When I went to overnight camp, we weren’t supposed to bring any food from home. Instead, we got to visit “canteen” once a week, where we could select two treats. I always selected one half-melted chocolate thing and a purple ICEE.
Of course, that single weekly visit was never enough, and we wrote whiny letters home begging our parents to send us food.
Once, my mother sent me a package filled with all kinds of goodies. Sadly, none of that delicious contraband made it beyond the office, as someone in there figured out that the lumpy Cookie Monster stuffed animal had been unstuffed and filled with all kinds of junk food.
That sucked.
In less than 3 weeks, my 13-year-old son will head off to overnight camp.
For seven weeks.
TechSupport’s camp allows him to bring in food — so long as it’s kosher. This is always a bit of a conundrum as it’s difficult to find kosher snacks that are healthy, tasty, reasonably priced, and don’t require refrigeration.
But this year, I’ve got it figured out.
*insert happy dance*
The good folks at GoGoSqueeZ have nine flavors of applesauce that can be easily put into kids’ overnight trunks — and they don’t even have to be refrigerated.
Not only is GoGoSqueez kosher, but it’s also all-natural, gluten-free, wheat-free, and vegan-friendly. It doesn’t contain any yucky stuff like high fructose corn syrup or added colors or flavors.
Listen, I know my kid is going to eat his fill of s’mores at camp.
Like every night, probably.
But I also know he loves GoGoSqueez cinnamon-applesauce.
So I’m stoked about sending him off with something homegrown that comes from a company that uses the best ecological practices to grow and harvest their fruit.
Good snacks are like currency at camp, so the kids in my son’s bunk are in for a treat if they want to trade.
And guess what?
Y’all are in for a treat too because the folks at GoGoSqueeZ are offering one lucky winner* a chance to try their 9-flavor sampler.
Your kids don’t have to settle for plain ole apple.
Oh no.
You can see which flavor your children like best: appleapple, applegrape, applecherry, apple-banana, applepeach, applemango, applecinnamon, applestrawberry and appleberry!
If you sign up for the GoGoSqueeZ newsletter and place your order online, you’ll receive 10% off your entire order.
I bought the 20-pouch sampler.
I figure that should hold my kid.
For about 3 weeks.
Oy.
What do you have to do to win?
1. Leave me a comment telling me the kind of snacks you remember eating during the summer.
If you went to overnight camp, which one did you attend? Did you have a canteen to raid? If you didn’t go to overnight camp, why the heck not do you ever wish you did? What other kosher snacks can I send to camp with my kid? Oh, and no, they can’t use hot pots.
2. For an extra chance to win, tweet MY POST:
Need help regarding what to say? Copy & paste this and make sure your handle is on the tweet!
Enter to win a 9-pouch sampler from @GoGoSqueeZ via @rasjacobson! http://wp.me/pViQq-3ZH #giveaway
tweet me @rasjacobson
*LEGAL STUFF: I received a 9-pouch sampler from GoGoSqueez for TechSupport to try. He still loves apple-cinnamon the best. Big surprise. As you know, I only do reviews when I really LOVE the products. Y’all, you can make appletinis with this stuff. And cook with it. What’s not to love?
*NOTE: Comments will be closed on 6/13 and one winner will be announced on this page on 6/14, so be sure to check back. If I don’t hear back from the winner within 24 hours, Random Number Generator will select a new winner. My apologies, but you have to have a US shipping address to be eligible to win.
NOTE: The winner of the GoGoSqueeZ giveaway is Brown Road Chronicles! Congratulations Steve! Send me your mailing address within the next 48 hours!
Flav-r-ice Popsicles especially the purple ones that make you cough.
Summer camp is not a thing in central PA. I hardly knew anyone who went to sleep away camp. Mostly it’s family trips to the beach and maybe some day camps.
I did do a geeky science camp at one of the area colleges during high school, but we stayed in dorms and put fruit flies in parafin.
Hi Duffy! I love that you put fruit flies in paraffin! I’m sure that your mother cherished that project and used it as a centerpiece each Thanksgiving.
We love Go-Go Squeeze! I did not attend camp as a child, but worked at a day camp throughout college and into adulthood when I was the director of camp. What a fabulous experience it is for children! I know for sure that my kids will attend camp once they are old enough.
You were the director of a summer camp? Wow. What an enormous responsibility that is! You must have been very ready to have children. Either that or terrified. 🙂
A little bit of both! It helped that I was able to send the kids home at the end of the day. 😉
Summer camp: YMCA Indian Guides at Possum Kingdom Lake, TX. Dad was Big Owl, me Little Owl. As true respectable Native Americans, Karankawa tribe, no Euro-American foods allowed! We hunted or fished for our meals….when we weren’t in their cafeteria. So does fresh sushi or deer, rabbit, squirrel, etc, count? 😉
Did you really eat squirrel? And if so, did it taste like chicken? My brother was an Indian Guide, briefly. I remember his fringed vest. I wanted that thing sooooo badly!
No squirrel; the only way they seemed to get killed is by running out into the streets & highways, totally indecisive as to WHICH way they wanna run, & then get run-over anyway. So no road-kills for me. I do have cousins that hunt & eat it every so often — true story.
Hmm, so you wanted to be Pocahontas, huh? We would’ve “raided” your village if you were near us. 😉
I went to summer camp. It was Camp Nazareth, a CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) summer overnight camp in the Adironadacks. We got to go to the canteen every night after dinner. I always went for the Fudgsicles. I loved those things. At home for a snack, I loved going to my grandmother’s house where she bought bing cherries from the Vegetable Man and let me snack on them all I wanted. I also snacked on red raspberries when we went to pick them at my Aunt Anna’s. I would pick some and eat some. That was heaven.
Maire: There used to be a fruit stand near my summer camp, and we would walk up the hot, dusty road to get fresh cherries and plums and blueberries and raspberries — not to mention the pies and tarts all homemade by Amish women. Sadly, that stand is gone. It was one of the highlights of my summer, walking to that fruitstand, so I know what you mean when you say “that was heaven.” I can taste it.
When I was a child, my mom introduced me to salting slices of cantaloupe. I also remember eating cream cheese and grape jelly on Wonder bread. When I was a teenager, every time I passed this one apple tree, I would pluck one and literally eat the whole, sour, green fruit — minus the seeds and stem.
Why don’t kids eat cream cheese and jelly sandwiches anymore? Weird. I used to love those. I think if you add salt to the melon it makes it more sweet. Or something.
Ooh, I love putting cream cheese and cranberry pepper jelly on crackers. Yummy! I always wondered about those little spouts, Renee. Made me think they were for little kids, so that they don’t choke on stuff or have to use a utensil. Do you have to drink the applesauce?
Kathy: GoGoSqueeZ is definitely made for kids — and I’ve looked everywhere for the recipe but I can’t find it, so you’ll have to trust me when I say that at Blissdom, they made appletinis out of these things. Definitely not for kiddies. I had to ask for a non-alcoholic one.
My kids love those things. Pretty sure regular or strawberry is their favorite. I didn’t even know that HAD mango flavored!! Neato.
I went to sleep away camp for 2 summers as a tween and we were able to bring food. I brought a huge foot locker (pink of course) full of stuff and shared with everyone. For some reason I was pretty popular. Didn’t stop me from stuffing my face with smores, thought! 🙂
Misty: The girl with the good snacks is always the most popular girl. You were one smart cookie. 😉
I went to a camp in fourth grade and got into a wrestling match with a 16 year old horse who chased me into a tree and claimed victory. I don’t remember much else except I dislike bug juice and was pretty sharp with a rifle. My kids would suck these things down all day long! I don’t know what the hell kosher is, so no help on that front!
Dono: You didn’t like bug juice? What’s not to like? It’s sugar and artificial flavoring. I think I brushed my teeth with it. 😉
I never went to camp as a kid. No one did where I lived, with the exception of boy scouts, but I DID go to church camp as a counselor when my daughter was younger. The first night, around 2 a.m., I stepped out of the (un-airconditioned) cabin to go to the bathroom, looked up at the moon and stars, and fell off the porch, landing hard on my left knee and my right hand. Fortunately, I didn’t wet myself when I fell.
Our summer treat was Kool-aid icecubes, made in an aluminum ice cube tray with a lever in the middle for loosening the cubes. My mom would put them in a small glass (that was a gas station giveaway with fill-up), and we would sit and chip bits of ice with a spoon. That was living!
Dyanne! My grandmother had those aluminum ice cube trays! Kool-Aid ice cubes sound like a perfect summer treat!
My least healthy snack growing up was Wonder Bread topped with a hefty layer of butter and sugar. Healthier snacks included crisp apples from the backyard tree, string cheese from the farmer’s market and tomatoes—well, I topped the tomatoes with sugar. But, still healthy-ish! 😉
So noahluv up there is salting her cantaloupe and you’re sugaring you’re tomatoes! Soooo funny. Wonder Bread with butter and sugar, huh? I can’t even imagine you putting that in your body! 😉
I ate a lot of Ice Pops when I was a kid. I also loved Fruit RollUps. Oh, who am I kidding? I still eat a lot of Ice Pops and Fruit RollUps.
There was one summer that I spent two weeks at Girl Scout camp. It was mostly awful, and I never felt the need to repeat the experience.
I went to a Girl Scout Camp for two weeks for one summer. I have two words: stinky latrines. My parents sent me to a REAL camp the next year, and I stayed there for the next bazillion years. It’s the same camp where my son goes now! 🙂
Dreamsicle … The goodness of orange Popsicle and ice cream epitomizes summer to me yum! My son loves GoGo Squeezes. Whoever invented them is a genius!
You like orange Popsicles? You could be my best friend. I think they taste like baby aspirin, so I always give those away. I like the grape ones best. We could totally kill a pack of popsicles. Who would eat our cherries? Oooh, that sounds naughty. 😉
hahaha — I even love orange slurpees. It’s not always a standard flavor but if I find a 7-11 with orange going … oh, man … it’s on! I’m in there every day.
I would totally trade you.
Gummi bears and Swedish Fish (red only thank you very much) were summer snacks only available at camp. I remember going around and pillaging trash cans all over camp for cans to redeem. The great thing about going to camp year after year is getting to know the staff. There was this great guy Tattoo (his real name is Todd) who i had gotten to know over the years. He was the coolest guy in the TeePee (read: snack shop). He once gave me 5 HANDFULS of gummi bears for one cherry coke can. I believe he actually gave me 142 rather than the 5 I should have received. Sugar high? What’s that?
Great story, Eric! No wonder you remember Tattoo. That guy was very, very good to you. I mean, he gave you FIVE HANDFULS of gummi bears. Whatta guy!
Well, I’m felling distinctly foreign, being a Brit and all. Haven’t heard of ANY of those treats. Pontefract cakes anyone?
Hahahahaha! Margaret, you always ground me and remind me of my very international readership. I do apologize. I wish I could send you some GoGoSqeeZ. They are very yummy, and the packaging is recyclable. Really good product!
‘feeling’, even.
Last summer Slick went to Nicaragua for a mission trip. The organization prepared their breakfast and evening meals, but they were on their own at the work site for lunch. They were told to bring a jar of peanut butter and ziploc bags, and they would bring two peanut butter sandwiches a day to the site. But Slick can’t do peanut… Their back-up plan was cheese. Slick can’t do dairy… So the boy survived on beef jerky and dried fruit snacks.
It was only for a week. He survived. But some applesauce would have probably been a welcome treat!
Beef jerky and dried fruit snacks. For a week. That’s rough, and yet somehow I’m guessing the deprivation helped deepen his experience. Hard to hear as a mama, I’m guessing.
Cool, my kids eat those all the time. We buy them from one of the fund raisers that the school participates in. As far as summer snacks… honestly, lots of junk food, Hostess stuff, ice cream sandwiches and ice cream bars and those awesome tubes of sugar water that you freeze into Popsicles, that you can buy a box of a zillion for almost nothing.
Gotta love that cheap sugar water junk. I keep a bazillion of them in my freezer for the neighbors’ kids. The good stuff lives inside the house. 😉
I’ve always wondered if those things were pretty good. Glad to hear they are! Had I known this back in the day, I would’ve totally sent it to Afghanistan in my best friend’s care package.
These would be so great to send to a soldier or anyone abroad as they don’t require refrigeration. Portions would be a little small, but I’m sure folks would appreciate it. And I’m sure the people at GoGoSqueeZ would love that idea, too!
I went to Lourdes camp on beautiful (yet chilly) Skaneateles Lake! Oh the canteen with the option to get all soda flavors mixed together, to accompany whatever candy we were also getting! (Plus whatever snacks were in my trunk) The thought of pixie stix now makes me shudder!
I live about 40 minutes away from Skaneateles Lake?! It’s true! Have you been back as an adult and stayed at Mirbeau? Or had dinner at The Sherwood Inn? And I loved Pixie Stix when I was younger, too! 🙂
We live about 40 minutes away as well! For real! I have been to Mirbeau for the day. It was just a smidge different than Lourdes.
I’m voting for Appletinis! Who knew? My kids love those applesauces also – good stuff. I never went to sleepaway camp but if I had I would have survived on s’mores, the perfect food. And hot dogs, which I don’t enjoy now, but loved as a kid. Is it too late for me to go to summer camp?
Hi Mare: Ya know, the camp where Tech goes is the same place I went to as a kid and the USED TO have a women’s camp for two days. It was AWESOME: there was yoga and arts & crafts; we had the run of the waterfront and the pool; we could get manicures and pedicures and massages in a tent in the woods. It was BLISS. And then it ended. Maybe I can get you back down to Florida and we can write on the beach and call it a summer camp. What do you think?
You would not have to ask twice!!
I went to Girl Scout camp for a couple of weeks one year. I don’t remember if we were allowed to bring food. But I loved ice cream sandwiches as a summer treat, and still do!
I went to Girl Scout camp and honestly don’t remember eating. I know we did, I just don’t remember it. At all. LOL Though I do remember being horrified that people drank tea with cups full of sugar in it. I had never seen that before and helped prepare the pitchers one time. LOL I’d love to win – we love Go Go Squeez!
I love that you don’t remember eating at Girl Scout camp. I on;y remember one thing about GS camp: the latrines. PU. Soooooo gross!
I would never have guessed you have a 13 year old! I never went to camp. But I do remember those frozen kids meals. I was a latch key kid 🙂
Hi Jess! Thanks for the compliment. My 13-year-old is soon to be 14-years-old, if you can believe that! I used to love fried chicken kids’ meals. They had some kind of weird apple pie thing that was delicious. It was probably poison, like the chicken — but it was sooooo good. 🙂
I always wondered how those tasted. Glad to know they are good – especially if TechSupport says they are good! 7 weeks at camp – how fun for him! 🙂
Hi Maria! If you have people who like applesauce, I’m guessing they’ll dig it. And yes, SEVEN weeks. Fun for him, no doubt. I’m going to miss his sorry butt. 😉
I don’t actually remember what I ate in camp. This may be an instance of repressed memory. Probably. But my boys LOVE Go-Go Squeeze, and so do I.
Stacy’s Pita Chips are also pretty good, as are Pirate’s Booty Aged Cheddar Cheese Puffs (and hello, PIRATES).
Tech used to LURVE Pirate’s Booty — until he was about 8. ANd then it was like a light switched off; he was done with it. He really likes GoGoSqueeez, and I’m glad to know you have already discovered it. Any other ideas for kosher snacks that he could bring to camp? I’m going to pack some Kashi stuff, too.
Kashi is good. Terra Chips, though I don’t know if they come in small sizes. We’ve really cut back on snacks, and lately I’ve just been giving apple slices or Cheerios. I think the Paul Newman brand has some snackies. I usually look for snacks in the Organic/natural aisle or at Whole Foods/Trader Joes. Good luck!
I was too attached to my mama to go to any sleep away camp. I suppose everything I know about camp I learned from the movies. Freshman year in my college dorm felt like being at summer camp, for a little while at least! 🙂
When I was a little kid, I spent my summers practically living in the swimming pool, and I liked eating Flintstones Push-Ups (made out of ice cream). It was really hard to get messy with those–they didn’t drip down the side when they started melting–so it was one of those rare treats that I was allowed to eat while I was in the pool. They were so good!
Rachel: If you ever saw MEATBALLS, that is EXACTLY how my camp was in the 1970s. Kinda. 🙂 ANd I used to love vanilla Push-Ups. The rainbow flavors came a bit later. You know, like when you were born.
I am in! I am sad because I am not going to camp this summer, but I know the pain of finding camp snacks for my kid – W. Right now he’s scuba-ing with the scouts in Florida. He’s gotta have gluten free and dye free.. so it was always difficult to find the right snack. We ended up with cookies sent by my wife when we left, easier to control the input (and output) when you make your own….. but we do love go go squeeze. Have a great day.
You’re not doin’ camp this year? Whaaaaaat? Is everything okay? How great that your son is off Scuba-ing! Do you worry about his diet? Or are they pretty good about the GF/dye-free thing? That’s why I really like GoGoSqueez. It’s a natural product. My only wish? That the pouches came in a slightly bigger size! 🙂
CSL baby! I couldn’t wait for canteen and the trip to the fruit stand. My favorites were frozen Charleston Chews and of course the great fruit from the stand. I remember getting care packages with Pringles – which I still love.
I WISH they still had the fruit stand! How sad is it that it’s gone? Like really gone! *weep* My kid will never know the glory of that delicious fruit at the end of that looooong walk.
Three cheers on educating me to eat Go GoSqueez flavored apple sauces. How clever. I went to overnight camp and I always had a plastic jar of peanut butter and a plastic jar of jelly. Individual boxes of raisins were great.
I loved dried apricots. Of course in our day(long long ago) we could bring in a Kosher salami and a box of kosher crackers and a jar of mustard. The one’s who had candy were the most poular. I hope TechSupport has a wonderful summer camp experience.
Mom, what in the HECK did you do with the salami? Like how did you keep that fresh? I’m sending Tech with candy, too. I’m no fool.
This Jewish girl went to YMCA’s Camp Gorham in the Adirondacks because they had horseback riding. We had canteen every single day right after lunch. I’d get a Snickers bar almost every time. Snickers really satisfies! I don’t think there were any rules about outside food, but I don’t remember anyone bringing any. I did get care packages from home with my mom’s homemade chocolate chip cookies.
You really think Tech’s bunkmates are going to want to trade their candy for apple sauce? I hope you’re right, but don’t hold your breath!
Faith: Hubby went to Gorham, too. Apparently, he dropped a canoe on his toe and THIS is why he HATED summer camp. He doesn’t remember anything positive about Gorham, but canteen EVERYDAY sounds stinkin’ great to me!
Tech loves GoGoSqueez, so he’s getting a huge pack for camp, but I’m sending him to camp with other goodies, too. I’m not an idiot. Most of the time. 😉
My kids are OBSESSED with these things!!!
My dude loves them and, I have to admit, I’ve been known to suck down a few packs myself — you know, while skiing. Or when I need a quick little sumpthin-sumpthin.
How cool that you got this endorsement gig! I’m not going to enter because:
a) my brother is an apple-farmer who endorses a competitor
b) when I win Tingo-Tuesday and my smiling face is up on the side of your blog again, I don’t want all the other kids to say you like me better, even if it is true.
I have a few more giveaways coming up. I hope people don’t hate on me. I meant to do them all in May during my blogoversary, but things got away from me.
Meanwhile, I can never tell if you are serious, Peggy! Like a) is your brother REALLY an apple farmer?
ANd b) Your Tingo entry is ASTOUNDING, but did you look at some of the other entires? Holy crap! I may start a new thing where I make the current winner pick the next person! Seriously, it’s too hard for me!
a) yes. But I commented before I did my homework. While GoGoSqueez is a French company, they package this in Traverse City, MI in cooperation with the Mich. Cherry Growers. My BIL is connected with that organization, so it’s all good!
b) that “but” in the middle of your sentence is worrisome. Very worrisome indeed.
Woo hoo, I won! Thanks!!!