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How-To Hold a Themed Dinner Meeting PDF Print E-mail

Theme dinners can be held during team meetings whenever the Scouts choose, but they generally hold a theme dinner every 4-6 weeks.  Options and suggestions can be found in the Themed Dinners document.  

Family Participation

 

Multiple generations and extended families also participate.  Our Scouts and their families spend time together naturally in a comfortable way because everyone comes to the dinner.  Everyone has to eat – we help bring balance to families by combining activities and allowing families to spend to time together and with other families.  Shared experiences allow families to communicate easily; since everyone is taking part in the dinner, everyone will have something in common to contribute to the discussion.  If a Scout has a family who cannot attend, that Scout is included in the circle of another family who comes regularly.food on the table

 

Families can also participate in making the dishes.  Scouts can acquire knowledge from parents about how to make a certain dish and little details a future cook could not learn any other way, such as being reminded to butter a dish or that a drop of oil keeps water from boiling over.

 

Acquired Skills

 

It is important, no matter where the food is prepared, that the Scouts do the cooking. Parental help is great, but we want our Scouts to learn by doing, rather than for parents to make the entire dish themselves.  Our Scouts learn to cook, serve meals, set the table, read a recipe, follow a budget, and learn how to organize the creation of a meal.  It does not matter if the dish comes out perfect; it matters that our Scouts are having FUN, learning, and building life long memories.

 

Our Scouts acquire skills by learning to cook, and also from the camaraderie, the successes and failures, and the process which is part of preparing the meal.

 

Where Dinner Is Made

 

If there is a kitchen with a stove on the premises of where the meeting is held, preferably dinner should be cooked on site. This would of course require Scouts to come early with their ingredients.  If this is not an option, Scouts can each cook a dish at home and bring it to the meeting.  The important part is that everyone sits down and eats together.  Who knows the next time families and their Scouts will get the chance to sit down together to a meal.  We would prefer that dishes be cooked by Scouts, but purchasing the food already made is an acceptable option.  Again, the most important part of the dinner is sitting down together, having FUN and building memories.

 

Who Brings Which Items

 

The Team Leader should delegate to Scouts responsibility for bringing the ingredients for a certain dish, or the dish itself, to the meeting.  It does not matter who brings what, only that all the ingredients get to the meeting location.

 

The Team Leaders should also delegate bringing supplies and decorations like plates and streamers, etc.

 

Dress-Up

                                                        

Scouts dress up as characters to go along with the theme of dinner, such as cowboys and cowgirls, senoritas and Charros, Medieval knights, or their favorite athletes.  boy dressed as pirateParents, multiple generations, and extended family members are welcome to dress up as well. 

 

Clean-Up

  

We prefer our Scouts to perform the clean up as well.  All Scouts participate in the clean up, though they can take turns doing certain parts of the clean up such as washing dishes and clearing the table.  Scouts should be certain that family dishes are returned to the families who brought them.

 
Adventure Scouts USA