Website Tip of the Day for March 12, 2010
Campout Cooking
Each campout will be deignated as "Patrol Cooking" or "Troop Cooking". Menus for each campout will be established at the Monday meeting immediately preceeding the campout. Click on the event link from the >Activities>Troop Calendar web page to find out if a campout has been designated as "Patrol Cooking" or "Troop Cooking", or listen for an announcement about the campout toward the end of the last Troop meeting that immediately preceeds the campout. Typical monthly campout food costs can be anywhere from $10-$20, depending on how many people are attending the campout, and the kind of food selected for that campout (remember, for virtually anything that you can cook at home, there's generally a way to cook it outdoors, so don't settle for hot dogs and chips at every campout!).
The Troop trailer is stocked with free-standing 3-burner stoves and a bin with seasoning, pots, cutting boards and cooking utensils for each patrol's use on that month's campout (adults have their own stoves, wooden Adult Patrol Box, and there's plenty of bowels and pots in the trailer to serve meal items for Troop cooking!). Every two patrols will share a black fold-out table for their food preperations. Each patrol is responsible for setting up and tearing down their equipment, and ALL members of the patrol are to clean up their cooking stove, equipment and food prep area after EACH meal.
EVERYONE is to bring a mess kit, complete with plate, fork, spoon, knife and cup to EACH campout! Adults, don't forget your coffee cup (there should always be coffee, sugar, Splenda and non-dairy creamer in the adult patrol box, so let the person buying food for the next campout know if any of these items are running low so they can restock the adult patrol box). Everyone is to wash their own mess kit and at least one item used to cook food after EVERY meal, as well as help clean up the cooking area (racoons and other wild animals just love to wreck havoc when unwashed items are left laying around and food is not properly stowed away). Please allow your plates and utensils to air dry so that paper towels can be left for cleaning up spills and the stoves. You should also bring a towel with you on every campout, as paper towels are not for drying hands (we need to minimize paper going into our landfills, and scouts are protectors of the environment!).
For "Patrol Cooking" campouts, all of the scouts in the patrol who are going on the campout that month will plan their menu toward the end of the last Troop meeting that immediately preceeds the campout. However, one scout in each patrol will need to voluteer to buy the food for that campout, and each scout should take a turn to buy food for a campout. When there is only one or two scouts from a patrol attending that month's campout, we'll combine that patrol with another patrol for that month's campout, so you don't have to buy food for a small number of scouts (after all, there can be higher costs per person when buying food for a small number of scouts). Don't forget to buy things like milk or juice for the morning (the Troop will suppy kool-aid for the other meals) and any condiments needed for the patrol meals. All scouts will equally share the cost of the food with the other scouts in their patrol who are attending that month's campout. The scout who buys the food should collect the money from the other scouts in their patrol on Friday before you leave for the campout.
On a "Patrol Cooking" campout, each scout should know who is buying food for their patrol, or else there's a good change your scout could go hungry that weekend! If you do not know which scout is buying food for your patrol, you can go to the >Troop>Patrols screen and click on the E-Mail Members button to check with all the members of your patrol to find out who is buying food for that month's campout.
One adult will need to volunteer to buy food for each monthly campout. For "Patrol Cooking" campouts, the adult is only buying food for the adults going on that month's campout, and for "Troop Cooking" campouts the adult is buying food for EVERYONE going on that month's campout. Just like the scouts, the adults going on a campout should gather toward the end of the last Troop meeting immediately preceeding that month's campout to plan your menu, and adults should take turns each month to buy food for that month's campout. Adults like to eat good on campouts, so be thinking grilled hamburgers for lunch, or BBQ chicken, chops or even steaks for dinner! For just a few dollars, adults can eat like kings on a campout, so be creative with your menu. If you do not know which adult is buying food for the campout, you can always go to >Activities>Troop Calendar and click on the campout link, and then click the E-Mail Participants button to ask everyone who is going on the campout about who is buying the adult food for that campout.
For "Patrol Cooking" campouts, the adult who buys the food should collect money from each adult attending that month's campout on Friday before you leave for the campout. For "Troop Cooking" campouts, we typically just turn the food receipts into the Treasurer for reimbursement, and the Treasurer would charge each person attending the campout for that month's food costs (so that you're not collecting significant amounts of money just before heading out on a campout).
Regardless if it is "Patrol Cooking" or "Troop Cooking", the Troop pays for the Saturday night treat (dump cakes, donuts, funnel cakes, etc. - rotate the choice so each month's camput is different), as well as any supplies needed for that month's campout (kool-aid and ice for the yellow drink coolers, paper towels, oil, charcoal, etc.). You will usually go through 2 smaller containers of kool-aid for each meal. Dump cakes take 3 cans of pie filling fruit, 1 box of cake mix and 1 jar of squeezable margarine per dump cake (don't forget the charcoal to cook the dump cakes with), and you need one dump cake for every 10 people in attendance. For donuts, buy the cheapest biscuits and have the scouts poke holes in them prior to cooking in medium-low heated oil, about 10 cans of buscuits for every 25 people in attendance. The adult buying food should buy the treat ingrediants and supplies on a seperate receipt, and turn that receipt into the Treasurer for reimbursement. Also, any adult who has to "run to town" to buy supplies while on a campout can turn that receipt into the Treasurer for reimbursement. The Treasurer can reimburse you via check, or a credit to your scout account, which can be used for future scouting activities.
If you are the person buying food for a campout, you can go to the >Activities>Troop Calendar and click on the campout link to see which scouts or adults are attending that month's campout (for patrol cooking, make sure you note which of the scouts in your son's patrol is attending that month's campout, and you can find the list of patrol members on the >Troop>Patrols screen). You should check this list immediately before you buy food, so that you aren't buying food for someone who has cancelled their sign-up at the last minute. Please note that if food has already been bought for that campout before someone cancels their sign-up, they still owe for their share of the food costs, which will be charged to their scout account (let the Treasurer know if someone owes you for that month's food costs).
Generally, costs for campouts, like activity admission fees, overnight camping fees greater than $4 per person and merit badge costs, will be charged to your Scout account immediately after the campout. Anyone attending a campout may charge that month's campout food costs to their scout account as well. Simply indicate in the Comment field on the event sign-up screen if you wish to have that campout's food costs charged to your scout account, and the person buying the food for that campout will ask the Treasurer to transfer funds from your scout account to their scout account (or write them a check from your scout account) to reimburse them for your share of the food costs. Remember, if you intend to use your scout account to pay for events, you're expected to maintain a monthly balance in your scout account sufficent to pay for upcoming events (we suggest maintaining a $50 balance each month). If your account has a negative balance after any event, you're expected to pay off this balance within a month.
Need recipes or campout cooking ideas? Check this website for great outdoor recipe and cooking tips! And we recommend Sam's Club (Mastercard, Discover, check or debit only) or Costco (American Express, check or debit only) to buy larger quantities, especially for "Troop Cooking" (ask other adults if you don't have memberships in either of these clubs). And Aldi's (check or debit only) stocks good food (even vegetables and fruit) at very economical costs.
You can always check with the Camping Chair if you have any questions regarding a monthly campout!