What Is the Snacks Badge About?

You all are probably tired of reading about my troop and the Snacks badge, but I find the different points of focus that are possible with the same badge to be interesting.   This is the third time I've led a troop through the Snacks badge, and like most intelligent people, I've repeated what worked and found a new option for what did not.  If you click on the Snacks label below you will bring up a list of my past posts on the Snacks badge.

According to Badge Explorer, the requirements for the Snacks badge are:Make great snacks for yourself and your friends.   

• Find out about different types of snacks (the badge insert says "Jump into the world of snacks")
• Make a savory snack 
• Try a sweet snack  
• Snack for energy 
• Slurp a snack    

When you've earned this badge, you'll know how to make yummy snacks for your family and friends.

The badge packet activities for requirement 1 have to do with nutrition, ingredients and food labels and I've never done anything for that requirement that I thought worked really well, so I headed to VTK to see what they are now recommending as I've found the VTK activities for the "learn about" portion of the badges, on average, to be less "school-like" than the badge packets and simple to implement.  In doing so, I reviewed the plans for both meetings for the Snacks badge and realized how different their focus was from mine.  In short, I teach cooking; they teach nutrition.

Let's look at the requirements, the VTK choices, the badge packet choices and my choices.

Find Out About Different Types of Snacks/Jump into the World of Snacks

The badge insert gives three choices:  1) Find out what words like vitamins, fat, carbohydrates and fiber mean and bring a food containing them to a meeting.  2) Draw a fruit or vegetable and tell why it is good for you.  Find out how it travels to your area or 3) Find three packaged snacks and find an ingredient in them that you do not recognize.  Find out what it means.

The VTK plans do not label which activity goes with which requirement.  However, I assumed the first activity met the first requirement.  VTK suggested a relay race in which girls draw a snack from a grocery bag, run to where two bins (one "healthy" and one "not healthy") are located, deposit the snack they drew and then run back and tag a team mate or a game to teach them about how many miles their food travels to get to them.

I was going to do the relay, but ran out of prep time.  Instead, I printed a coloring sheet with the food pyramid and we talked about healthy vs unhealthy snacks.

Make A Savory Snack

The three choices given in the badge packet are funny faces made of fresh vegetables, a savory snack from another country or a home made version of a restaurant snack like potato skins, cheese sticks or fish sticks.

VTK gives you a choice between the funny faces made with vegetables, or having the girls peel and cut vegetables like they were on a camping trip. They also have the girls  making roll ups with tortillas, pizza sauce and cheese, and then the leaders cutting them into pinwheels.  At the end of the first VTK meeting the girls eat all the snacks from this meeting and write down the recipes.  The VTK talking points talk a lot about healthy snacks.

The first time I did this badge, we did the funny faces.  While VTK tells you to start with cut up veggies, I'm into teaching cooking skills, so the girls cut them.  The girls made the funny faces and then, for the most part, threw them away. 

The next time I did the badge we made ants on a log and spiders.  I taught the girls to use a kitchen knife and they all sliced up a rib of celery.  This year I plan to do ants on a log and spiders again, and since it will be our JGL/Halloween meeting, I think they will fit well.

If I was going to do the pizza pinwheels, my girls would be cutting them, not me. 

Try a Sweet Snack

The badge packet choices are a holiday snack, a snack in disguise (one you expect to taste one way but tastes another--like broccoli and cheese pop-tarts) or cookies.  

VTK offers either fruit cabobs, made with pre-cut fruit and marshmallows (marshmallows optional) or a tropical fruit salad that the girls assemble from pre-cut fruit from many places.  The leader points out that sweet doesn't have to mean cookies or candy.  

I have the girls make cake mix cookies, and this is usually our last activity for this badge so we've practiced measuring with the trail mix and the smoothies so they know how to do it.  The recipe I use is two eggs, 1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon of oil and one box of cake mix.  Stir until blended,  Mix in 1 cup of mix-ins such as nuts, chocolate chips, marshmallows, raisins etc.  Roll into 24 balls and put on a cookie sheet.  Bake in 350 degree for 7-10 minutes.  

I put four girls in a group and give out a variety of cake mixes and mix-ins.  They follow the recipe as a group with each girl pouring something in the bowl and everyone getting a turn to stir.  Then everyone makes six cookies.  I have an extra mom around who actually puts them in and out of the oven and keeps an eye on them.  Then she brings them back to  us (we aren't in the kitchen) and the girls take one or two  off the trays with a spatula.  Then we share with the other troops meeting at the same time.

Snack for Energy

The three choices in the badge insert are no-bake energy bars (it says to find a recipe online), create a snack for a group (fruit kebobs are a suggestion) or make a lunchtime snack such as turkey jerky or snack mix.  The insert contains a recipe for Sweet and Salty Nuts.

VTK has the leader talking about energy in and energy out and then the girls make trail mix by taking the ingredients they want from bowls of the ingredient.  

I usually use trail mix for this step.  I create a recipe and tell the girls they need to measure out the ingredients before putting them in their bags, but that they don't have to take anything they don't want.  I go over how 4  1/4 cups makes 1 cup etc.  The girls have to read the recipe, pick the right measuring cup, fill it and put the ingredient in their bag.  I'll admit I don't talk too much about nutrition during this project.  

Slurp a Snack

The badge insert suggests a milk shake, a fruit smoothie or party punch.  It gives recipes for a fruit smoothie and for Make Your Own Cola (requires cooking cloves and molasses for 15 minutes, with an adult's help). 

VTK has the leader using fruit chosen by the girls to make various types of smoothies, which are then sampled by all the girls.  The leader also suggests adding such things as avacado or spinach to the smoothies. The VTK plan also call for creating your own juice drinks by combining various types of juice and seltzer.  

I have the girls make smoothies.  I round up enough blenders to put four girls on each.  I give them a recipe that calls for

1 ripe banana

1 cup plain or vanilla yogurt

2 cups frozen strawberries

1/2 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon of honey 

Each girl measures one of the ingredients and pours it into the blender and then they each get a turn to push the button.  I usually have adults pour the drinks out of the blender.  

My Comments

As I noted, I use the badge to teach cooking skills, not nutrition.  Also, I spread it out over four meetings. I don't think anyone needs more than one snack per meeting.  This year, we did the Potter badge and learned about Juliette Gordon Low during our meetings for the Snacks badge.  Since I have Daisies we also did Respect Myself and Others and learned table setting and how to cut food with a table knife and eat it with a fork--a lot of the Daisies had never used a table knife before.  We just cut up marshmallows using a plastic knife and fork and then ate them with a fork. 

While I use the snack-making process to teach following directions (a recipe), measuring, cuttting and any other skill I can think of, the VTK plans feature pre-cut ingredients and the girls assembling snacks vs combining ingredients into something new.   

While I find the focus on nutrition to be laudable, I see the VTK plans as expensive and likely to end up with a lot of food in the trash--as noted above, I've tried the funny face in the past, using celery, carrots, bell peppers, broccoli and cherry tomatoes and saw most of it go in the trash.  The tropical salad exercise sounds like it would get a lot of "What's that?" and "I don't like it" and really all the girls are doing is moving fruit from a big bowl to a little one.  Again, it sounds like a lot of expensive food hitting the trash.

As far as the leader-made smoothies go, I'd rather have the girls make them.  I get what they are trying to do with using different fruit, or adding veggies, but again I see a lot of excuse for throwing stuff away.

I find the difference between VTK and the badge inserts to be interesting as well.  I've notice when comparing not just Snacks, but other badges as well, that many have learning about the topic as the first requirement and that the badge pack often recommends a guest speaker or field trip or having the girls do school-like research, whereas the VTK plans rarely if ever call for that, but instead have games or leader-directed activities.

I will say that all three troops I've done this badge with have enjoyed it.  How did your troop earn this badge?