The Big Emotions About Camp Food

The first time I went to camp I was not worried about where I would sleep.  I was not worried about being away from my parents. I was a sleepover expert and knew I could take the time and the distance from my Mom and Dad.  I was not particularly worried about bugs — I spent plenty of time outside and was no stranger to mosquito bites.  I was, and remain, pretty scared of snakes — but I don’t remember that even being on the top of my mind.  No, none of these common camp worries occurred to my young seven-year-old brain.  I had one major concern… and that was iced tea. 

You see, my sister had been to this camp the year prior with a friend and had brought home stories of friendship, bonding, adventure, and more.  But she also shared with them that the only options for drinks in the dining hall were either water or iced tea.  I was distraught.  How was I, a self-proclaimed Kool-Aid kid, going to survive a week without my favorite sugary beverages?

Looking back, I am realizing the true privilege that I held with that being my main worry. However, I think there is science behind why campers of all backgrounds have a significant amount of food (and sometimes beverage) stress and anxiety.

Because we know that camp can be a very emotion-heavy place (and that means the FULL RANGE of emotions), it is no surprise that emotional eating would also play a role in how we relate to camp food.  

Food - and even the anticipation of eating it - triggers a release of dopamine from our brains. Dopamine is a powerful chemical signal (neurotransmitter) your brain produces that makes you feel good. (The Science of Emotional Eating) 

What does that mean for eating at camp? Our veiled quests for dopamine will impact food choices, including possibly making us even more guarded about trying new things.

But because we know that sitting out of meals entirely is not an option, here are a few action items to think about to ensure that your camp meals are meeting the mark of ensuring that everyone leaves comfortably fueled for whatever comes next at camp!

1. CHOICES ON CHOICES ON CHOICES

There are so many reasons that kids have big feelings surrounding food.  Especially at camp, where they are feeling out of their comfort zone, their relationship to what they are eating might be complicated.  The foods that we eat, and that bring us comfort, are often a direct response to the foods that we eat at home.  Providing campers with lots of food choices increases the likelihood that they will find something that can fuel them for their next camp adventure.

I think there has been a bit of a shift to understand that being a picky eater is not always a sign of entitlement -it’s often a sign of stress or anxiety.  In FACT: some scientists believe that picky eating is especially common in children as an evolutionary protective behavior because in times past children “needed to be cautious before trying new foods, such as berries, in the event something was poisonous.” (The Science Behind Picky Eating | Feeding My Kid).  The first line of supporting picky eaters is to build empathy surrounding food choice.  Your camper’s rejection of the green bean casserole isn’t personal.  But it is possibly a communicative behavior that they are feeling overwhelmed OR a simple fact of evolution.

Even so, picky eaters, too, need sustenance.  We know that campers are often exerting more energy at camp than at home, which means they also need to replace that energy output with energy input (food!).  Ensuring that all campers have as much choice as possible can lower the chance that campers are not eating at all, which could lead to a major camp experience fail as their body runs out of energy and grinds to a physical (and often very emotional) halt. 

Salad bars are a great way to give choice as long as someone is monitoring that all the kids are not just making cheese ranch salads (which is exactly what it sounds like).

2. CHALLENGE BY CHOICE IS FOR THE DINING HALL, TOO

I love that camp is a place to try new things and push our boundaries a little bit, BUT the dining hall might not be the fertile ground for pushing our food boundaries that we may have thought it in the past.  I absolutely believe that we should be presenting new opportunities for kids to try a myriad of foods while at camp BUT if the only thing that you are serving for dinner is haggis you are going to possibly end up with a lot of hungry (and consequently grumpy) kiddos.

Just like no one should HAVE to climb the rock wall, no one should have to try a food that they don’t want to.  Remember, food rejection can be rooted in a lot of complex emotions and making someone try something that they don’t want to without their consent will possibly make them reject that food in the future and may further strain their relationship with camp eating.  We should be focusing on the need for campers to get a healthy balance of carbs, fats and proteins — and not focusing on single-handedly helping them to overcome their fear of brussel sprouts.

3. NO FOODS ARE DISGUSTING

Everyone has different tastes… literally.  We all experience food differently, and naturally, there will be some that we like, some that are indifferent to and possibly some that make us want to ralph.  However, I think it is important to teach our staff how to handle conversations with campers where one camper is super excited about their BBQ and blue cheese sandwich (personal favorite) and another camper thinks that is gross.  Think about how hurtful words like “THAT’S DISGUSTING!” can be — especially for someone who maybe has different cultural-based food preferences. It is important for us to use that as a moment to help both campers understand that all food options can be good options.  Don’t let the message stop there, because THIS lesson is one of the most important lessons that we can teach our campers:  what someone else likes has no bearing on what you like!  Someone can like BBQ and blue cheese, and that doesn’t change your relationship with BBQ and blue cheese at all!  Just like someone can use a pronoun that you don’t understand and that doesn’t have any bearing on the pronouns that make you feel like your best self.

4. FOCUS ON FUNCTION

Diet culture is in every corner of our world and disproportionately affects people who were assigned female at birth.  A 2015 study by Common Sense Media stated that 80% of 10-year-old girls had been on a diet in their lifetime and at least 50% of them wished that they were thinner (This Is Why 80% of 10-Year-Old Girls Are Dieting).  Camp staff should learn about affirming language surrounding food and stray away from shaming language.  For example, instead of saying “Rice Krispie treats aren’t good for you!,”  you might say “Rice Krispie treats might not fuel your body the way we need at camp!”  Instead of “You shouldn’t eat just a ranch and cheese salad,” try saying “Ranch and cheese are delicious, but you should think about adding some veggies and protein to keep your belly full and your energy strong!”  Our focus then becomes breaking the cultural myth that skinny bodies are the equivalent of healthy bodies.  When we help our campers and our staff understand that food is incredibly important in making us strong and giving us the energy that we need to keep moving all day — instead of focusing on how certain foods will make our bodies look — we have done our part to shift that food is about feeling good, not about fitting into an ideal, and sometimes unattainable, body.

5. COMFORT FOODS ARE CULTURE-DEPENDENT

I can think of nothing better than a mid-summer pizza party.  Yes, pizza — the budget-friendly comfort food that I heavily relied on to deliver the good feels at the highs and lows of the summer.  But what this doesn’t take into account is that pizza may not deliver to all people the same level of “comfort.”

Every culture throughout the world has dishes, snacks, and beverages that could be defined as “comfort food” or have a nostalgic or sentimental value while originating in or belonging to a specific region, culture, or group of people. (The Cultural Significance Of Comfort Food - Travel Noire).  

My white middle-class upbringing, in mid-rural Kentucky, led me to believe that nothing couldn’t be solved with Mom’s chili (with spaghetti) or a pot of vegetable soup.  It wasn’t until I met camp staff from around the world that I realized that the language of food (and especially comfort food) wasn’t a universal language.  I remember a group of British international staff smuggling in a bottle of malt vinegar from the Heathrow airport because they had heard we didn’t have it in America.  I had a Hungarian camp friend named Csilla who would always come to stay with us after camp and cook us Hungarian comfort foods, including the world’s best chicken paprikash.  We feel a great deal of connection with the foods that come from where we come from because these foods can make us feel grounded in times of stress. 

Especially when it comes to creating welcoming spaces for campers and staff from all different cultures and locations, we need to recognize the way that food plays a part in that.  Sometimes, just that one little anchor from home can create the bridge to continue when many other things seem to feel insurmountable.  So, let's think critically about how we are delivering different types of comfort foods to our camp dining halls.  Are we making sure that as we work to create spaces where all feel welcomed, we are also including different types of foods and not just those that represent the preferences of our majority populations?

6. WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS…

As a picky eater, who is also the parent of two (wonderful) picky eaters — I feel your pain.  When all you need is for your campers to get some type of sustenance to ensure they continue to feel good at camp and you are met with resistance, it can be beyond frustrating.  This is why I believe that putting a couple of safeguards into place can go a long way.  I have seen many camps ask on their health card “Is your child a picky eater?” but not often enough do we follow that up with an action question regarding how we can use that information to help support our campers.  We can try follow-up questions like these:

• When your child doesn’t want to eat something, what words do you use?

• How do you support your child when they are trying new foods?

• Will your camper respond well to pushing their food boundaries?

• What is one hearty food (not a dessert or a sweet) that your child will reliably eat?

This way, if we do find ourselves in a situation where a camper really is getting to a point where their meals are not meeting the nutritional needs we have the opportunity to make a few adjustments.

WRAPPING IT UP

Meals — they seem so simple to some and can be great sources of anxiety for others.  But just like many other things in our camp spaces, if we center the humanity of the individual eater and build empathy surrounding things that may feel inconvenient or complicated, I believe that we can have positive meal experiences for all of the campers in our care.

WANT MORE CHRIS?

Chris is a Faculty Member with us and often hosts monthly calls and seminars. Become a member to get access to these events!