Healthy Halloween Treats

Halloween is a notorious celebration of sweets, but that doesn’t mean healthy snacks need to be spooked out of your child’s holiday assortment. Check out these fun, delicious, DIY snacks; options like these are guaranteed to be helpful, and these pictures pretty accurately demonstrate how no-fuss your snack-assembly projects can be!

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Apple Monster Mouths: All you need to create this festive snack are sliced apples, yogurt-covered raisins and peanut butter! The process is as simple as the ingredients – just hollow out your apple slices, fill them with peanut butter and top them off with the raisins Not a fan of the latter? Almonds make for an excellent substitute.

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Snack-o’-Lantern Fruit Cups : Struggle when it comes to pumpkin carving? Good news; hollowing out these cut-out oranges is easy! Give your oranges some fun jack-o-lantern faces, and then fill them with an assortment of fruit or tasty trail mix!

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Spooky Spider Crackers : To concoct these Spooky Spider Crackers, you'll need circular whole wheat crackers, peanut butter or cream cheese, pretzels and raisins. Smooth your topping of choice over one side of the cracker, add your pretzel legs, and sandwich it all together with more spread and another cracker. Finally, give your spiders their eyes with a dollop of spread and a pair of raisins!

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Cheese Broom Sticks : If your child loves string cheese, this snack is likely to be a smash hit. Using string cheese and fresh chives, you can assemble these broomsticks in under 20 minutes!

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BOO-nana Ghost Pops : Who knew bananas could easily shape-shift into terrifying ghosts? You'll start with frozen bananas, and dip them into orange juice, followed by shredded coconut. Go heavy on the shredded coconut. Then, using mini chocolate chips and raisins, design their ghostly faces! For less of a mess, cut your bananas in half and stick them onto Popsicle sticks!

So, hopefully our ideas will kick start your DIY creativity. Candy and other sweets will inevitably sneak into their diets whether you like it or not, so consider these easy, healthy treats as a way to offset the classic Halloween sugar binge!

For more DIY food ideas and crafts for the entire family, follow us on Pinterest and check out our ‘Healthy Halloween’ board.

Happy snacking!

10 Tips for Promoting Your Fundraising Event

We have run over 20,000 fundraising events. In our professional experience, we know how crucial publicity is to the success of your event. It doesn’t matter how noble the cause or how organized you are…if people don’t know about your fundraiser, your participation will be affected.

With that said, we’ve put together a list of 10 thoughts to get you thinking critically about your event, which will hopefully lead to a ton of success.

1. Focus on the benefit of the fundraiser.
2. Remember - parents, teachers and community members are more likely to participate if they truly understand how money raised will be used for the school. 
3. Along the lines of #2, highlight the benefits your students will receive as a result of the fundraiser.
4. Remind people of what great gifts fundraisers items are; for example, encourage them to shop now for the holidays and beat the store crowds! 
5. Parents should be notified if you choose to extend your sale. Send a flyer or letter home and keep them up-to-date.
6. To get the most awareness and participation for your fundraiser, consistent communication with your supports is key. It’s going to take more than just one flyer to get your message to hit home. People may plan to join in, but as per usual, we all get busy and forget. A gentle reminder may really be appreciated and give your group a better chance for success!
7. Consider parents who may have formerly had their children attending your school. They may really want to support your fundraiser – but will only have the chance to do so if you let them know about it. 
8. If your school, PTO or other group has a newsletter, make sure to include your fundraiser in the news/events bulletin.
9. Create a special posting on your Facebook page dedicated to your fundraiser. 
10. The principal or teacher who gives the morning PA announcements can keep your school updated on the progress of the fundraiser. Even better? Let the students who have raised the most give the morning announcements!

Of course, these are just a few ideas on how you can spread the word about your fundraiser. If you have any questions, our team is here to help. Good luck and go raise those funds!