What comes to your mind when you think of camp food? Maybe you think of scrambled eggs. Perhaps those scrambled eggs resemble a half goat-eaten rubber glove normally used in dishwashing. When it comes to camp food, no matter what you think of, or where you are, good nutritious food is important.

What does good food have to do with camp, and life itself, anyway? Without the kind of quality food your body needs, you can’t live to the fullest.

What is quality food? What do you consider quality food? Perhaps you consider it to be canned food or maybe microwave dinners. I think it is healthy, nutritious, organic food.

Quality food should give you energy. Combined with the right lifestyle and healthy habits, you should be able to be drop-dead tired from exercise, yet still have fun.

To understand the time and effort put into the preparation of our food at AYC, you must first understand the extreme, vigorous physical activity we at AYC engaged in daily. Some of the more strenuous activities included a 13-mile canoe trip, whitewater rafting through Class III and IV rapids, and much more. Without the five-star gourmet meals we ate at AYC, our bodies would have been unable to put up with so much fun and excitement.

The camp’s head cook, Mr. Richard Easthom, detailed the time, effort and preparation that went into his job at AYC 2009. “Sometimes the kitchen staff is up before 5:00 a.m. planning out the day so we can make sure that you’re well fed.”

As for the preparation, Mr. Easthom said, “When we’re done planning breakfast, we plan lunch. When that’s done, we plan dinner. Then we plan the next breakfast, and so on.”

The preparation required for the quality food served at AYC and the willingness to serve in such a time-consuming way was truly incredible. We were all appreciative of the kitchen staff’s unending service to others—especially me! When it comes to living life to the fullest, food is one area where I like to enjoy life.

I’ve been to several other camps before, but the food at AYC was far superior. For example, breakfast at AYC might consist of freshly scrambled eggs, warm buttered whole wheat toast and freshly grated hash browns with a sliced apple on the side. At another camp, the scrambled eggs might be like rubber powder mix with three-step instructions such as: “Add water, stir and heat up.” The toast was like roof shingles with butter, and if there had been hash browns, I’m sure they would have been made with a powdered mix as well.

Lunches at AYC were fresh and warm. You might get beef hotdogs or maybe sloppy joes.

Dinners were the same. They were fresh, warm, tasteful and filling. They might consist of chicken-pot-pie baked to perfection or a tuna casserole that got better with every bite. In all truth, there’s no comparison at all between AYC’s food and that of other places you might have been to around the world.

The kind of food we were fed at camp gave us the benefits of a lifetime. We were able to do crazy things like a 13-mile canoe trip, a whole day of volleyball with loads of swimming afterward, and much more. We were able to be dead tired, and still have energy to play, run, think clearly, and live life to the fullest.