It can be really hard to provide healthy food for a troop, and even harder to hold a successful money-earning activity with healthy choices, but more and more organizations are making strides in offering healthy food for kids, whether it’s for after sports, at school functions, or other organizational gatherings. Girl Scouts can be a leader in the healthy eating scene, too! Read on for a few small changes you and your troop can make that will have a big impact.
According to the CDC, childhood obesity is at 17% and affects about 12.7 million children and adolescents. Girl Scouts has a real opportunity to show that we are taking action to make the world a better place by offering healthy foods in our snack choices and money-earning projects.
If your troop has a shared snack program, try a whole foods approach and make lists of snack ideas readily available for parents. Our troop adopted a whole foods snack program where families of girls provide a fruit or vegetable (fresh or dried), nuts, and fun dips like yogurt, peanut butter, or hummus. We skip the sugary juice boxes and have girls bring their own water bottles instead.
For money-earning projects, healthy food can be even more challenging. Will it sell? Do people like hummus and carrots? You might be surprised how well a project that offers something outside the (pizza) box can do. We’ve all probably fed our families more than our share of fundraiser dinners consisting of cardboard pizza, hot dogs, and chips. Girls can lead the healthy living switch with easy, sellable items such as:
- A bowl full of apples, bananas, and oranges (how easy is that?)
- Bottled water instead of soda (much cheaper to buy in bulk anyway)
- Cut veggies like red peppers, celery, carrots, and baby tomatoes with individual dip containers
- Cheese sticks with snack-size packages of whole grain crackers
- Bagels with individual cream cheese containers
- Whole grain bread PB&J—cut these into fun shapes (how about a trefoil?) and you have healthier crustless sandwiches
- Make your own mix: offer popcorn with dried fruits like apricots, cranberries, almonds, corn or wheat cereal, and seeds. People can make their own snack mix in a small bag or cup
If you’re doing a full meal, and have proper food prep facilities, large crock pots of spaghetti with whole grain noodles can be a hit! A meatless version is very cost-effective. Sloppy joes with lots of hidden grated veggies (such as carrots or zucchini) on a whole wheat bun can also be a big seller. Any parent would pay top dollar for a healthy meal supporting a good cause!
When participating in money-earning activities, be sure to reference and follow Girl Scouts River Valleys’ guidelines, and always check state food guidelines for projects involving food. Also, be mindful of families with allergies—properly label food and ingredients (and remember that some facilities are peanut-free).
Check out local organizations with programs like Health Powered Kids and PowerUp for more healthy food ideas and recipes.
Gretchen Witthuhn – Gretchen is a co-leader and cookie mom for eleven Brownies in Hudson, Wisconsin. A librarian by trade, she works in marketing for an educational database company. In addition to spending time with her family, she enjoys running, baking (the second necessitates the first), and is currently pursuing the magical art of decluttering.