The most exciting time of day is when the camp comes together in the Dining Hall!
Meal times are more than just a chance to fill up. It’s a time for the entire camp to be together in our beautiful dining hall.
Campers eat with their cabin groups, but get to visit friends from other cabins, while enjoying songs and announcements. It’s a social event that happens 3 times a day. Meals are served family-style. Platters are passed around the table allowing campers to choose what they want to eat. It’s an opportunity to try new things and enjoy old favourites.
Our kitchen staff work hard to prepare healthy and balanced meals that fuel our campers and staff for their active camp day. We aspire to make camp food “food that’s food” so our menu is thoughtfully created to include a variety of meals and lots of choices to ensure everyone can find something they love to eat. We love food at Walden!
Oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, cold cereal, toast, and hard-boiled eggs are available everyday at breakfast in addition to the main meal.
Every day at lunch (except on BBQ days) we offer a salad bar with unlimited quantities of fresh ingredients and an assortment of dressings.
Homemade soups are offered at lunch and dinner – vegetarian when the main course served is meat. Our soups are never made with MSG.
Each day we serve one “sweet” dessert (often freshly baked in the Walden kitchen) and one fruit dessert.
A healthy snack is available at our tuck shop for anyone that wants a piece of fruit and/or cheese, crackers and other “grab ‘n go” bites to tide them over until dinner.
At every meal we will encourage campers to grab a fresh fruit from our “Take one to Go” bowls in the dining hall.
There are 3 outdoor BBQs per week, each serving up a different variety of meat, sides, and vegetarian options.
We are prepared to accommodate special dietary needs or restrictions, including, but not limited to, vegetarian, lactose-free, or Kosher.
Our chefs are always preparing new and healthy alternatives to our vegetarian menu. We encourage families to prepare new meals at home before camp starts for campers to try. This allows campers to be more open to different food options, varieties, and have the confidence to try something new at Walden.
“Please know that Camp Walden is a nut-aware camp, and does not serve any food containing peanut products. Read more about what this means and how we maintain camp as a safe space for campers with allergies.”
* Kosher meat is meat that has been purchased with a Hechsher but please note that it is prepared in our regular kitchen. Every effort is made to keep things separate (i.e. chicken is cooked in an oven on a cookie sheet covered with tin foil or parchment paper) but it would not meet the standard of Kashruth that Kosher restaurants are required to meet.
Picky eating in children is an evolution-selected-for adaptive trait, prevalent and most helpful to young children.
Having said that, most picky eating children have the potential to grow out of their picky eating behaviours.
Said more simply: Picky eating protects us!
Our approach to picky eating is inspired by the way our Director, Sol (a very picky child) was raised in his family home:
Keep Sol active and breathing fresh air in the outdoors.
Swim Sol every day in the summer.
Present a variety of different foods to Sol, and, most importantly, not touching each other.
Surround Sol with other kids who are less picky.
Ensure Sol chooses something to eat, even if it is the same choice every day.
Praise Sol’s choice… but not with too big of a deal.
Don’t focus on quantities or on food groups with Sol. i.e. Carbs are great! Protein is great!
Realize it’s a long game for Sol… The goal is for Sol to become an adult who fuels his life healthily.
We have seen time and time again that even the pickiest of campers are more likely to try food at camp than at home. So we don’t give campers a permanent diagnosis, rather we talk about picky eating as a natural developmental stage. We don’t say “Sol is a picky eater.” We say “Like many kids, Sol has been a picky eater… but maybe he will try a new food this summer.”
In addition to the meal itself and the sides it is served with, here is a list of items that we also provide for our campers:
In some cases, there are sometimes even more options we can present including:
We are sorry, we will not prepare special hot meals, chicken fingers, or provide boiling water for cup-a-soup or mac-and-cheese cups.
“Hi, My name is Bethany, I was always a super picky eater and still am today! When I first came to camp, I was nervous, because I didn’t know if I would like the food or even find something to eat.
When I first arrived at camp, I was a little overwhelmed with the amount of food choices at meal times – there is so much food all around me at camp! And I didn’t know what I would like. At home, I never ate most of the foods that were offered at camp, so I thought to myself I never want to try any of it and was stubborn about it. Eventually, everyone around me was talking about how good the meal was. I was hungry and on one particular moment, I just thought “why not try it?” – my curiosity got the better of me. What is the worst that could happen – I don’t enjoy it? That’s fine. I tried meatballs, and they were disgusting, I thought to myself I am never eating that again! But that didn’t put me off trying other things.
My mindset changed to you know what, why not try at camp?! It’s there on the table, and I don’t have to fill my plate at first, I can take a little piece and if I like it, great! Get more, and if I don’t, then that’s okay. There is something else I can eat. So the next day, there was mac and cheese. I tried it… and you know what, I kind of liked it! Maybe not as much as my friend, but it’s okay.
Over the course of my time at Walden (11 summers!!), I have come to try a whole bunch of foods at least once *… and I have actually grown to like some of those things (while still hating a bunch of others!) **
* Foods I’ve tried at Walden: Meatloaf, Meat sauce, Pizza, Mac and Cheese, Pasta Bake, Blueberries, Cherry Tomatoes, Lettuce, Bell Peppers, Banana, Squash, Broccoli, Chickpeas, Olives, Brisket, Breaded fish, Chicken on the bone, Challah, Tuna, Mayonnaise, Grilled cheese, Meatballs, Carrot cake, Cheesecake, Sushi, Bruschetta, Tofu, Tomato soup, Vegetable soup, Beef barley soup, Chicken soup, Tortellini, Ravioli,Tomato pasta sauce.
** I still avoid most of the foods I tried, but I now eat and enjoy: Pizza, Challah (the best new discovery!), Chicken on the bone, Mac and cheese, Pasta bake, Lettuce, Banana, Bell Peppers, Breaded fish, Cheesecake, Tofu, Tomato soup, and Tomato pasta sauce“
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