Buying Food for Your Patrol

Attention Grubmasters:  Managing the food-buying task for your patrol is a very important job!

Your patrol members are going to be hungry and unhappy if you don’t buy enough food and leftover food is often wasted if you buy too much.  A Scout is Thrifty is an important Scout Law to remember.  You must keep track of which patrol members are going and if they have paid their money. Knowing your budget, planning your meals, and managing your funds are a big part of being successful in this leadership task.

Plan the menu with your patrol

Get a firm count of how many patrol members are going at the outing prep meeting. If you have 10 patrol members and 7 have said they are going, your budget is $140, not $200. Once you know the number going camping, use the Menu Planner and plan to buy only as much food as your patrol will need.  Buying too much food will cost your patrol extra money and is often wasteful.  Stay within your budget.

Save all your receipts

Place them in an envelope labeled with your name and Patrol, and the total cost of the food, ice and supplies. Buying food for the patrol is supposed to be a break-even proposition. As Grubmaster, it is your responsibility to stay within your food budget.  Spending beyond your budget must be approved by your patrol members.

Packing the food

Do you like squished bread for sandwiches?  Pack the food in ways to protect it in the coolers and totes so it can be safely transported to the campsite.  If needed, the troop will provide a cooler and food tote for the Grubmaster

Remove excess wrappings to reduce weight and trash at the campsite. Zip-lock type plastic bags are an excellent choice.  Instead of purchasing bagged ice, fill one or more clean one-gallon jugs ¾ full of water and freeze several days before departing. Remember to keep the jug’s cap off during the freezing process. By having frozen water jug(s), you can avoid melting ice making your patrol’s food in the cooler all soggy and, if need, you’ll have another source of cold drinking water

At-home preparation will also make cooking at camp easier and quicker.

• Scrambled eggs? Scramble the raw eggs at home and placed in a tightly sealed container.
• Diced meats and veggies (chicken, carrots, celery)?  Wash and dice at home and put in separate zip bags.
• Bacon, ground burger or sausage?  Pre-cook at home. Works great and eliminates grease to make clean-up easier.

It is easier to prepare meals inside in a nice warm kitchen with running water than outside in a barren cold campsite with pouring rain!

During the campout

Patrol leaders – if your Grubmaster will be preparing any food at home, prior to the campout, be sure to remember this effort when planning the duty roster for the weekend.

After the campout

The Scout who bought the food is responsible for removing all food from the food totes and coolers and disposing of it.  Spoiled or ruined food is thrown out.  Food that is okay should be offered to be split among the patrol members.

The Parent’s role

Parental advice, input, and transportation are important to the Grubmaster’s success.  The Grubmaster is the Scout.  He is expected to plan and purchase for the outing.  This means that the Grubmaster goes to the store, not just the parent(s).  Parental advice about nutrition and price comparison at the store is important. 

Note: There are several tips for parents on the back of the Menu Planner to help you during your shopping trip. Tips for parents include:

• Let your scout do the shopping.  While it’s okay to give your scout a ride to the store (and a little free advice), the scout needs to choose the food and make the decisions.
• Follow the patrol’s plan.  At least five days before the campout, the patrol is supposed to develop a menu and shopping list for your scout to use.  Our menu planner worksheet helps facilitate the planning process.
• Make sure you know how many people to shop for. Again, our menu planner worksheet should list a firm head-count for the patrol members attending the outing.
• Shop early. Part of the logic behind the five-day-out policy is that it gives you several weeknights on which to shop.  You shouldn’t have to shop the day of the campout.
• On the day of departure, you may pack your cold items in a personal cooler for the weekend or your scout may borrow one of the troops coolers.  Dry goods are best packed in a tote or box to avoid items getting damaged during transport to the camp site.
• For ice, it is recommended to fill a gallon water jug ¾ full of fresh, clean water and freeze it.  For best results start the freezing process several days prior to the campout.  During really hot months, multiple frozen jugs may be necessary. Avoid bagged & loose ice. They end-up making the cooler a soggy mess by the end of the weekend.
• Plan to spend between $15 to $20 per scout for a weekend campout. That includes a Friday cracker barrel, three meals on Saturday, and breakfast on Sunday. For longer or shorter trips, adjust accordingly.
• Don’t overbuy items like milk, fruit, and vegetables.  While we all want our scouts to eat right – and we strongly encourage them to plan balanced menus – the fact is that we end up throwing away a lot of healthy stuff on Sunday.
• Don’t buy things we already have. Your scout’s patrol should have checked supplies in the scout trailer before going shopping; we usually have items left over from previous campouts that can be reused.
• Control costs. You can do this by purchasing store brands, avoiding individually-packaged items, and picking raw ingredients over prepared foods.
• Turn in your receipts when you drop off the food. The sooner we get your receipts, the sooner we can reimburse you and close out the event budget.
• Don’t worry. Since the BSA was founded in 1910, there have been absolutely no recorded cases of scouts starving to death on a weekend campout.