Kids' School Event

A kid in school is a kid who is likely going to need some form of food or baked goods to bring to school - in bulk - for an event, at least six or seven times a year. Between birthdays, bake sales, canteens, potluck dinners, and lunches for the class trip, moms and dads are kept busy in the kitchen making sweeties and finger foods to stuff down the many hungry kids' gullets, like a mother bird feeding its chicks. Parents' heads are already stuffed with worry over medical problems, money, work, and finding the right kind of fabricated strainers to fit the kitchen drains, so they don't need the extra weight of worrying about making food for school events. And with our helpful tips, they won't have to.

Sugar or No Sugar?

The first thing you need to think about when you're planning on making food for a kids' school event is whether they'll need healthy food or gooey sweets. If the choice was left up to the kids, they'd eat cupcakes three meals a day, but if we're talking about a canteen at a sporting event, muffins and fruit cups are a better choice, as it won't weigh on the kids' stomachs while they exercise. Another reason to forgo sweets might be school or family preference, or perhaps because the event is sponsored by a green company that makes organic baby skincare products.

Keep It Simple

A kids' event isn't the right time to show off your cooking prowess, so put aside your recipes for creme brule and escargot and pick up the ones for blueberry muffins and chocolate chip cookies instead. The goal is to bring something that the kids will want to eat, and which is easy to carry and eat without making a big mess. Cupcakes are a popular staple because they're sweet, portable, and can be customized to any event by using piped icing to decorate with words on the top.

Wrap It Up

If you have a great recipe for squares, a cake, or a casserole that you think the kids would love, don't let the fact that it doesn't come in pre-made chunks deter you. Cake slices can be individually wrapped, casserole can be served in disposable cups, and squares are easy to place in plastic sandwich bags. Even tough sweets like taffy can be separated into servings with, in the toughest cases, hand garden tools, and wrapped in plastic cling film. Wrapping your items also gives kids the option of eating what they buy immediately or later, and keeps the food fresh for longer.

Buy or Bake?

If your chocolate chip cookies end up tasting like they were baked with aquarium gravel, the choice here is a no-brainer. However, if you can bake at home, do. Home baked goods are often tastier and more popular than the store-bought foods everyone is already familiar with. No matter which one you choose, make sure that if your child goes to a peanut free school, you're reading the store packages for allergy alerts and making sure that absolutely no peanuts make it into your home-baked recipe.