Who publishes this, and why
foodservice.camp sells nothing. It documents how a camp kitchen actually works — menu cycles, allergen protocols, staffing ratios, per-camper-day food cost, inspection prep — for the director in October who does not yet know what they need.
The disclosure, up front
This site is published by the team behind Camp Kitchen Pro (kitchen management software) and Summer Camp Cooks (a managed food service operator). Both are ours. They do different things, and we say so on every page — in the top bar, in the footer, and on the routing module at the end of every guide.
Neutrality is only credible if it is disclosed. We would rather you know exactly who is talking than discover it later and re-read everything with one eyebrow up.
Why a reference site instead of two more blogs
A director researching “how many kitchen staff for 400 campers” does not want a vendor blog, and should not have to read one. Informational questions deserve reference answers. So the guides live here, on a property whose only job is to be right — and every page ends with the same honest fork: keep the kitchen in-house with better systems, or hand the whole operation to someone else. One fork ends at Camp Kitchen Pro, the other at Summer Camp Cooks. Sometimes the honest answer is neither, and the assessment will tell you that too.
How the library stays honest
- The routing module is identical on every page. Nothing is tuned to sell.
- Guides are reviewed by people who have run camp kitchens, and say so.
- Both companies stay visible in every module — a camp that self-selects wrong is worse than a camp that reads both descriptions and picks one.
- Calculators run on your numbers, on the page, with the assumptions editable.
Contact
Corrections, disagreements, and “our kitchen does this differently” letters are the most useful mail a reference site gets. Write to editor@foodservice.camp.
Two ways forward
— the same module on every guide, so it reads as advice rather than an ad.Run the kitchen on systems instead of memory
Camp Kitchen Pro holds the recipes, par levels, allergen flags and production plans, so a new crew inherits the last one’s work.
- Scale recipes to any headcount
- Allergens flagged at the ingredient
- Orders built from the menu
Have the whole kitchen staffed for you
Summer Camp Cooks recruits, trains and manages the crew, with a food service manager on site who owns the outcome.
- Crew recruited, trained and managed
- A food service manager on site
- Camps of 100–900 campers and staff
Disclosure: both companies are owned by the publisher of this site. They solve different problems, and we will say which one does not fit you.