Kid Snacks: Chip Wrecks and Surf n' Snakes

For the last three days, I have been the kitchen station leader for our church's vacation bible school. I have to say that the curriculum is really cool. Everything about the program (including the snacks) fits into this year's theme: High Seas Expedition. The support materials for this curriculum provide plans down to the last detail. My "Goodies from the Galley" folder includes excellent instructions, tips, field test logs, pictures, scripts for introducing the snack, a story for how it relates to the scripture, and ingredient worksheets to calculate just how much of every single ingredient and supply will be needed for "X" amount of kids. If you're shopping for VBS curriculum, I'd recommend Group Publishing. The bible stories this week come from the book of Acts. On the first day, the scripture dealt with Peter's escape from prison and we served Peter's Jail Mix (a spin on trail mix). Each element of the jail mix represented part of the story. For example, the Cheerios were the handcuffs, the pretzel sticks were the bars, etc.

Yesterday's scripture dealt with The Apostle Paul's voyage to Rome and the shipwreck that occurred on that voyage. On this day we served Chipwrecks. How clever. Here's an example of the story that goes with the snack, straight from my "Goodies from the Galley" folder: "These little chip dip ships (say that fast 5 times)with their cheese masts hoisted are sailing through the waves of the deep blue sea, but they may be headed for trouble. The Apostle Paul made many journeys on the sea. On one of those journeys the ship carrying Paul ran into a heavy storm-a typhoon-and his ship was tossed high and low in a rough sea. Everyone on board was terrified, except for Paul. As the ship was battered in the wind and waves, Paul reassured his companions that that even though the ship was doomed to go down, the God he served was able to keep all of them safe."

Here is a picture of one of the Chipwrecks.



Each day a group of crews (the children attending VBS are divided into 4 or 5 person crews. Each crew has 1-2 crew leaders) gives up it's Ship Rec Game time to prepare snacks for the entire VBS. This worked out to 5 crews at a time, so we set up 5 tables. Each day after the snack is served, and we've cleaned up the "galley", my awesome kitchen team (two other ladies and 3 teenagers) and I prepare for the next day's snack; setting out needed utensils, counting out plates, cups, and spoons, cutting and chopping ingredients, measuring ahead, etc. When the crews arrive to make the snack for the whole group, assembly runs very smoothly. We run a tight ship in our galley! Here is the kitchen station that we set up for the kids:



Here's a closer look at the ingredients needed for the Chipwrecks. Very simple, just blue corn chips, sliced cheddar, and ranch dressing or dip. This snack was a big hit with the kids!



Today's snack was Surf n' Snakes. Today's story: After the shipwreck we discussed yesterday, Paul has washed up on an island and survived a poisonous snake bite.

The kids did an awesome job making these snacks!



Here's a closer look at the blue jello (the sea), the whipped topping (the frothing seafoam), the vanilla wafer (the island), and the gummy worm (the snake). My daughter couldn't wait for today's snack! I don't make a lot of jello, but blue is her favorite, and topped with whipped topping, a vanilla wafer, and a gummy worm, this was a huge hit!



Have you ever made Jello for 170 kids? Yesterday, the other volunteers and I prepared 48 packets of blue Jello! Holy cow, it was a lot of Jello!

I have to say that I'm glad that I volunteered for this job. Sure, after 4 hours of making and serving snacks, I'm beat and I don't feel a bit like cooking in my home kitchen. Full disclosure: This evening, I served my family Ramen noodles and ice cream for dinner. But it has definitely been fun and rewarding work. I can't wait to show up to all of those smiling faces tomorrow and do it all again.

I hope you're all having a wonderful week! It's off to bed for me. Tomorrow we're making "Forgiveness Clouds". I better rest up!