Keep dessert super simple, or skip entirely.

Add appetizers or side dishes that include some meat, some dairy, veggies, and fruit.

Make the main dish vegan-for example, a hearty bean chili or pasta sauce.

Doesn’t mean that individual river trippers can’t have their own stash of nuts, but leaving them out of the group meals reduces stress for the allergic people and their loved ones. Avoid including any foods any group member is allergic to in the community meals in order to avoid confusion or mistakes, especially with nut allergies and soy.

Start with allergies, since failing to accommodate these could cause dire health consequences.

To make sure all the cook teams know the ground rules for food preferences, start with a survey-either an informal email poll or an out-and-out survey for longer, more complicated trips (like a Grand Canyon trip). The trick is to have a base dish that satisfies the most stringent requirements, then offer sides that check the other boxes. But it’s not that hard to satisfy every type of eater, even on the river. Anytime you serve up a meal to more than one person, you need a different twist on your dish to accommodate the carnivores, vegetarians, vegans, allergy-prone, dairy-intolerant, gluten-intolerant, sugar-avoiding, and other discerning river trippers.

Camping vegetarian meal planning sheet