Build a Camp Kitchen
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What you will learn
- 1Choose a safe spot for a camp kitchen on a stay of several days
- 2Set up the cooking, washing, food storage and hand-washing zones
- 3Explain why the kitchen goes downwind of the tents and away from water
- 4Keep food away from animals and pack out all trash
Mini Lesson
On a one-night trip, you can cook almost anywhere. On a stay of several days, a messy cooking spot soon becomes a problem. Food scraps bring animals, dirty water spoils streams, and sparks drift toward tents. A camp kitchen gives every kitchen job its own zone. Your grown-up runs all fires and stoves, and you help plan and set up the rest.
🌿 The Wild Way (pick the spot first)
- FLAT AND BARE: choose flat, firm ground with no dry grass or dead leaves, so pots sit steady and sparks have nothing to catch.
- DOWNWIND OF THE TENTS: feel the wind, then put the kitchen where smoke and food smells blow away from where you sleep.
- AWAY FROM TENTS: keep the kitchen a good walk from the tents, so animals that sniff out food stay away from your bed.
- AWAY FROM THE WATER’S EDGE: stay well back from streams and lakes, so food scraps and soapy water never reach the water.
- CLEAR ABOVE: check for low or dead branches over the cooking spot. The adult moves the kitchen if anything hangs above it.
- A FLAT WORK SURFACE: a flat rock, a log or a small folding table keeps food off the ground. Your Grade 5 tripod lashing can hold a water bag.
The zones of a camp kitchen
- COOKING ZONE: the fire or stove, with a fire-safe zone, a circle of bare ground, around it. Only the adult lights and runs it. Your Grade 5 one-pot meal is cooked here.
- WASHING ZONE: a wash bowl set well away from streams. Strain out food bits and scatter the wash water as the local rules say - check with your grown-up.
- FOOD STORAGE ZONE: food goes where animals can’t reach it - hung up, in a sealed box or in a container the local rules ask for. Check with your grown-up.
- HAND-WASHING STATION: a water container, soap and a small bowl, so hands are washed before cooking and eating.
- TRASH: one bag for all trash, kept with the food. Everything you brought in, you pack out.
This is an ADULT lesson. Your grown-up lights, runs and puts out every fire and stove. Stay outside the fire-safe circle unless the adult invites you in. Never leave food, scraps or trash out at night, and never keep food in your tent. If anyone gets burned or hurt, tell the adult at once.
Words to know
camp kitchen
An area of camp set up for cooking, washing and storing food, with a zone for each job.
e.g. We built our camp kitchen on flat, bare ground.
downwind
The side the wind blows toward.
e.g. The kitchen was downwind, so the smoke blew away from our tents.
fire-safe zone
A circle of bare ground around a fire or stove, kept clear of anything that can burn.
e.g. We stayed outside the fire-safe zone while the adult cooked.
food storage
Keeping food sealed or hung up where animals can’t reach it.
e.g. Every snack went into food storage before bed.
wash water
Used water from washing pots and bowls, with food bits strained out.
e.g. We carried the wash water well away from the stream.
pack out
To carry all your trash and leftover food home with you.
e.g. We packed out every wrapper and scrap.
🧠 Survivor’s Trick: before you set anything down, drop a pinch of dry grass or dust from shoulder height and watch where it drifts. That shows you which way smoke will blow. Put the kitchen on the side it drifts toward, away from the tents.
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