Healthy snacks with long shelf life anyone?

[Hayls]

I work in a youth club and get so frustrated at the types of food we sell- fizzy drinks, sugary sweets, chocolate etc. I aksed my boss about introducing healthy snacks and he is concerned that fruit has a limited shelf life and we're only open one night at week atm so leftovers would be chucked. I'm trying to think of alternatives with a long shelf life but am stuck at cereal bars, bottled water and dried fruit.
PLEase help me perusade him! They are all 13-15 so I think it's the perfect time to try it.

[happycat]

asda sell a range of sugar free sweets.boxes of raisins,bread sticks

[happycat]

crackers,plain biscuits

[WideWebWitch]

Goodies organic cereal bars, flapjacks (sugary but at least have oats in them), sesame snaps, will come back if I think of more. Soy bites are like crisps but made from soya flour and not fried, they would be a good compromise.

[happycat]

can you make sandwiches,cheese,sunflower seeds sugar free jelly.

[gigglinggoblin]

can you let them make their own samdwiches? if you have any cooking facilities you could do a mini meal like scrambled eggs on toast/ pasta and tom sauce. my kids get this sort of stuff at after school club nd its usually the older kids who make it (oldest are 11). obviously no use if you dont have a cooker tho.

[Twiglett]

personally I'd get rid of the fizzy drinks and replace with water or cartons of juice

get rid of the worst sweets and maybe add stuff like sesame seeds, chocolate coated raisins

I think small changes especially on the drinks side would make a huge difference

[happycat]

twigglets

[Twiglett]

if I was 13-15 and went to a youth club and someone tried to give me health food when I'm used to fizzy drink and sweets I think I'd know exactly what I would be saying .. plus the next week I'd bring my own snacks

don't think you can actually dictate at that age if the habits haven't already been formed

how about doing some 'healthy eating' fun activities within the club like cooking / making snacks that involves them

[Twiglett]

at happycat .. cannibal

[happycat]

sorry Twiglett.I did mean the ones in the packets

[Hayls]

These are great. When i said that I thought this was the best age to try it I meant that they were old enough to understand why it's better for them so might be more inclined to try it, especially the girls who are getting to the stage of being conscious of looking good etc.
There aren't really cooking facilities, which is a shame as the last club I worked at had a huge kitchen and I did lots of cooking with them, which they loved.
I'm just about to email my boss with all these suggestions so fingers crossed

[sorrel]

could you invest in a toastie maker? In my experience this age group love toasties and you could provide a number of fillings like cheese apple, ham, etc bought in small quantities. you could freeze the leftover bread.