Making a snack can be a fun way of keeping a child’s thoughts on the story. But food can be used in many ways. Many times, when teaching children, I simply took a bunch of baby carrots, declared one to be one character in the Torah and another to be another, had the carrot “people” act out the parsha, handed out hummus cups, and that was the lesson. Somehow the children paid more attention to this method of telling the story than my simply speaking or reading from a book.
The “Nature’s Nosh” primarily uses fresh fruits and vegetables; a healthy option, but a bit of planning is required.
The “Shabbos Stash,” on the other hand, uses a limited number of shelf-stable ingredients you can keep on hand, and use week after week.