If you’ve got troop that’s always on the go, chances are your girls get pretty hungry, which means you’ll have to prepare snacks quite often. With allergies and picky eaters finding troop snacks that everyone loves can be a little tricky! Here’s a few ways we’ve solved the “great snack debate” in our troop and some great snack options that are troop-tested and leader-approved.
Pin this post for later!
Have Your Girls Bring Ingredients
There have been many studies done that show that when kids make the food themselves, there is higher chance they will eat it. Since food dislikes as a kid are more about control, give your troop the power to choose. Have each girl bring a piece of fruit, let them slice it up, then provide them each with a bowl to make their own fruit salad. Add a dollop of homemade whipped cream or yogurt and you’ve got a quick healthy treat. And remember, encouraging ingredients over processed sugary snacks is always a win!
Make Snack Prep a Meeting Task
From earning badges to just having fun, cooking is a great skill for girls to learn. Challenge the girls to make fun recipes like homemade goldfish crackers at their next troop meeting. Cooking together is a great way to build teamwork skills within your troop as well as teach your girls to follow directions and practice their listening skills.
You can use ideas and recipes featured in badge guides or do a quick search on the internet for easy snack inspiration to discover awesome articles like this Huffington Post, 15 Ideas You Can Make In Under 5 Minutes. Just remember girls want to do things on their own so don’t be afraid to let them dive in and take the lead.
Rotate Snacks
If you like, try assigning each girl a meeting where she’s responsible for bringing snacks. It’s a great way to share the load, but the tricky part comes in helping parents understand that snacks don’t have to be “treats”. We struggled with this early on because each meeting parents brought fancy cupcakes, cookies, or chocolate covered something. Because of this we requested specifics using a “mystery pick” system. When parents signed up for snack, their Girl Scout pulled a pre-written snack card that had a healthy snack on it for them to bring. This not only made snack a surprise but also encourages a healthy snack (rather than having the girls hyped up on sugar).
Hopefully these tips help you find the perfect snack for your girls, but if you’re still not sure what to make, here are 26 of our troops favorite snack ideas:
- Trail Mix (any dry cereal, dried fruit, chocolate chips, or nuts)
- Ants on a Log (traditionally uses celery, peanut butter, and raisins, but there are tons of ways to reinvent this snack!)
- Cream Cheese Fruit Dip and Fruit
- Cheese and Crackers
- PB&J Crackers
- Tortilla Roll Ups
- Seasonal Fruit (we like to serve them with fancy toothpicks)
- String Cheese and Pepperoni
- Pretzels and Cream Cheese
- Popcorn
- Graham Crackers and Milk
- Nutella (on anything!)
- Nilla Wafer Sandwiches (sprinkles are optional)
- Mini Seven Layer Dips
- Biscuits and Jam
- Monster Energy Bites
- Lunch Box Kabobs
- Banana Bites
- S’mores Snack Mix
- Homemade Cereal Bars
- Yogurt and Fruit
- Oat Squares
- Crackers and Cheese
- English Muffin Pizza
- Pretzel Dogs
- Quesadillas and Salsa
What to do next:
- Share your favorite troop meeting snack with us in the comments section!
- Looking for more healthy snack options? Check out our Easy + Healthy Snack Ideas Pinterest board.
Richel Newborg—Richel is a troop leader to Troop 2740 located in Fort Worth, Texas (although she was born and raised in California). Her mom and grandmother were also Girl Scout Leaders. Her favorite memory so far as a troop leader was packing friends, family, and excited girls into her living room (almost 50 people) when their bridging/rededication ceremony was rained out. It was crowded but an awesome celebration of Girl Scouting and they even managed to have a real bridge!
