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As 4,000 hungry Girl Guides arrived at Harewood House for their Centenary Celebrations, it quickly became clear the famous Girl Guide “Campfire Cookbook” recipes wouldn’t scale up to 8,400 pancakes. So the Girl Guides called in the professionals to cater for their weeklong jamboree centenary celebration.

CGC Events, the premier event caterers based in Garforth, who most notably cater to the prestigious York Racecourse, were only too happy to lend their mass catering expertise to the Girl Guides.

Managing Director of CGC Events, Keith Stewart explains, “We’re used to catering to large numbers, but this is the first time we’ve catered campside. We regularly cater to 40,000 people at a busy race meeting, so feeding 4,000 Girl Guides is an absolute pleasure. They’ve been charmingly polite, they clean up after themselves and have keen appetites. I must say it’s been a delight serving them.”

The occasion marks a date exactly 100 years ago, a small group of courageous girls stepped forward at the 1909 Boy Scouts Rally in Crystal Palace Park and asked its Founder, Robert Baden-Powell, for ‘something for the girls’. Guiding has come a long way since then – the movement has travelled all over the globe with over 10 million members worldwide and over 500,000 in the UK.

And these enthusiastic girls have been very busy working up an appetite; consider the scale of what they’ve eaten this week.

• 1,300 kg of Yorkshire beef
• 16,000 sausages
• 1000 kg of breakfast cereals
• 6528 chicken supremes
• 200 Lt of golden syrup
• 8400 pancakes
• 1,500 kg mashed potato
• 500 kg penne pasta
• 500 tins baked beans

“We were keen to keep the menus healthy, but in keeping with what you’d expect to eat campside. I think food tastes better out of doors, and the girls seem to agree. There’s one tip I picked up on when I was a Cub Scout, and that’s to be prepared. When you’re serving up 8,400 pancakes to 4,000 hungry girls that’s the key to catering success.”

Photo shows Emma Bannon and Kate Turnbull (L-R) of the 2nd Ottashaw Guides, Surrey, about to enjoy their evening meal after a day full of activities.