling water, covering the pan tightly with aluminum foil and baking at 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes. Let sit 10 minutes, then fluff) | 15 cups dry long grain white rice for 60 people | ||
| Toppings | Served it with chow mein noodles, chopped tomatoes, chopped olives, canned and drained mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits, shredded cheese, and a few other random toppings. When the youth leaders were helping plan girl’s camp, this was their top requested meal. 😉 | One #10 can of mandarin oranges and pineapple tidbits was plenty. Planned about 16 cups each of most fresh toppings and 18-20 cups of shredded cheese (1/4 cup cheese per person) | ||
| Homemade Rolls | Made and froze this recipe for French bread rolls ahead of time. Allergy Friendly Variation: used gluten-free biscuits (details under “Tuesday breakfast”). | Planned for two rolls per person | ||
| Grapes | Served red and green grapes; cut the grapes into small bunches | 3 (4-lb) containers | ||
| Brownies + Ice Cream | Made this recipe ahead of time – baked, cooled, cut into squares and frozen (thawed before serving). Allergy Friendly Variation: made these delicious gluten-free boxed brownies {aff. link}; had GF/EF blondie bars. | Made five batches and cut each 9X13-inch pan into 12 servings. 7 quarts of vanilla ice cream |
Tater Tot Breakfast Bake (for 60)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overnight Tater Tot Breakfast Casserole | Made this recipe and froze (unbaked) ahead of time. When prepping, we assembled double batches into large disposable baking pans rather than making seven 9X13-inch pans. Lesson learned: it took a lot longer to thaw than anticipated which meant it needed a longer baking time. Allergy Friendly: this meal is naturally gluten-free (double check tater tots and sausage for gluten ingredients); we didn’t have any egg-free eaters in this group. | 7X batch fed 60 people | ||
| Biscuits Butter/Jam | A church member donated biscuits from a local bakery for this morning – we reheated and served them with butter and jam. They were a hit. Allergy Friendly Variation: I made a batch of gluten-free biscuits (this recipe with gluten-free flour) ahead of time and we baked them that morning. | Planned on two biscuits per person but could have planned for one biscuit per person and been fine | ||
| Orange Slices | Used one 20 pound box of oranges knowing we would have leftovers (we used the leftover orange slices for snack time in the afternoon). | 15-18 sliced oranges for 60 people | ||
| Milk Hot Chocolate Apple Cider | Hot chocolate and apple cider were the hit of girl’s camp (so much so that we had to stop putting it out so early in the morning because the girls were drinking multiple cups of it and then not wanting breakfast). Every night before bed, we boiled water on the stove and poured it into four 5-gallon insulated water coolers. It was plenty hot the next morning. Lesson learned: no one really drank milk for breakfast. | Planned for one hot chocolate packet per person per morning and one apple cider packet for every four people per morning. |
Ham + Cheese Croissant Lunch (for 60)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Warm Ham + Cheese Croissants | Prepped these up at camp using Costco croissants. Brushed this mixture on both sides of the croissant: 1/2 cup melted butter + 4 tablespoons Dijon mustard + 3 tablespoon honey + 1/4 teaspoon salt + pinch of pepper (14X’d this mixture) followed by thinly shaved deli ham and sliced cheddar cheese. Put the assembled croissants in lined electric roasters and covered with foil + lid and heated at 200 degrees for a couple hours until the cheese was melted (watch carefully because the croissants tucked in the corners can burn). Allergy Friendly Variation: made a version of this sandwich in a sanitized panini press with gluten-free bread. | Planned for one croissant per person. We cut them in half before serving; about 1/3 of the group only took half a sandwich so we had some leftover | ||
| Chips | Used lunch bag-sized chips from Costco in a variety box. | Only about 2/3 of the group took chips – served extras for another lunch and snack time | ||
| Veggies + Ranch | Offered cucumbers, grape tomatoes, carrots and celery. The cucumbers and grape tomatoes were by far the biggest hit (hardly anyone opted for celery). Served the ranch in two large bowls with small ladles. | 12-15 sliced English cucumbers; 3 (2-lb) containers grape tomatoes; 4 (2-lb) bags baby carrots; 2 (1-gallon) jugs of ranch lasted for three lunches | ||
| Apple Slices | Cored and sliced the apples and served on large trays. | 24 medium apples for 60 people | ||
| Cookies | One of my committee members made delicious chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (baked, frozen and thawed). Allergy Friendly Variation: had many GF/EF cookie options (see Tip #2 in the post). | Planned for one cookie per person |
Baked Ziti Dinner (for 260-270)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baked Ziti | Ended up just being a lazy pasta bake using this recipe. Originally we had planned to assemble and freeze this ahead of time, but when we realized the astronomical amount of freezer space we would need for that many pans of pasta bake (and fridge space up at camp), one of my committee members suggested we tackle it between lunch and dinner, and although it was insanely busy (boiling pasta, simmering sauce, assembling and baking), it worked out. Allergy Friendly Variation: in a separate pot, we boiled gluten-free/egg-free noodles and made a separate GF/EF batch. | 17X batch of the recipe fed 260 people | ||
| Breadsticks | A local bread outlet (Franz) gave us a discount for most of our bread products, including Seattle International brown ‘n serve breadsticks. We brushed them with olive oil + Johnny’s garlic spread seasoning and heated them on the griddles in the camp kitchen. Allergy Friendly Variation: used Trader Joe’s gluten-free toasted English muffins. | Planned for two breadsticks per person; could have gotten by with one breadstick per person (some took two, others didn’t take any) | ||
| Caesar Salad | Used the Caesar salad packets from Costco. HUGE hit. | Used about 22 bags for 250-ish people. Each bag serves about 12 | ||
| Watermelon | Cut the watermelon into sticks and served in large stainless serving bowls | 4-5 large watermelon serves 260 people | ||
| Giant Cookies | Made these blended oatmeal chocolate chip cookies bakery-style (larger than normal – two #40 scoops per cookie). Allergy Friendly Variation: made a gluten-free batch (with gluten-free flour and gluten-free oats) and also offered heavenly hunks for GF/EF option. | Planned for one cookie per person. Served any extras at snack times | ||
| Root Beer Floats (Late Night Snack) | This was requested by the leaders in charge of planning camp. One of my committee members made a run into the small town 45-minutes away for the ice cream because we didn’t have freezer space. | 10 gallons vanilla ice cream; 16 liters of root beer (for 200 servings) |
French Toast Breakfast (for 260-270)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| French Toast | Used Texas Toast bread (donated/discounted from local Franz bakery outlet). Whisked together milk and eggs for dipping and cooked the French Toast on two large griddles in camp kitchen and kept warm in large roasting pans covered with foil in the oven. Allergy Friendly Variations: used gluten-free bread (cooked in a separate sanitized skillet) and used a store bought vegan egg substitute for egg-free girls (cooked in a separate skillet also). | 400 slices of French Toast (about 25 loaves) for about 260 people. Used about 16 dozen eggs and 3-4 gallons milk | ||
| Scrambled Eggs | Added scrambled eggs for a heartier breakfast. | Scrambled 28 dozen eggs for about 175 servings | ||
| Butter Syrup Jam | Used tubs of spreadable butter. Syrup was much more popular than jam, but even still, we didn’t go through nearly as much syrup as we thought we needed. | Two large tubs of spreadable butter; 1 1/2 (64-ounce) jugs of syrup | ||
| Sausage Links | Heated these in the oven in disposable aluminum pans. Purchased the turkey sausage links from Costco. We planned for two sausage links per person but had a lot leftover. Allergy-Friendly Variations: bought sausage that was egg- and gluten-free. | 1 – 1.5 sausage links per person | ||
| Milk OJ Hot Choc Apple Cider | As mentioned under “Tuesday Morning – Breakfast” very few people drank milk or OJ for breakfast in favor of drinking hot chocolate and apple cider. | Planned for one hot chocolate packet per person per morning and one apple cider packet for every four people per morning. |
Walking Tacos Lunch (for 260-270)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Walking Tacos | Used this recipe (deliberately because the rice helped stretch the ground beef and made it heartier). Allergy Friendly Variation: this recipe is naturally gluten-free. | 22X recipe for 260-270 servings | ||
| Corn Chips | Purchased 2-ounce bags of corn chips (found them online; harder to find than 1-ounce bags). Some piled filling and toppings inside the bag; others dumped bag of chips onto plate and loaded up that way. | Planned for one bag of chips per person | ||
| Toppings | Provided lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese, salsa, olives, chopped tomatoes. | 7 Costco packs of romaine (with six romaine hearts in each package) 1 (64-ounce) jar of salsa; 5 (2.5-lb) bags of Mexican shredded cheese; 2 #10 cans sliced olives; 4 (3-lb) tubs sour cream; 30 cups chopped tomatoes (about 30 medium tomatoes) | ||
| Cuties (Oranges) | In hindsight, we did not need a fruit side dish for this meal. Very few people took a clementine cutie with their meal. | Planned for one cutie per person. Ended up serving them for snack since they didn’t get eaten at dinner | ||
| Veggies + Ranch | Offered cucumbers, grape tomatoes, carrots and celery. The cucumbers and grape tomatoes were by far the biggest hit (hardly anyone opted for celery). Served the ranch in two large bowls with small ladles. | 12-15 sliced English cucumbers; 3 (2-lb) containers grape tomatoes; 4 (2-lb) bags baby carrots; 2 (1-gallon) jugs of ranch lasted for three lunches | ||
| Homemade Caramels | Used this recipe and made these two weeks in advance and kept them stored in a tightly covered container at cool room temperature. Allergy Friendly Variation: these caramels are naturally gluten- and egg-free. | Planned about two caramels per person. Made five double batches (equates to five 9X13-inch pans of caramels). |
Pulled Pork Sandwich Dinner (for 260 -270)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulled Pork Sandwiches | Made this pork recipe in advance (cooking large quantities in electric roasters), shredded, and froze it (without BBQ sauce). Used the brioche buns from Costco – they are quite large; smaller buns would have been just fine. Allergy Friendly Variations: used gluten-free hamburger buns from Trader Joe’s. | Cooked 80 pounds of boneless pork shoulder for 270 people (calculated 1/3 pound raw meat per person); one bun per person | ||
| BBQ Sauce | Served the BBQ sauce separately for people to add to their sandwich. | 5 gallons BBQ sauce | ||
| Potato Salad | We bought prepared potato salad and scooped it out and served it in large bowls. About half the group took a serving of potato salad (which is what we figured in advance). | 8 (3-lb) tubs of potato salad for 130-140 servings | ||
| Watermelon | Cut the watermelon into sticks and served in large stainless serving bowls | 4-5 large watermelon serves 260 people | ||
| Corn | This was probably the favorite part of this dinner (heard a lot of rave reviews). Mixed a variety of white and yellow frozen corn in large disposable aluminum pans with 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons butter for every 5 pounds of corn; cover with foil and heat in the oven at 350 degrees F just until heated through (don’t want it to over cook or boil); stirred well before serving and gave it a good sprinkle of salt. | 8 (5-lb) bags frozen corn (variety of white and yellow) | ||
| S’Mores Cookie Bars | Used this recipe and made it into bar form by tripling the batch and dividing the triple batch between two half sheet pans (baked for about 25 minutes). Cut into squares (24 servings from each sheet pan), froze in ziploc bags and thawed before serving. Allergy Friendly Variation: served gluten-free cookies from Tuesday (still fresh in the fridge) and these egg-free cookies. Had heavenly hunks available for GF/EF option. | Made 12 sheet pans of bars (four triple batches) |
Bagel Cream Cheese + Yogurt Breakfast (for 260-270)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bagels | Served plain bagels and blueberry bagels (purchased these at a significant discount from Franz local bakery outlet). Did not toast or heat them up prior to serving. Allergy Friendly Variation: served gluten-free bagels from Trader Joe’s. | 30 (6-ct) bags of bagels (most preferred plain bagels) | ||
| Cream Cheese | Served a variety of plain and flavored WHIPPED cream cheeses (important to serve the whipped cream cheese for easy spreading, especially if eating outdoors on a chilly morning with the cream cheese cold). Flavored cream cheese (strawberry and blueberry) was much more popular than plain cream cheese. | 20 cups whipped cream cheese | ||
| Yogurt | Served vanilla, strawberry and peach yogurt. If doing it again, would only serve vanilla, especially with all the toppings (the vanilla yogurt went first and ran out). | 1500 ounces yogurt | ||
| Granola + Toppings | Served honey oat granola (purchased in bulk at US Foods) – the texture was very piecey (not clumpy) and was perfect for yogurt parfaits (and stretched further than cluster granola). Served blueberries, bananas and chopped strawberries. Strawberries were much more popular than blueberries (and bananas not popular at all). The most popular topping was mini chocolate chips! Allergy Friendly Variation: had gluten-free granola available. All granola was nut-free. | 10 pounds granola 40 pounds strawberries, chopped 5 pounds blueberries 15-18 cups mini chocolate chips | ||
| OJ + Hot Choc + Apple Cider | As mentioned under “Tuesday Morning – Breakfast” very few people drank milk or OJ for breakfast in favor of drinking hot chocolate and apple cider. | Planned for one hot chocolate packet per person per morning and one apple cider packet for every four people per morning. |
Meatball Subs Lunch (for 260-270)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meatball Subs | Heated store bought frozen meatballs in marinara sauce in large electric roasters. Served on sturdy hoagie buns (definitely need a sturdy bun for these). Assembled by sprinkling mozzarella cheese on bun FIRST (so it would melt), followed by 4 meatballs and sauce. This was one of the most popular meals! The girls loved it. Also, this was the ONLY meal we dished up for the girls, which went fast (two lines) and was a really good idea in hindsight. Allergy Friendly Variation: made batch of GF/EF meatballs and froze for camp; heated them in sauce separate from main batch. Served on GF hot dog buns from Trader Joe’s. | 6 (6-lb) bags frozen meatballs 16 #10 cans marinara (Roseli brand) 8 (2-lb) bags of shredded mozzarella cheese | ||
| Chips | Used lunch bag-sized chips from Costco in a variety box. | Only about 2/3 of the group took chips – served extras for snack time | ||
| Veggies + Ranch | Offered cucumbers, grape tomatoes, carrots and celery. The cucumbers and grape tomatoes were by far the biggest hit (hardly anyone opted for celery). Served the ranch in two large bowls with small ladles. | 12-15 sliced English cucumbers; 3 (2-lb) containers grape tomatoes; 4 (2-lb) bags baby carrots; 2 (1-gallon) jugs of ranch lasted for three lunches | ||
| Grapes | Served red and green grapes; cut the grapes into small bunches | 15 (3-lb) containers | ||
| Swig Sugar Cookies | Used this recipe (used baking powder in place of cream of tartar). These cookies freeze great even frosted and sprinkled. Bake them, frost them, add sprinkles, then place in a single layer on a baking sheet and freeze. Place frozen cookies in ziploc bags (can double layer – add parchment or wax paper in between layers) and freeze. Allergy Friendly Variation: made gluten-free batch using gluten-free flour 1:1 in recipe. Offered egg-free cookies as well. Had heavenly hunks available for GF/EF option. | Made 250 regular cookies; 1 dozen GF cookies |
Cafe Rio Meal (for 325)
*had extra visitors/leaders this night*
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cafe Rio Pork | Made this pork recipe in advance (cooking large quantities in electric roasters), shredded, and froze it (without the finishing sauce and spice mixture – brought both those things up to camp and combined with the pork to reheat in electric roasters). Allergy Friendly Variations: used gluten-free ingredients for the pork. | Cooked 98-100 pounds of boneless pork shoulder for 325 people (calculated 1/3 pound raw meat per person) | ||
| Black Beans | Heated black beans with store bought salsa in electric roasters. | 5 #10 cans black beans, drained 2 (64-ounce) jugs salsa | ||
| Cilantro Lime Rice | Cheated here and bought cilantro lime rice from Costa Vida with the savings from discounted/donated bread (someone brought the rice up to us midweek); boiled the bags of rice in water until hot and kept warm in electric roasters to serve. | 50 pounds rice | ||
| Tortillas | Planned for 275 tortillas (for a group of 325) which ended up about right. Allergy Friendly Variation: offered gluten-free tortillas. | 275 flour tortillas 12 GF tortillas | ||
| Toppings | Provided lettuce, sour cream, shredded cheese, salsa, olives, chopped tomatoes and guacamole. We used less toppings this night than we did when serving walking tacos. | 5 Costco packs of romaine (with six romaine hearts in each package) 1 (64-ounce) jar of salsa; 4 (2.5-lb) bags of Mexican shredded cheese; 2 #10 cans sliced olives; 3 (3-lb) tubs sour cream; 20 cups chopped tomatoes 4 Costco packs guacamole | ||
| Cilantro Lime Dressing | A committee member made all the cilantro lime dressing using this recipe and brought it up to camp the day of with other groceries. We served it in large squeeze bottles. | 12X batch of cilantro lime dressing | ||
| Watermelon | Cut the watermelon into sticks and served in large stainless serving bowls. We got by with less watermelon this night because the meal was so hearty. | 4-5 large watermelon served 300+ people |
Grab-and-Go Breakfast (260-270)
| Meal | *** | Recipe Used + Details | *** | Quantities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leftovers from week | Initially we were going to have someone coming up for Thursday night’s dinner bring us 250 Costco muffins for the grab-and-go breakfast the next morning (this is the morning everyone was packing up and leaving camp). However, we had so many leftovers to use: orange slices, bagels, bananas, snacks (granola bars, applesauce packets, etc) that we only ended up purchasing 100 costco muffins and cut them in half. The girls had PLENTY to put in their breakfast bags and they were home by noon. | 270 paper bags 100 Costco muffins – variety of flavors, cut in half |
Snacks (served 1X a day in the afternoon)
We were tasked with providing a snack in the afternoon. In hindsight, I’m not sure the snack was necessary. The girls had a lot of food/snacks/junk at their own campsites, and we also had a lot of leftover cookies and items from meals that we would put out and the girls would snack on if they were hungry.
These were the snacks we had on hand to provide, but in the end, we used most of them for the grab-and-go breakfast on Friday morning.
- String cheese
- Granola bars
- Applesauce packets
- Cuties (oranges)
- Heavenly Hunks
- Leftovers
HOW TO FIGURE OUT QUANTITIES
I gave a lot of tips in the above tables about quantities, but here is a quick overview of how I calculated the quantities (and what I learned from having leftovers in a lot of areas!).
- Meat (for meat-centric meals): 1/3 pound meat (uncooked) per person for meat-centric meals (like sloppy joes, pulled pork sandwiches, etc)
- Meat for less-meat meals: 1/4 pound meat (uncooked) per person for less meat-centric meals (like spaghetti, Hawaiian Haystack gravy, etc)
- French Toast: two slices French toast per person; for the egg/milk mixture use 1 egg + 1/4 cup milk for every 2 slices bread.
- Watermelon: 50 servings for average to large size watermelon
- Rice: 1/4 to 1/3 cup DRY rice per person
- Pasta: 2 ounces pasta per person (for this easy pasta bake, we ended up needing even less than that – probably dependent on our particular group who had eaten a lot during the day so not ravenous at dinner, and we also had a lot of side dishes).
- Ice Cream: 18-20 servings per gallon of ice cream
- Root Beer (for root beer floats): 10-12 servings per liter of root beer
Let me know in the comments if you have any other specific quantity questions – or check up above in the tables for each meal. I included a lot of tips there!
ESSENTIAL EQUIPMENT
Here is the equipment we couldn’t have lived without at girl’s camp.
- Electric roasters: we had eight of these at camp (had to scatter them around to different outlets if we were using all of them), but they were invaluable at heating and cooking food both prepping for camp and up at camp.
- Electric roaster liners: my entire committee agreed that these liners single-handedly saved us at camp. We used the electric roasters for nearly every meal. The fact that we didn’t have to several of them clean after each meal was a much-needed life (and back) saver.
- Handy chopper: one of my committee members brought this chopper to camp (I didn’t have one before, but I was converted after camp and promptly bought one). Even though we just had one, it was revolutionary for chopping strawberries and tomatoes, to name just a few things. I think the description states it doesn’t work for tomatoes, but it worked well for us using firm cherry tomatoes (and a firm hand!).
- Knife sharpener: we did a lot of other chopping too – cucumbers, lettuce, etc. Our knives did overtime duty and a knife sharpener was critical to keep them doing their best.
- Disposable aluminum pans: we used these full size pans for EVERYTHING. Heating, serving, prepping. We washed and re-used many of them over the course of the week, but we were all glad we had a huge stack to start with.
- Block ice: we used block ice to keep water cold during the day, and it lasted so much longer than cubed ice (and was easier to stack and store in the freezer).
DAY-BY-DAY CHARTS + SPREADSHEETS
My love for spreadsheets runs very deep. Some would say it is a bit…er…excessive. But spreadsheets and charts saved me during the planning and executing of cooking (and shopping!) for 270 people all week.
My actual spreadsheets won’t be super helpful to anyone else because they have such specific information for me and my committee, but I kept the following spreadsheets running:
- prep calendar for what to make when in the weeks leading up to camp
- master meal planning spreadsheet with each meal item listed and all the ingredients needed for each item and sub-item
- master shopping list separated by when to shop for it (many of the pantry staples we shopped for several weeks ahead of time vs the fresh ingredients we needed to get the day before or day of) and which committee member would tackle it
- budget spreadsheet that kept track of what we were spending, when we were spending it and what we were spending it on (in the end, we came in just a bit under budget – yay!)
- day-by-day girls camp plan spreadsheet – this was the most intense of all the spreadsheets as it detailed hour-by-hour up at camp what we needed to do to prep for each meal, how to serve foods and what to serve them in, and lots of other details.
I turned this into large engineering prints (pictured below) that we hung on the back of the camp kitchen door to keep us all on track!
And yes, I got a lot of good-natured grief from leaders/girls who stopped into the kitchen and saw my minute-by-minute outlines. 😂 I’m sure some thought it was over the top, but it kept us on track, and my committee all agreed it was helpful to see exactly what needed to be done.
Here is a .pdf version of my day-by-day plan for reference in case it might help to see the details I included (with personal identifying details removed). Unfortunately a customizable format isn’t easy/available to share as the files are enormous and the program is not user-friendly.
Ooof! AND THAT’S A WRAP! That might be the longest post I’ve ever written here on this blog!
I thought I was exhausted after girl’s camp – but, man, I’m even more exhausted now reviewing and typing up all this information. 😂
No doubt, it is a ton of work to plan for and make meals for a large church camp (or whatever large group you are planning for), but with good helping hands, lots of planning, and a delicious menu, it is doable!
Use the comment section below to ask any questions and ESPECIALLY to comment with any experience you might have (favorite meals to make, tips, lessons learned). We learn the most when we share together!
95 Comments on “How to Plan Food for Girl’s Camp {And Other Large Groups} – Menus, Tips, and Resources”
Where can I get specific instructions on your frozen corn that you warmed in the oven? Like how long was it in the oven, what temp and how many pounds of frozen corn did you put in each pan? Feeding 200 campers, loved this idea!
THANK YOU for this post. It’s a godsend.
I used 5 pound bags of corn and put 1 1/2 bags each in deep roasting pans. It needed about an hour in the oven. Hope that helps!
Mel, you are a gold mine of information! Thank you SO much for sharing all your knowledge and experience!! I have been asked to cook for Young MEN’s camp. There will probably be around 120-130 men and teenaged boys. I’ve devoured this post and another one by A Bountiful Kitchen and you both have at the top of your must haves list a ‘good committee’. I am starting to panic a little because I don’t have a committee…it just me and one other sister who I only met in person once. (Our husbands are in the stake YM presidency. ) Are we crazy for trying to tackle this just the two of us?? The tricky part is we are a US military stake in Germany which covers a large geographical area. The closest ward to me is 1.5 hours away. My ward is one of the smallest and none of the other mothers in my ward can go up, so creating a committee of women who would go to the end of the world with me is not going to happen. We’ll have boys helping with clean up and last minute preparations. Just tell me I’m going to be ok and send me all your positive food vibes and prayers, ok?? Better yet, I think you could use a vacation in the Bavarian Alps! Come out and help me!
Jessica! I just read your comment. You are going to do great! Honestly, you are going to do so great. With the right planning, you will be just fine with your one amazing helper! I wish I could be there to help!! I joke to my husband all the time that I’m going to buy a one way ticket to Switzerland, but maybe I should come to the Bavarian Alps instead!
Thank you so much for your encouragement! I was just re-reading your post as I am working out the portions I’ll need. I am planning on making “The Best Sloppy Joes”. The yield is 8-10 servings. How many batches should I plan on for 120 men/boys? It’s not as simple as just making one batch for every 10 people right? Thank you again for your words of encouragement! They have given me the boost of confidence I needed. ❤️
Hi Jessica, if it were me I would 14X the sloppy joe recipe for that size of group!
Thank you so much for all this information! Do you remember how you calculated how much deli meat to get per person for the ham and cheese croissants?
Hi Sara, I calculated it based off slices. I planned three slices of deli meat per croissant (they were larger slices – specific to the US foods store I bought it from).
What a wonderful find as I have been asked to prepare meals for our youth camp in a few weeks. My question is for breakfast did you also offer cereal for those who didn’t want the main dish being served? At lunch did you offer pb&j sandwiches for those who are picky eaters?
Great article, this will be my first time doing food for camp. My friend was going to come help me but now she isn’t able to. I was concerned about how I was going to be able to cook all these meals for 130+ people each day. But realizing that you can make a lot of stuff ahead of time is going to be great and I know I can handle it now they’re going to try to find a couple people to come up there to help me And that would be great because I’m up in my 60s and I can’t stand on my feet for 10 to 12 hours a day. Funny part is I’m not a very good cook, junk Food junkie and they want healthy food and we have diabetics and gluten-free that we have to contend with. But my friend is going to help me before camp knows all about that kind of stuff, so looks like we’re gonna be baking and prepping and doing a lot of stuff before camp so I feel so much better now , best thing about me is I am extremely organized and creative, so I don’t worry about that part. I got this.
As a fellow head camp cook, I had to chime in and say I know how much work and thought and prep that goes into feeding a camp full of girls and leaders for a week! Prepping and freezing everything you can ahead of time is the key! Some meals we had were breakfast burritos, meatball subs, taco salad, Greek chicken wraps, Gloria’s cinnamon rolls!, Pulled pork, pancakes. One thing you didn’t mention but our camp did was for each meal we had a different age group of girls help out in the kitchen and clean up. It was good to have them work together and learn some new skills as well. Food safety is very important for a task like this, so I gave beginning of camp instructions for helping in the kitchen and had everyone tie hair back, double wash hands and wear food prep gloves in the kitchen. The kitchen staff also provided the mess kit wash station which was a task I assigned to one of my assistants. It really takes a village to pull off a feat like this. Well done, Mel!
Having done Girl’s Camp and Youth Conference Food many times, one suggestion I would make is to utilize Sysco and get a tax free number from your organization. Sysco will deliver and put boxes into the camp kitchen which is a HUGE timesaver. A representative will meet with you months before your event and ours was fantastic. We saved so much money and time by using them for purchasing so much. We bought some food from Costco but the bulk from Sysco. Doing as much prep at home and freezing works wonders. One idea we did was to prep the cookie dough at home and freeze and then cook at camp so you had the heavenly smell of fresh baked cookies. Girls loved it! We also had great fun with a food theme for the day and having a simple Cook’s Costume. We had so much fun with that. We also had a simple mascot that we placed by the whiteboard we used to write the menu. Little touches like that made all the hard work fun for the cooks and the girls loved seeing our theme for the day. You did an amazing job on your camp! Don’t be surprised if you are asked to do it again. CONGRATULATIONS ON A JOB WELL DONE!!
This was a fun read! Thank you for sharing all the details. This looks like a ton of work, but also so much fun! I wouldn’t have thought to plan and actually cook so far ahead, but I can see how it was helpful and necessary. The menu looks delicious and doable for such a large crowd. What a great reference!
This is amazing! Thank you so much for documenting all these details and especially for sharing. You’re the best!!! I’m so excited for our Stake Girls camp this June. We are a rough camp so I’m still thinking through how to implement this without electricity!!! Those roasters are a game changer.
Question…when actually serving the food-How long does it take for 200 plus to go through a double sided buffet? I’m wondering if we should split our stake into smaller groups for meal time.
Our girls got through the line really quickly! We did two tables (going down both sides of each table) so four lines total, and they were all through within 10 minutes or so.
Wonderful!!! Thank you.
One tip for rice that I learned in the catering world. Use minute rice and pour boiling hot water over top. Cover with foil. Then put it in a cool lined with towels. We would fill a 9×13 pan and add the water, salt and butter if desired. Cover and let it sit. Then fluff and stir before serving. A pan half full of rice fed about 12-15 people depending on the meal. It was a huge life saver for trek when we were moving kitchens and zero oven space. I’ve cooked for girls camp, trek, and youth conference. Your tips are fantastic. Another thing I did was assign meals to people. They purchased everything for that meal, but we prepped and froze everything together. We ordered fresh subs from Walmart and had someone bring them up to us. Also, dressings and salsas go much further than you would expect. For one activity we ended up making 500 cinnamon rolls. I only had my one oven and three people helping. I started at 5 am and finished at 5 am. It was a huge hit and people still talk about it 4 years later. (we didn’t freeze and bake later because we only had one tiny freezer full of other items).
THIS is your cookbook niche! Recipes and instructions for feeding large groups. I’ve heard you say you wouldn’t do a cookbook unless you felt like you were adding something new and this is it!!! K cool can’t wait to read it. Thanks for writing it 😉
I just have to say this is amazing–not only this post and the details included–but the menu! I’m sure some of these girls have never eaten so well, especially in one week. The commitment to homemade items and working around allergies is impressive. Way to go to you and your committee–I hope you were properly thanked. And thank you for sharing all this wisdom with us, though I hope I don’t have to use it. Ha ha!
God bless you Mel, for sharing this! What a remarkable resource!
I’ve planned and served for large groups, and this kind of information is very difficult to find, and usually learned only by doing.
Such a great post Mel! Sorry for the long comment… I feel like we need an official group for home cooks who cook for large groups so we can share tips! I’ve cooked for girls camp six times (ward camps for up to 60, and Stake camp for 500), and I agree with all of your suggestions! I love your “lessons learned”, I have had so many of those! Quantities can be tricky… girls camp is totally different than Trek, etc (hello teen boys!!). I love what you said about having something homemade each meal, and also eating fresh (everyone just feels better!) And pre-cooking before camp is a life saver and allows more time at camp for prepping the fresh ingredients. I don’t know if you’ve already tried this, but I’ve had success with grilling & slicing chicken in advance and gently warming it before serving— I’ve used the warm setting on crockpots, and even warmed it using my sous vide in an ice chest. I drizzle it with a glaze or a post-marinade just before serving so that it’s juicy. I know you have other posts about menu ideas for feeding large groups, but here are a few more ideas that that have been crowd pleasers (I think you’ve done many of these too). I’ve been able to make adaptations with all of these for GF, dairy free, etc. Anyway, just hoping to help anyone who may be in the brainstorming stage…
Grilled Teriyaki Chicken Bowls with Roasted or Sautéed Veg (toppings make it fun – extra glaze, sesame seeds, greet onions, etc)
French Dip Sandwiches (served with Tortellini Pasta Salad, Spinach Strawberry Salad, Roasted Red Pepper Dip & Pita Chips)
Penne with Alfredo Sauce & Grilled Chicken (crock pot of marinara for dairy free), “Olive Garden” green salad, easy focaccia
Nacho Bar (this is always a favorite – cafe rio style pork, homemade refried beans, toppings, etc – I use nacho cheese sauce from Costco warmed in crockpots)
Indian Butter Chicken & rice with sautéed veg, naan (Costco) brushed with garlic butter heated on skillets
Balsamic Pork, Rice Pilaf, Confetti Corn, salad
Grilled Lemon Chicken & Rosemary Garlic Smashed Potatoes
Grilled Cheese Bar (groups of 75 or less – use 3 to 4 electric skillets)
Grilled Chicken & Tortellini Salad Bar (served with artichoke dip & crostini)
Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake in sheet pans (make the day before and serve the first breakfast of camp, warm in the ovens and drizzle with glaze before serving)
Also, for Stake camp I asked one of the YW with celiac and her mom if they would be willing to bake and freeze some GF cookies that could be shared with all the GF girls at camp (They also ended up doing a coffee cake, and other baked goods- the stake reimbursed for all expenses). It was so helpful because they were cooking in a GF kitchen and knew all the best ingredients/brands. And like you, I’ve found it’s easiest to have a nut free kitchen because it’s not worth the stress of cross-contamination.
Thanks again Mel, many of your recipes are favorites at our house!
One year, I pre-made and froze meats for a family reunion. It was great to have that prepped, but the tricky part was keeping it frozen while transporting it the 19 hours from WI to UT. I ended up packing it in a cooler with dry ice and that was a lifesaver. We even had a few days in UT before the reunion started and I just made sure the cooler still had dry ice in it. The meat stayed frozen the whole time.
Thank you for this information! It is helpful to me! I am planning to make pulled pork ahead of time, and reheat it for sandwiches in electric roasters. Can you give me any hints on reheating? Did you heat it low and slow? About how long did it take? I have drizzled sprite over pulled pork when reheating, did you add any liquid? How often did you stir, and how full did you make the roasters? Thanks so so much!!
We thawed the cooked and frozen pork in the refrigerator (so it wasn’t frozen going into the roasters) and then heated it on low (about 250 degrees) stirring often in the roasters. It took several hours to heat up. We had frozen it with some of the juices from cooking so we didn’t need to add much liquid (I think one roaster looked like it the pork was getting dry so we added a bit of chicken broth).
Wow! All of it is so impressive, Mel. I always knew you were organized, but this is definite proof!
That week was exhausting in all the very best ways. It was absolutely the highlight of my summer!!
I am really hoping that I NEVER EVER EVER EVER have to do something like this. But I sure am glad to have this in my pocket, just in case…!
Love your blog, you’re the best!
Wow!! This is incredible! My nerdy, organization and spreadsheet loving heart about burst with all these amazing details. Bless you!
One more tip I learned while working my colleges kitchen. It really doesn’t matter what type of pasta goes with what sauce, and it is much easier to make a large batch of a pasta that isn’t long. Spaghetti, fettuccine, angel hair… all of those are much harder to make huge batches of just because they become hard to stir with much less pasta, both when making it, and when stirring in the sauce (if applicable). They are also harder to portion out. Get a smaller type of pasta. It will make life easier.
This is great info. I have never done girls’ camp but I have fed the marching band. I cannot agree more with having an awesome committee! I was amazed every single time by how much is possible when you have good support.
We didn’t have a kitchen and worked off generators and crockpots but only had to do one meal at a time. These meals jive with what I have found to be popular. I will second the people that have suggested soup. Kids go crazy for it even if you can’t pull off grilled cheese, we just have to do rolls or breadsticks on the side. We have done a variation on the haystacks that was really popular and required less chopping of toppings – teriyaki chicken bowls. We did shredded chicken in crockpots (made with chicken broth, salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder) with oven baked rice that parents brought from home. We also brought a microwave and ran it off a generator to cook frozen mixed vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower and carrots). Add fresh pineapple and bottled teriyaki sauce and it went over really well.
I’ll probably never cook for this many people but I loved reading this post! I want to come to camp next time and eat all this yummy food!
This is amazing! A sister in my Stake sent this to me yesterday morning. She knows I am the head cook for camp this year and she also knows I have never cooked for such a large group before! We are only cooking for 150, so hats off to you for 260!!! That is so impressive! But truely, I am grateful to you for taking so many notes and posting this for all of us who have no idea how to cook for so many!!!
One question I have been wondering is when do the cooks eat? Before the girls, after the girls? It seems like there is no time for that. haha
Also, did you make phone calls to those places you got donations from? How did you find places that were willing to donate/discount food for you?
My experience is that the cooks eat after the kids, as you start to clean up.
Hi Laura! I called everywhere and anywhere to get donations – local grocery stores and then I googled bread outlets in my area and found Franz. Most grocery stores didn’t really offer donations, but I was able to get discounts which helped!
Once the girls/leaders had dished up, there was a lull in activity and we would eat during that time and while the assigned girls/ward was cleaning up the serving tables (we didn’t have the wards help us with dishes – but they did help us clearing tables, taking care of the trash, putting away leftovers). We always took a 15-20 minute break to eat before launching into cleanup.
Wow, this is amazing!!! Thank you for taking the time to take such great notes and to share for free! I’m saving this post eve for family reunions with half that number! It’ll be so helpful!
Mel, you are something else!!!! This is such an amazing resource. Love and hugs from me.
Planning girls camp is no joke! sent this to my camp director! Thank you!!!
Im also gonna just leave this right here…MIND.BLOWN. About cookie scooping frosting onto mass cookies….brilliant! I love the consistency!
this reads like a novel, like all great cookbooks. you have outdone yourself. we now have no excuse not to do great things! loved your menus! freezer space is surely one of life’s most valuable possessions. THANK YOU!!! Again and again!
Thank you for this information! It is helpful to me! I am planning to make pulled pork ahead of time, and reheat it for sandwiches in electric roasters. Can you give me any hints on reheating? Did you go low and slow? I have drizzled sprite over pulled pork when reheating, did you add any liquid? How often did you stir, and how full did you make the roasters? Thanks so so much!!
Hey Mel, I’m going to make the baked ziti for girls camp and I just wanted to make sure on how many one pan would feed. You show 17 pans would feed 260. That’s 15 people could eat one pan. Everything I read online 1 pound of pasta will feed 8 people. Which is correct?
The baked ziti definitely went farther than we thought it would (we had a ton leftover), so the information in the post is based on what was actually eaten of the baked ziti (I made more of it, but 17X-ing the recipe fed 260 people in our case).
I read this at 6:30 AM and suddenly wished I had a reason to feed 200 people!
But… this isn’t that season. That day will come! Thank you so much for sharing!
Bless your fantastically organized, life saving, recipe loving heart!
Wow! The planning! I love your spread sheets–that was a lot of good information. I hope never to have to do this, but I am saving this post!
This is amazing! But I’m curious – out of 270 people, were there no vegetarians? What would you have done if there were? My (vegetarian) daughter will be going to a camp this summer, and I’m hoping she won’t be living on salad 🙂
Hi Beth, we did have one girl who ate vegetarian. She brought some of her own food (she had very particular food tastes and indicated she wouldn’t eat much of what we prepared). We tried to focus our accommodation efforts largely around those with specific food allergies, but we did have a lot of meals that were build-your-own so that if someone didn’t like a certain ingredient (or ate meatless) they were able to work around it. We made a meatless portion of the baked ziti and a grilled cheese on a bun for the pulled pork night (and same for the meatball subs lunch).
At our girls camp, one of the most popular lunches is tomato soup and grilled cheese. They also have offered chicken noodle soup for those who won’t eat the tomato.
Yes! We debated doing tomato soup and grilled cheese (my cousin, Tami, who has done girls camp food for decades, ha) agrees that is a popular meal at girl’s camp!
I’ve been waiting for this since you teased it a couple of months ago!! Thank you so much! I’m helping to plan stake girls camp this year, and I’m passing this onto the kitchen gals right now!! ❤️
I’m in charge of food for a 4-night family reunion of 50 people this summer. I already did it once in 2021 and my committee and I saved all of our information and afterthoughts to help us in planning for this year. I really appreciate the details you recorded on amounts that were used.
Thank you SO much for this post. I just got the assignment to do food at camp and I’m feeling overwhelmed! How long can you freeze the cookies, meat, baked ziti (basically everything that you can freeze beforehand) etc for?
Hi April, as long as it’s frozen well-covered/insulated, almost everything will keep well for several months in the freezer.
Wow, this is so helpful, thank you! My husband and I just got back from trek as a Ma and Pa and we thought it was a bit tricky just to cook for our little trek family. Can’t even imaging having to cook for a group this large. Thanks for the work you put in here!
What a great post. Thank you
Yay, yay, yay! I am doing food for girls camp and I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw the email heading this morning. I’m off to start my spreadsheets!! Thank you from the bottom of my heart and soul for sharing!
We have a group that will be about 100 people. One of the meals that I am planning on doing is your Cobb salad recipe. And dessert cups where it can all be made and proportioned in advance (birthday cake and brownie strawberry shortcake for two of them).
I have been hesitant to have too many helping hands and so far only have one assistant. Your post is giving me reasons to reconsider… I will come back to it multiple times I am sure and I’m also so interested in other readers comments!
This is awesome! Thank you for sharing so many great ideas and details!
This is incredible! My husband and I were called to be in charge of the food for trek for our Stake this summer. I feel wildly unqualified! We have a good committee, and a menu plan, but these extras are so helpful. I have said a few times that we could move and then it would be someone else’s responsibility!
Aren’t electric roasters a life saver!? I use them to cook food during holidays since I only have one oven and then use to keep hot foods hot during buffets (one of my pet peeves). Don’t mine often, but wow do they come in handy!
I was one of the lucky ones who got to partake of this heavenly menu and labor of love! So much time and work went into this and everything was absolutely amazing! A group of people have never been fed so well! It was definitely a highlight of camp! I have been following Mel for years and literally only cook from her website so when I knew she was coming to camp, I was over the moon excited! Not only is she talented, she is the nicest person you will ever meet!
I’m hoping to never get this calling but it was fun to read through your post haha.
Wow! You are amazing! Thank you for all the information and blessings on all your days.
Ooh!! I have been eagerly awaiting this post! I think girls camp cook would be such a fun assignment! Excellent organization and thank you for sharing Mel!
Just got called yesterday to do food at girls’ camp! The timing of this couldn’t have been better! Thank you so much for all of your hard work in putting this together!
I LOVE this! Doing food for groups is one of my favorite things. After thinking fresher was better and “lone rangering” it many times, I’ve learned having a team and prepping ahead are crucial for success. Thank you so much for sharing all the detail – I know I will come back to it again and again. God bless you! ♥️
This post constitutes 1 million good deeds. You can take a break for a while 🙂 thanks so much!
How did you cook the breakfast casseroles? I don’t really want to get up at 3 to start cooking if I don’thave to. We have two ovens and are cooking for just under 200 people.
Hi Katie, we did have to do two batches of baking (we used large aluminum pans) – and that breakfast we tackled for our smaller group (60) vs the full group (260). I think there’s a chance using electric roasters might work for that dish?
I have pre-baked breakfast casseroles for girls camp and it worked really well (we ended up pre-baking them because of the quantity that we needed, and the unreliability of the ovens.) Before warming them in the ovens at camp, we sprinkled them with cheese, and covered them with foil…. the fresh melted cheese gave the casseroles the look and taste of being freshly baked! (It would be good to do a trial run for your family before camp, to make sure it works well with your recipe.)
I have pre-baked breakfast casseroles for stake girls camp and it worked really well (we pre-baked because of the quantity we needed). Before we rewarmed them up at camp, we sprinkled them with cheese and covered them with foil. The fresh melted cheese gave the casseroles the look and taste of being freshly baked. Of course you would want to do a trial run for your family before camp to make sure it works well with your recipe!
Absolutely amazing! Thank you for sharing – and for free! For many years, my mother-in-law was in charge of an annual meal serving 1000+ people, all made from scratch. She had a HUGE binder with all sorts of timelines and plans and charts to keep everything organized all year long. Ladies like you and her are amazing!!
My only complaint: when my kids go to camp, they come home more appreciative of my cooking. If they went to a camp with your delicious food, I wouldn’t reap the benefits and would have to up my food game when they returned home! Hahahaha!! 🙂
Thank you for this!! Such an awesome reference.
This is an act of love. The fact that you cooked artful meals (I mean frosted and decorated homemade cookies and homemade caramels!!??) catered to specific dietary requirements AND shared the information down to the tiniest of details with us. This information will be so extremely helpful and it makes me (almost) want to cook for a large crowd just to be able to use your organized notes and look like a superstar. Thank you, Mel. You are my favorite foodie!
Very helpful information, thank you! Everything looked great except adding sugar to sweet corn. That one confuses me, but I have found you like your food a lot sweeter than I do. I always cut the sugar in your desserts by at least one-third, and in the non-dessert recipes by three-fourths or more. We all have different tastes and I’ve loved using and customizing the recipes from your site over the years. Thanks again for the fantastic guide!
As I’m reading this blog post and comments, the vibe is: LOVE LIKE MEL!!!
Your example as a disciple of Christ is truly special and we are all better people for knowing you. Thank you SO MUCH!!
This post is gold. I’m afraid if I get too excited about it they are going to call me to do it so I’ll try to keep my enthusiasm down. But, wow.
WOW Mel!!! You are the best. Thank you! I will definitely be referring back to this post again and again.
This is such a great resource. You nailed it! How lucky were all those girls and leaders to be eating such great food.
Whew! I’m tired just thinking about all that work! But it’s always worth it for those girls to have great and meaningful camp experiences. They sure were lucky to have you!❤️
Amazing detail here, Mel. Thank you so much for sharing! Greatly appreciated!
This is so great! I’ve been reading and rereading your post on large groups as I am in charge of the food on an upcoming mission trip for 30. Thanks for always sharing!
Wow! Do you know how you bless the lives of all who turn to your blog? I can’t tell you how many times your recipes have helped me as I prepare meals for struggling families, funeral meals, church activity meals, new mom’s meals and for my own family and extended family. How generous and kind of you to share your time and talents with us. I have loved the addition of the nutrient information to your recipes. It is so helpful to know the carb counts for my son who has Type 1 Diabetes. If you ever wonder if you make a difference please know that you do! Your positive and realistic outlook on life, your example of motherhood, your service in your community and church are all remarkable. You are so humble, never drawing the attention to yourself but highlighting others and expressing gratitude for your life and blessings. Last but not least your gift giving guides and kitchen supply lists are also so very helpful. Thank you so much!
What Amy said!!
So grateful for this post! I always struggle with knowing how much food to prep, and you so helpfully outline it. Thank you!
Wow this a great post! So much information, tips, and tricks. Thanks Mel!
I’m sO, so. Grateful you took the time to share your wisdom on this topic because it seems beyond overwhelming to me. I’m tired just reading your post! Haha. I’ll be bookmarking this post in my brain incase I’m ever asked to help with girls camp food prep! I happen to know a post like this could also be really helpful for planning funeral meals for large groups as well, so thanks for the info!
I have celiac and I am practically crying at reading how you took care of the girls with allergies, specifically that you talked to their parents and learned about cross contamination and then made a huge effort to avoid it. That is so loving and I’m sure it was an inconvenience but it would have been everything to some of those girls. You are amazing!
As a mom of kids with food restrictions, I totally agree. What a huge gift for those girls and their parents. Well done!
My daughter and I both have celiac and I thought the same thing! It would mean the world to my daughter to feel included in the eating aspect of camp. Thank you for going the extra mile to help these girls feel included!!
Thanks, Becca – it was so important to me that the girls who dealt with food allergies felt like they had a safe place to eat. I learned a lot! And I would hope someone would do the same for my kiddos if they needed accommodations like that. It was seriously an honor for me to be able to help make adjustments here and there so everyone felt included.
If you only sort of had an oven how did you do things such as baked ziti and breakfast casserole? How did you get that many through the oven before meals?
Hi Sara, the issue with the old ovens in the camp kitchen were that the pilot lights went out off and on, so as long as we checked often to make sure the pilot light was on and going, it limped along. We ended up layering most of the baked ziti in electric roasters and “baking” that way. The electric roasters were a life saver.
Thank you for this! I have done food for youth camps several times and I am sure I will have the opportunity again 🙂 This is so helpful!
I’ve been waiting for this! Thank you!
Same! So thankful for this post & its timing!!
This is literally an answer to my prayers! I have been feeling very overwhelmed with camp food planning. Thanks Mel!