You need to store those kids somewhere!
Not me, a family camping on the Allagash last fall. I guess if you have more than one it could be a problem. 
I don’t know what age your kids are, but don’t automatically count them out. Our youngest (28 now) was a better paddler at 6 than many adults I’ve had in the bow.
You have to take em paddling to find out. We just did a Weblo get aquatinted with boats. Some were pretty good with a paddle. Given a correct length paddle they’d do well. But some were lacking coordination. …really bad.b
Our kids paddled the Allagash with us… Two kids six and nine… two canoes…Each paddled bow and yes we ran Chase Rapids.
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@RedMC First off welcome to the forum.
Along with reading here I also stop in once a day in one of the European canoe forums. They seem to have a different take on camping and eating in nature than we do across the pond. Some of them seem to place the camping and eating well above the paddling and pack in their canoes a huge amount of gear including large cast iron Dutch ovens and camp stoves etc. They produce some awesome looking feasts where different members make different dishes to share.
I have to say it looks like a lot of fun and to me it looks like they eat better on the water than they likely do at home.
We do 99% day trips where we do some snacking and normally stop half way for a proper lunch. I have a solo canoe and she has a rec-kayak all our friends also have rec-kayaks. It is not uncommon for me to take on some of the others supplies as well. I have a tandem converted to a solo and I don’t really mind the extra ballast.
I think the suggestion above of having at least one canoe in your camping fleet isn’t a bad idea along with something like a nice size Yeti cooler. Something actually designed to hold in the cold. We have the cheap plastic ones, double walled with a little foam in between and they work great for a day trip with frozen drinking water bottles. Much more than a day you are looking at size and shapes that don’t lend themselves to kayaks that well.
Some of this is more than survival camping and is about making memories with your kids and having an experience they will want to repeat when they get older. Kids wont remember having a protein bar for breakfast but will remember bacon and pancakes by the river.
It might not be a bad idea to have a few dry runs in the back yard or a drive to state park first to hone the skills.
I find that there are two types of river trippers – the kind that wants to get up and get going, and the kind that wants to get up, sit around the fire and drink coffee. The food and cooking gear that I bring on a trip depends a lot on who I am traveling with. Personally, I’m a lounge around the campfire person, so I tend to camp with like-minded folks.
The next big questions (at least for open boaters) are do you cook fresh or prepared foods, and do you use a stove or the fire. I tend to be a fresh food on the (two burner Coleman) stove person, but I am getting better at cooking on the fire.
Of course, everything depends on the trip you are doing. If there are portages I’m packing light – freeze dried meals on a Jet Boil stove. Easy to pack, light to carry and easy to prepare, freeze dried meals are fine, but kind of boring. If portages aren’t an issue, I’d rather bring fresh food and make meals from scratch.
Once that decision is made, the next question (again, for open boaters) is cooler or no cooler. I don’t tend to do really long trips, so I usually do bring a cooler. If there is a tandem boat it is nice to bring a big, hard-sided cooler. The more expensive the cooler (think Yeti) the more room it will take up and the less food it will hold. For shorter trips, we often use an inexpensive Coleman cooler, which fits more food in the same space. For my solo boat I have a soft cooler that takes up even less space, and will keep the basics cold for a few days, especially if things start off frozen.
With larger groups there is also the question of packing and storage – who will carry what. On group trips we try to coordinate cooking gear so we are not bringing duplicates and everyone caries their share. We also divvy up meal responsibility with each person carrying the food for that meal. Cooler space is shared space.
What you bring for cooking gear will also influence what you bring for food. Cooking anything other than freeze dried meals involves bringing pots, pans and cooking utensils. Cooking on the fire means that you don’t have to bring a stove, but you do have to gather firewood. A reflector oven is nice for baked snacks around the night fire. With a Dutch oven you can cook anything in camp that you can in your home oven.
Of course, the more you bring the more room it takes and the more clean-up is involved – its a lot of work. I need to remind myself of this on occasion. It is easy to get carried away, but in most cases I am willing to put up with the extra work.
All of my trips up until now have been in canoes so space is less of an issue. I bought a sea kayak last summer and would like to do some sea kayak camping this summer. I think it will basically be freeze dried meals.
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Check out Hawk Vittles… Dehydrated and no sodium add salt to your liking…
If you come to Maine Islands fires are allowed only below the high tide line.
and plan for room for your waste disposal system.
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Where will you be paddling? Air and water temperatures? They make a big difference in your options.
In cold water, you might be able to freeze meats and put them in individual insulated bags, so that cooking one does not require opening one big bag. For a fall trip (warm water), I cooked spaghetti meat sauce, dehydrated and vacuum bagged it, and then stored in freezer till we started the one-day drive. During that drive the perishables stayed in a cooler, and the next day when we launched, they were wrapped in newspaper and a plastic bag kept at the bottom of a hatch. I heated it up with added water on our first night on the water. All the other food was dried, canned, or freeze-dried.
You know that saying about how even a plain peanut butter sandwich tastes glorious after hours of hiking or paddling? Yeah. Make the trip more about things you DON’T get at home.
Warm water, 60F+
The first trip is Lake Champlain islands over the 4th of July. The second is Saranac lakes in the Adirondacks in late Aug. We had wanted to do Bog River/Low’s Lake, but they’re doing dam repairs this year. We’re thinking of trying the Saco river in mid-Sep when the kids have a Friday off for teacher training, but we probably won’t get to it this year unless my wife and kids really enjoy the first two trips. We’ll see how these go before planning anything more adventurous.
The kids are 6 and 8, just introduced to kayaking last year. My 8-year old daughter was picking it up quickly, but she’ll be with my wife. My 6-year old son will be with me. He’s more interested in fishing than paddling. He’s also small for his age, so I’m not expecting a lot of help.
GrubHub 
Sunset at Lake Champlain. Looking out to New York from shoreline of Burlington.
The islands north of Hero were also beautiful. Too bad didnt get a chance to camp overnight.
sing
This does not address the cooler question, but for a delicious meaty snack that needs no refrigeration, try Perky Jerky. The original flavor is just plain beefy and not stringy/tough like most jerky is. You could make it the unadorned protein part of a hot meal, like a side with a big heap of pasta, olive oil, and sauteed garlic. Carbs are easy to store and cook like at home. Protein and produce, not so easy.
Grocery stores have lots of pre-cooked unrefrigerated meat. Sausages, jerkies, bacon! Plus all the tuna packets. The chicken packet OTOH sucked every last drop of saliva out of my mouth. Pepperoni and 8 oz can of pizza sauce went over well.
Spam, spam, spam!!! Love spam and other can meat but only when backpacking or kayak camping. If I take fresh meat, I freeze it and keep it wrapped and packaged in the (white/blue) Amazon bubble envelops. This can work for the first and 2nd day. Vegetables that keep for two days or more: onions, carrots, celery, boccoli stalks.
Last year, I did a 5 day beach/surf camp at a drive-in tent site, with no electricity. I got about 5 lbs of dry ice stored in a small soft cooler and stored that in a corner of a 40 gallon plastic cooler. I put the frozen meat and frozen water bottles (to act as ice packs) right next to the dry ice and then covered this up with layers of bubble wrap and 1/4" foam. Once a day, I moved the meat I want to use into the other section of the cooler where soft drinks, veggies, seltzer water sit. The frozen meat and frozen water bottle helped keep these items cool. I was able to squeeze five days of keeping food cold in 80 plus air temps. YMMV.
Dry ice was expensive.
sing
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You are describing a common problem with kayaks. No room for a cooler. No room for a good sized dog. No room for a 2 burner stove. Why I like canoes.
Getting ready for a drift boat trip of 7 days. We are going in May with cooler weather and higher flows. I am bringing two coolers. One for food that doesn’t get opened much and one for drinks.
Many of my friends eat freeze-dried meals to save room in the cooler for beer.
I hate pouch food. We make great meals and eat like the Kings of the River.
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We use small lunchbox type coolers, soft sided, that we picked up from goodwill. Each holds one or two days of frozen food if left sealed and opened in sequence based upon the date you will use them. Three of these allows our crew of 4 to eat fresh food (steak chicken, brats or burgers) every night for most of a week. I load them at the bottom of the yak with sleeping bags and clothes packed as insulation. The fruits and veggies are ok out of a cooler. Apples and potatoes, onions and carrots will be just fine for a few days out of the cooler. Depending on where you will camp you will either have a bear locker or the need to hang your food out of reach of critters. Duct tape the coolers shut with a note on the outside listing the contents to avoid opening it. The important thing is to keep the cooler in the shade.
BTW I lost a couple of hatch covers learning that leaving food in the kayak over night is a bad idea, Raccoons have sharp claws.
Another tip for fresh food: ham travels well. A foil package with ham, carrots, onion and potato makes a great late trip supper. Burritos and Tacos also work well. Soft Tortillas travel better then bread and wrap around a hot dog or brat just fine. Plan on cooking over a stove instead of a camp fire it is better for the environment and you will be able to get the kids fed. One last tip, stuff a couple of frozen chocolate bars in each cooler as an after dinner treat.
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What do you do about water? In my canoe I just bring a big jug or a couple of gallon containers. Sometimes we can filter to restock.
We have filter bags. Fill them with water and they filter it. One thing to remember is to get the water away from shore to start with clear water. I paddle lake Superior most of the time and in a pinch I have drank directly from he lake. I do not use filtered water for coffee, tea or washing dishes of course. Since you will be paddling with kids, remember to watch their water bottles. If they have a full water bottle, you may have a dehydrated kid. They will have to be reminded to drink water the first few days.