Snack or not?

Stole this from Scouting magazine as you no doubt know, but would be insterested in what you have to say.

We used to do them, but stopped mid way through my son's Wold year.

Used to take tuyrns bringing snack and water, but it got to be a pain as w had to keep switching the schedule last minute if somebody called to say they wouldn't make the meeting - usually 15 minutes before the meeting, ort forgot it was their turn or just didn't show that night.

Then you always had those one or two scouts who were a little attention deficiet anyways, keep asking if it was snack time yet. All meeting long.

Our dens meet at 6pm til 7pm...ish so most of our scouts have already had an after school snack that will hold them til dinner. Matter of fact, most of them have already eaten dinner anuyways.

Plus it took up too much time.

So how about you? What does your den/ pack do?

No snack.......

We meet for 7-8 most have eaten dinner. Pack meeting we occasionally have a snack.

Den meetings do not have snacks unless it is part of the activity for the meeting. Pack meetings run longer and later and do include a snack that is chosen to relate to monthly theme. We have a mom who is in charge of purchasing snacks for pack meetings, and does it reliably. The snack might be grapes and water, or graham crackers and juice, something easy and healthy-ish.

If dens meet immediately after school, yes a snack to rehydrate and raise blood suger for Wolves and Bears. If the dens meet later in the afternoon or at night, never unless its part of the den activity. No food ever at pack meetings that don't coincided with a B&G, crossover, or bonfire night.

We always met at 6-7pm. I am anti-snack but a lot of Mom's really want to do it. Eventually I let them work it out. We just said all parents needed to do something--lead a special topic, organize a field trip, get a speaker, teach a game or skill, drive, or bring snacks. Some folks opted for the snack route.

Snacks for Tigers, Wolves and Bears. Meetings were after school and the boys needed a cooking activity for advancement. Homemade cookies!

AS DL I kept bottled water and granola bars on hand in case someone forgot.

Weebs meetings took place at different times and usually onsite at whatever activity we were doing, so snacks were no longer a priority.

Part of the problemtunity is that some families eat early (we did at 530 on scout night) and some at 8 so those boys were hungry.

There is a social aspect to eating together and it is good to get them settled down during announcements. I just don't like the expectation for every activity.

Also there is the healthy/junky snack argument and special dietary issues etc. I never liked the expense. Again this is a good thing to delegate.

Just say no. It takes away from activity time (exercise) and there are just too many overweight and obese boys along with too many parents willing to "help" by providing 2000 calorie brownie/cupcakes and sugar soda to wash it down.

Another way to say no, "Due to food allergies,...no snacks!"

My $0.02, RS aka the "Snack Nazi" - "no snacks for you".

We don't do snack. We meet weekly from 6:30 - 7:30. I don't think I could coordinate one more thing each week.

As a matter of course none of my sons' dens had snack time. (Meeting times were usually 6 or 7 pm.) There were special occasions (e.g., cooking instruction), but most meetings were without munchies!

The facility had a water fountain. That seemed enough to get everyone by.

We almost always did it. What and how much depended on where we were and time of year. We waited until near the end of the den meeting. Pack meetings often had a 'pot luck' of some sort. The pack also set up a hot dog stand at Pinewood derby, etc.

Our Wolf den does snack, since we meet from 7-8 pm and the snack serves as their dessert for the night. (I'm married to the DL, and we have a Wolf scout.) We have 15 active boys and 6 more registered but not active in this den alone. We do this at the end of the meeting, to calm them down and give the DL a chance to speak to the parents and scouts.

We charge $1 a meeting, which covers the snack and part of the expense for other items (crafts or things we need for them); we don't buy everything--for example, the scouts needed to either purchase or give us the money to purchase a wooden craft project from the Scout shop (BTW--No instructions, didn't fit together right--very disappointing).

I do the shopping, and buy packaged, single serve snacks and bring a jug of kool-aid or lemonade (they bring their own cups or they can drink from the water fountain--I'm trying to do be enviromentally friendly--if I could figure out a way for the parents to not freak out over big packages of snacks, I'd go that route as well.)

Last year, we relied on the parents to bring the snacks, and it was a disaster. Bob wouldn't come (on his snack night) or Timmy would show up and forget it was his...and one of the other parents would step up and run to the store (for the 3rd time in a row). Same with craft supplies. Some parents would step up and bring everything, and others wouldn't even save their tp rolls for the recycling theme of the B&G banquet. /shakes head

We also do snacks at teh pack meetings, but those run 7-8:30, so again, it serves as a dessert. Those rotate between the dens.

After school den meetings have snack. Younger boys need snack to recover from long school day. Older boys are always hungry..

As den leader I made snack assignments for the year on the calendar. I had one or two shelf stable emergency snacks stored at our meeting place. Before meeting email detailed who had snack (and who the adult help was and who was denner.) After a few missed snacks parents and boys tended to remember. As a den we set expectations as to what a healthy snack was, and by in large this was followed.

Pack meetings currently have potluck as they start at 6 or 6:30. We've gone back and forth on this -- usually younger parents wanting the potluck, and parents of older boys wanting to drop the potluck.

-- AK

We never did snacks at Pack meetings --we has 120+ scouts--except for very special occasions.

We don't do snacks in Dens. Our Dens meet 6:30-7:30, so most of them have already had supper. Although my Bears noshed good a couple weeks ago when we did the Cooking Requirement together in my kitchen!

Probably every other Pack meeting is a special occasion. Sept~nothing. Oct~Halloween snacks. Nov~nothing. Dec~Christmas snacks. Jan~nothing. Feb~(Blue&Gold). Etc... Usually a parent will say, "You want me to bring cookies?" (Yes!)

We're small, so one parent or a Den can handle snacks for everyone at a Pack meeting. But to do it in Dens would be one more thing to worry about.