Is it time to eat…again?

by Bob Prout

They say an army travels on its stomach and I guess that is pretty much true for camp. For most weeks out of ever year I set my own meal schedule–breakfast is a piece of toast or a bowl of oatmeal eaten at the counter with a newspaper open in front of me; lunch is whatever and whenever it is and served out of a brown paper bag; dinner is usually my creation (I’m highly creative in the kitchen) served at the civilized hour of whenever my spouse comes home from work (usually no earlier than 7)–at camp, meals are a bit more regimented.

The university cafeterias, where we eat nearly all of our meals, are very similar but each has its own…uh…ambience. Depending on which week we are there, our 200+ campers may be sharing the caf with a cheerleading camp, gymnastics camp, football camp and you-name-it-camp which means we get a window of time in which to eat. The cafeteria staffs have been serving summer camps for a long time and know what campers like to eat. The food is usually pretty good if somewhat dull. But the thing that begins to wear on you is the short intervals between meals. Even if you stretch out the interval from the earliest breakfast time to the latest lunchtime, barely 4 hours have gone by and dinner (!) how often do you eat dinner at 5:30? Me, never!

Since all our activities are planned more or less around meal times, it seems like it is always time to eat – even if you only ate an hour ago (or so it seems). But here’s the REALLY insidious thing: you get used to this schedule. If you’re back home during a weekend and 5:30 rolls around with no food on the table, well, lets just say, things can get ugly.

I’d really like to write more on this topic but the fact is, if I don’t make it to the cafeteria in the next 10 minutes, I don’t get lunch…or is it dinner? No matter,