urban children's ministry -- feeding ideas

[Teresa Hope]

Our church has a ministry to about 40 urban children, by this I mean living in poverty for the most part, kids of color, single parent homes. We've made many mistakes so far, but we are revamping. In an effort to be supportive of this ministry but not have to teach more children than I already do, I am offering to provide a mid-evening snack as part of our Wednesday night program for them. My culinary-minded son will help. I need ideas for nutritious snacks -- easy and quick to prepare.

 

An aside...I know peanut allergies are an issue -- does this preclude any nuts? They are such a good source of protein and Costco sells them in convenient sizes.

 

I'd love any and all ideas.

 

Teresa

[Old Dominion Heather]

How about cheese and raisins, carrot sticks, oatmeal cookies, or banana halves? I'll try to think of some more.

[Desert Rat]

I would say stay away from any nuts, just as a precaution. I'm thinking of liability concerns. I work for a food pantry and we are very careful to have people sign waivers before taking peanut butter or walnuts.

I think applesauce cups, boxes of dried fruit-raisins, craisins, etc., cheese sticks, and crackers are good. If you have refrigeration available- small sandwiches, yogurts and single serving milk is good, too.

HTH

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

I would do a variety of choices and let the kids choose! I would have cheese chunks, nuts, dried fruit, you know, that sort of thing for them to choose from!

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

If you have refrigeration available- small sandwiches, yogurts and single serving milk is good, too.

HTH

 

 

:iagree:

[NanceXToo]

fruit smoothies, fruit or veggie trays with yogurt or ranch dip, fruit and yogurt parfait, cheese and crackers (maybe like wheat thins or something), slices of a whole wheat bread with some sort of spread (maybe apple butter or something, or cream cheese), granola bars, oatmeal cookies, applesauce, frozen yogurt or fresh juice ice pops, rice cakes, whole grain goldfish or graham crackers

[Harriet Vane]

When I am feeding a million kids I have found that homemade whole wheat bread-and-butter is great. This has gone well with every crowd in every demographic. I don't know if you're up for the baking though.

 

If you do like baking, another thing to consider would be cornbread (make it on the sweet side for this crowd).

 

I have lived in a disadvantaged neighborhood in the city for thirteen years. I have volunteered in poor inner-city neighborhoods for closer to twenty years. As a warning, often the kids are so normalized to high salt, high sugar, packaged stuff that they will turn up their noses at fruit or boxes of raisins. Many youth pastors in these settings give up that fight and just have bags of chips available. When I serve fruit, I have to make it "special" fruit, like watermelon. Ordinary apples they usually won't eat, but bananas or grape or melon might get some takers.

 

They usually like granola bars.

 

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

[Anne in CA]

I agree with Strider that low income kids eat way more processed foods and often won't eat fruit without dip, although yogurt dip can make strawberries and banannas and apples much more fun.

 

Mixes made from cereals are huge hits here. Home made granola can be sooo delicious. Allrecipes has some wonderful recipes for homemade granola bars that are quick to make and DELICIOUS. Have fun, these kids are a real blessing when you can get past some issues.

[LibrarianMom]

Our church also has a similar ministry. We found the kids could not get enough fresh fruits and vegetables. I found that offering a variety of options and repeating the fruits week after week to get them used to it was great. Grapes, bananas, oranges, apples were all a hit. Carrots were huge too. One day we did grilled cheese and the kids thought it was great. Good luck!

[ElizabethB]

Popcorn!

[Dobela]

Our church also has a similar ministry. We found the kids could not get enough fresh fruits and vegetables. I found that offering a variety of options and repeating the fruits week after week to get them used to it was great. Grapes, bananas, oranges, apples were all a hit. Carrots were huge too. One day we did grilled cheese and the kids thought it was great. Good luck!

I live in a very poor neighborhood and end up feeding lots of kids some days. Many do eat lots of processed foods simply because they are cheap and easy for parents (and kids) to prepare. But I have never had kids turn down fruits and veggies, especially if there is some dip or variety of dips to chose from. Some fruits and veggies they may not be accustomed to raw, but if that is all that is offered believe me they will eat it and most likely learn to love it. I would often set out bowls of popcorn, raisins, carrot sticks, pickles, and fruit cut in small pieces. None of it ever came back in.

 

Unless you want to provide a meal and get them expecting a meal, you will want to keep this as snack foody as possible for simplicity on you.

[Teresa Hope]

Thanks to all your ideas! I so appreciate your wisdom. I'm not really much of a cook - foodie, so I wanted to ask people who were...also, we have some at our church who try to overcomplicate things IMHO, and I'm more on the side of keeping things simple. We tried to doing full meals for a while, it required so much help from our small congregation.

 

Again, thanks for your help,

 

Teresa

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Our church has a ministry to about 40 urban children, by this I mean living in poverty for the most part, kids of color, single parent homes. We've made many mistakes so far, but we are revamping. In an effort to be supportive of this ministry but not have to teach more children than I already do, I am offering to provide a mid-evening snack as part of our Wednesday night program for them. My culinary-minded son will help. I need ideas for nutritious snacks -- easy and quick to prepare.

 

An aside...I know peanut allergies are an issue -- does this preclude any nuts? They are such a good source of protein and Costco sells them in convenient sizes.

 

I'd love any and all ideas.

 

Teresa

Kids with peanut allergies should avoid nuts since they are often cross contaminated so, yes, I would avoid nuts and peanuts IMHO.