Cookerati

Every fall high school bands go to competitions.  The smaller the band, the earlier you are in the competition, which means the longer you stay until the awards and trophies are announced.  Our band is a smaller one so we usually play around 10 and finish around 3 or 4, sometimes like today much later. The parents of the band are a really good group.  Our funding is a fight, but the parents are so supportive.  Money is tight for the families. A day out at a band competition costs to go in the gate(band members do get in free), plus you pay for programs and then food if you are there all day.  Our band parents pull tables out in the parking lots and feed the band kids after they play.  Last week we had someone compliment us on our idea and asked if we did this for every competition and we answered that we did.

We have:

• carrots, celery and dips.  The kids like those best. 
• plenty of cookies.
• chips – big bags and sometimes smaller individual ones
• Sandwiches – half subs or sloppy joes made in crock pots and dished out on site
• napkins
• bottles of water on ice

One person coordinates with parents to drop off food at the school when the kids are getting ready to leave on the bus. Different people can do each competition. You can even take money donations for parents who don’t have time to shop to help pay for the meat and sandwich ingredients.  The kids have this one meal after they are done playing and have hung up and put away their uniforms and instruments.  Then the rest of the time they are on their own food wise.  The kids are very grateful and thank the parents for doing the work, because they do appreciate it so much.  Today we weren’t the only band pulling out the tables for our band.  If you need to stay all day at a competition, it’s a way to help the kids stave off hunger.

Band Parents Rock!