The most exciting time of day is when the camp comes together in the Dining Hall!
Food

Camp Food

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 Menu

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!

Things to know about our menu

Breakfast

Oatmeal, yogurt, fruit, cold cereal, toast, and hard-boiled eggs are available everyday at breakfast in addition to the main meal.

Lunch

Every day at lunch (except on BBQ days) we offer a salad bar with unlimited quantities of fresh ingredients and an assortment of dressings.

Soup

Homemade soups are offered at lunch and dinner – vegetarian when the main course served is meat. Our soups are never made with MSG.

Dessert

Each day we serve one “sweet” dessert (often freshly baked in the Walden kitchen) and one fruit dessert.

Snacks

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.

Fresh Fruit

At every meal we will encourage campers to grab a fresh fruit from our “Take one to Go” bowls in the dining hall.

Barbeque

There are 3 outdoor BBQs per week, each serving up a different variety of meat, sides, and vegetarian options.

Dietary needs

We are prepared to accommodate special dietary needs or restrictions, including, but not limited to, vegetarian, lactose-free, or Kosher.

Our favourite meals

  • Bagel Scoops
  • BBQ Chicken
  • Bubbie’s Brisket
  • Burritos
  • Butternut Squash Ravioli
  • Chicken Burgers
  • Chicken Cacciatore
  • Chicken Caeser Wraps
  • Chicken Fajitas
  • Chicken Fingers & Fries
  • Chicken Nuggets
  • Chicken Teriyaki
  • Chipotle Chicken
  • Corned Beef
  • Deli Sandwiches
  • Fish & Chips
  • Fish Tacos
  • Greek Chicken Pita
  • Grilled Cheese
  • Hamburger BBQ
  • Hot Dog BBQ
  • Hot Dogs
  • Jacked up Poutine
  • Kraft Dinner
  • Lemon Chicken
  • Mac & Cheese
  • Meatballs
  • Pasta Bake
  • Pizza
  • Pizza Pockets
  • Pogos
  • Pulled Beef
  • Sausages & Pierogis
  • Southern Fried Chicken
  • Spaghetti
  • Stir Fry & Chicken Balls
  • Sweet’ish Meatballs
  • Tacos
  • Tortellini
  • Trip Salami
  • Turkey Dinner
  • Wings

We recommend you practice a new meal at home

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.

Sol Birenbaum

Sol’s tip

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 options

What we promise to our families:

  • Kosher meat* will be available to all campers and staff who request it during the following meals:
  • Friday night dinner: we will have Kosher chicken available
  • Meals that serve deli meats (Subs and Corned Beef): we will have Kosher deli available
  • Hot Dog BBQ: all hot dogs served are kosher!
  • NEW THIS YEAR: Kosher Chicken will be available whenever the main course is chicken!

What you can usually expect from our kitchen:

  • A vegetarian meal that is always available when meat is served
  • Leftover Kosher meats when available from a previous meal
  • Lots of healthy, yummy, and vegetarian choices (salad bar, homemade soup, sandwich bar, cereal and milk)

* 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 Eaters

Do you identify your camper as a “picky eater”? Our approach to picky eating is inspired by the way our Director, Sol (a very picky child) was raised in his family home:

Keep kids active and breathing fresh air in the outdoors.

Swim every day in the summer.

Present a variety of different foods, and, most importantly, not touching each other.

Surround kids with other kids who are less picky.

Counsellors ensure kids choose something to eat, even if it is the same choice every day.

Praise their choice… but not with too big of a deal.

Don’t focus on quantities or on food groups. i.e. Carbs are great!  Protein is great!

 Realize it’s a long game.

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 avoid language like “Solomon is a picky eater” and use “Solomon 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:

At every meal

  • Bread
  • Jam
  • Margarine
  • Cream cheese
  • Wow Butter
  • Cereal: Cheerios, Shreddies, Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes
  • Fruit: apples and oranges

At every breakfast

  • Hard boiled eggs
  • Oatmeal
  • Toast
  • Yogurt and granola
  • Bananas

At every lunch

  • Full Salad bar at lunch with various protein items like chick peas, hard boiled eggs, feta cheese, bean medley, and spinach in our salad mix
  • Homemade soup
  • Fruit: honeydew, cantaloupe, plums, nectarines or pears

At every lunch

  • Full Salad bar at lunch with various protein items like chick peas, hard boiled eggs, feta cheese, bean medley, and spinach in our salad mix
  • Homemade soup
  • Fruit: honeydew, cantaloupe, plums, nectarines or pears

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