It is exactly what you have listed , lodging, travel and food while they are there. They have to buy their own food on the trip up and back. To even make it more ridiculous a church group from that exact area is here in our community doing work this week.
This is nothing more than an excuse for a white water rafting trip in my opinion. I get it that the kids would enjoy being away for 10 days and getting to travel but it doesn't make one bit of practical sense to me. Let them work here in their own community and then reward them with a weekend trip somewhere if you want too.
Some members of the church are pretty wealthy, we are not, that is why I told him initially he wasn't going, I wasn't going to foot the bill for something that is insane in my book. Since he essentially got a free ticket, the $800 amount, and offered to pay the rest out of his savings I said okay. We will reimburse him for what he will spend, but I would rather him think that it is his money he is spending so he will be more responsible on how he spends it.
Sixty kids is quite a chunk of change, it turns out that there is a service that matches up church groups and coordinates these "exchange" work trips, so I am sure they get a pretty nice commission check for handling the details.