Food on camp
Introduction
Three meals a day are included in the camp fee but they will be cooked by all the campers, in small teams on a rota basis. This is a part of the camp experience: everyone is a volunteer and a participant. You can expect to receive a camp menu, with a recipe and clear instructions for each day. There will be plenty of confident cooks around to help if your team gets stuck.
Each village has a kitchen, which will cook for around 100 people. This is led by the KP. Ingredients for your village can be collected from the Town pantry at an agreed time. We are currently seeking KPs and volunteers for Town pantries. International volunteers extremely welcome! Please contact kp@commonground.camp to find out more.
Menu
Since 2018, the central KP team have been working on the camp menu with a stakeholder group, which includes experienced KPs, international participants, very young members and people with expertise in sustainability. There was also a survey questionnaire which allowed participants to input more widely about meal preferences and favourite camp meals. This is what we’ve come up with, we hope you like it!
Voir ci-dessous pour le menu en français / ver abajo para el menu en castellano
A video from the October 2019 menu meeting with the KP team (= people involved in cooking on camp)
Camp food and sustainability
The environmental impact is important to us as a camp – to minimise food waste, plastic waste and the carbon footprint. Please keep a totally open mind – you may end up eating much less meat and more beans and pulses than you would have at home. We all come from completely different food cultures. Some of our participants are used to eating meat daily, and leaving meat out is a big step. So as a compromise, we do offer some meat-substitutes, and meat-like textures. The camp is a great opportunity to learn about and explore sustainable diets and see how we all meet each other half way.
Meal times at camp
9:00 – 9:45 Breakfast, 12:30 – 14:30 Lunch, 18:00 – 19:00 Dinner
Snacks
Many villages will try to keep fruit and dry snacks available between mealtimes. Or some villages will offer leftovers of their lunch or dinner again later in the evening, especially if the group has lots of teenagers with big appetites! Do make best use of the Camp Cafes in your town and across the camp.
Camp Cafes
Some cafes will be set up around the site, so that you can buy a hot drink or a special treat like cake. Why not volunteer as a helper in one of these lovely cafes? Each cafe has a slightly different theme and a different choice of snacks available. There will be more information soon about alcohol rules on site, card payments and the Camp Pub for over 18’s.
Allergies and dietary requirements
The menu has been designed to offer everyone a filling, warm meal including young children and campers who need things like vegan, halal, gluten-free or dairy-free options. Please put the group dietary needs and allergies on the booking system by the end of April 2022 so that we can cater for these. We are happy to make adjustments before 1st May but won’t be able to change the food order after it has been placed.
Selective Eaters at Common Ground
We want mealtimes to be enjoyable for everyone, with balanced and delicious meals on offer for all. We understand that not everyone likes all foods! And for some, being in a catered situation for many days will be a genuine challenge. The way we have tried to resolve this: modular meals. Each village kitchen team is encouraged to separate the parts of the meal. For example pasta, sauce and vegetables may be served separately. It can help some campers, seeing clear ingredients and being able to help themselves to less or more. It is also a good chance to try a mouthful of something new. Many of the meals have one part that’s quite plain: pasta, rice, bread or couscous. If you are a parent or a group leader, please do give detailed information on the booking system on any selective eaters in your group. This may mean going beyond food allergies and also explaining about textures, spices and so on. This information can be valuable for your village KP.
Resources for KPs
Here are some useful resources that may help you prepare and start to think about cooking at camp: