What Snacks Do Kids Crave in Summer Camp Care Packages?
Sleepaway camps may feed kids three square meals a day, but what's a hungry growing child to do without their beloved snacks? Even though many programs have strict rules against having outside food in pest-prone cabins, campers find creative ways to sneak their favorite eats in. (Parents, a tip: Start stockpiling those empty toothpaste/soap/tissue boxes now.)
While long-shelf-life snacks like crackers and cereal are preferred (anything that melts or gets moldy is a no-no), hard candy is worth its weight in gold at camp, at least when it comes to trading. Here, nine veteran campers share their memorable snack stories, from the most shareable treats to awful snack disasters to real-life animal snack attacks.
1/9Emma, 14, Queens, N.Y.
You’re not supposed to keep food in the cabins because it attracts pests. I’ve seen campers get packages with a box of toothpaste, but when they opened it up, it was filled with crackers. My parents get me pretzels and different kinds of crackers. I used to love Swedish Fish and gummy bears, but you can’t have any of those with braces and almost everyone has them at this point.
What’s the worst snack you’ve ever gotten? Kit Kats. We had to finish them as quickly as possible because they started melting within an hour of being in the cabin!
What’s the easiest way to sneak food to a camper? Visitors’ day. My parents give me a package with food in it and no one ever checks. They gave me a jar of pickles because I love them and a can of spray cheese. That was interesting to share.
Is there a lot of snack sharing at camp? Definitely. I remember one girl kept getting things in bulk like giant bags of Peppermint Patties or Skittles—she was really popular after that.
2/9Jamie Lynn, 11, Holly Springs, N.C.
I bring all kinds of snacks to camp: cheese crackers and Cheez-Its and cheese Goldfish...
So you like cheese? I like candy, too! When my parents come for visitors’ day, we go to the store and fill a miniature duffel bag with food.
Are there any rules about sharing snacks at camp? Well, it’s a Christian camp, so everything is about helping each other and being nice and showing your love for others. So if you’re going to share a snack, you need to share with everyone.
What if you don’t have enough? Then you can trade with someone or just not share at all. I know, it’s kind of a bizarre rule!
3/9Amelia, 14, New York City
I usually bring some snacks, and then whatever I feel like I’m missing from my life I have my parents send to me. I like to have Kool-Aid because you can just put it in your water bottle for the perfect snack drink. Granola or cereal bars are really great, too. Sometimes we all get into one bunk together with all of our snacks and just pig out.
What kinds of snacks do other campers bring? Boxes of cookies, cereal, and candies like Skittles and Twizzlers. Actually, I have a good Twizzlers story: Last year I asked my dad to send me Twizzlers at camp because I had this brilliant idea that if you bite off both ends it forms a tube that you can use as a straw to drink your cherry soda, which sounded delicious. I told him I wanted the thick ones that are hollow, not the sad ones that do nothing. And of course those are the ones he sent—that was heartbreaking to me! In the future I will have to be more specific in my instructions to him because he obviously can’t handle it.
4/9Daniel, 15, Brooklyn, N.Y.
I usually bring snacks with me to camp since packages take such a long time. My parents also bring me more snacks on visitors’ day. I make lots of requests: Cheez-Its, lots of salty snacks like crackers and the cheese that you spray, Cheetos, lots of cheese!
Do you share your snacks? Definitely. I enjoy sharing. But some other kids like to trade. ____
What’s the craziest snack trade you’ve ever seen at camp? One time, this kid gave someone a whole bag of Jolly Ranchers for three Slim Jims—you know, those spicy beef sticks. My dad and I looked at the ingredients once and there was barely any actual meat in it!
5/9Megan, 17, Fremont, N.Y.
My mom sends me mobile snacks—not chocolate or things that melt easily, because we’re in tents with no refrigeration. Like granola bars, Tootsie Rolls, lollipops, Creme Savers, and Life Savers. But my favorite thing she ever sent was powdered drink mixes. Almost all we got to drink was water out of the outdoor sinks and the mixes made it palatable in larger doses.
Are snacks against the rules at camp? Yeah, but people would sneak them in. My one friend stuffed the leg of a pair of pants with candy and put it in her suitcase and threw clothes over it. It looked really weird.
6/9Sebastian, 9, New York City
My mom’s idea of a snack is fruit leather. My idea of a snack is candy. Last year, I got her to send me candy but it came with underwear and toothbrushes! I trusted my mom to make me this care package and it was a disappointment.
If you could pack your own snack package, what would be in it? Giant individual Kit Kat bars! Just more candy. Candy is the best thing to trade at camp, but I ate all of the Milky Ways my mom sent in like a day.
7/9Blaise, 14, Brooklyn, N.Y.
My parents get me Twizzlers and popcorn and butterscotches and cereal and random stuff we pick up right before we go into camp. They send me packages, too, but I’ll ask for things they won’t give me like soda and they won't pack them.
Does having all these snacks at camp attract any pests? I left the flap on a box of cereal open once and the next day I looked in and it was filled with bugs. It was pretty gross. Even worse: a few years ago my mom bought me a really, really big party pack of potato chips with lots of little individual bags in it. I put them under my bunk and a raccoon came in and dragged it outside and ate them all! We heard it happen in the middle of the night and in the morning we saw the aftermath.
8/9Trevor, 17, St. Petersburg, Florida
Doritos, beef jerky, and pretzels are my snacks. I would love to have peanut butter, but too many kids have allergies so it's not allowed. I also crave brownies, but you can't eat them without lots of crumbs and that's really messy. I hate ants, so I'd rather not eat brownies than have ants.
What’s the coolest snack you’ve been introduced to at camp? There are lots of Europeans kids and sometimes they bring things I've never heard of. The first year I was there I had some French kids in my cabin and their parents kept sending this brown stuff to them. They would smear it on pretzels and eat it. They loved it, but it looked so gross. We all joked they were eating poop. But finally I decided to try it, and it was delicious! It was the first time I'd ever had Nutella, and now I have it all the time.
Have you ever had a total snack fail? The first year I went, my aunt thought it would be good to get me healthy food. So she sent me coconut water, fiber cookies, and a bunch of like, dried dates or something. I opened the package—which was huge because it also had a fan in it—and everyone was crowding around to see what I'd gotten, and like, the whole cabin burst out laughing when I started pulling the stuff out. For like a week everyone called me "Coco" because of that water, too. Thank god they eventually forgot! I couldn't even trade that stuff away—nobody wanted it.
9/9Alex, 14, Ramsey, N.J.
I start getting ready a month ahead. I gather money, and then a couple of days before I leave I go to the store and buy sunflower seeds or any candy I can get my hands on. I like to buy individually wrapped candy like Starbursts or Snickers. They take a while to open, but once you do it feels like getting a prize. There’s just something about it.
Do kids trade snacks at your camp? It depends. Some do, but by the end of the summer everybody gets really antsy. I’ve seen two or three fights start over a Twizzler! Mostly people just share. And the people who don’t share are often shunned—word gets around pretty quick.
Do your parents send you care packages, too? Yeah, but they’re not beefy enough with the amount of snacks that should be in there. Like they’ll send packs of sunflower seeds, but they’re the really small ones that look like tubes. Those only last like half a day!
