Patrol boxes are a way for a troop to designate cooking items with each patrol for easy packing, camping and cooking on camping trips.
Show Notes:
- Patrol Box – 27 Gallon (Home Depot)
- Coleman Classic Propane Stove (Amazon)
- Cooking Kit, including large and medium pots. The ones that my troop have are not made anymore. These non-stick versions are roughly equivalent. (Amazon)
- Utensil Kit. As mentioned in the video, for stove cooking this one is much better. It includes a knife and cutting board (no can opener) (Amazon).
- Stove top griddle. (Amazon)
- Colander Set of 2. These cool ones are collapse, also great for serving chips and such on a camping trip. (Amazon)
Transcript:
Today’s video is on Patrol Boxes.
One of my accomplishments as scoutmaster of my troop has been to institute the use of patrol boxes. Prior this this, we had sets of pots, stoves, and cooking tools. If a patrol used it and didn’t clean it well, it was a craps shoot as to if they would get stuck with it on the next trip.
Patrol boxes put an end to this practice. Each box is color-coded and contains the same basic elements. They all contain a 2-burner stove, griddle, pot kit cooking kit cutting board and strainer.
The patrols are responsible for keeping track of all the items in the box, and yearly we check the box to see if we need to update, replace or add something. For instance, this year we added a small microfiber towel to each box, a couple of years ago we added small strainers.
Patrols are also responsible for keeping the items clean, If a stove is dirty, guess what, that dirty stove will be with you the next trip.
It also gives patrols the opportunity to add other elements to the box like tin foil or plastic bags. It’s their box, and at a bare minimum they should be confident they have what they need to cook normal meals without hunting for a pot.
One of the items I am looking to stock the boxes with is five dollar spice wheel, to enhance the overall cooking experience for the boys.
I prepped 6 boxes about 5 years ago as part of my woodbadge project. Each box is a lightweight plastic tub available from Home Depot for about $20. We spray painted the cover of the box specific to each patrol. We also sprayed a swatch on the back of each stove, and put color-coded electrical tape on each pot handle and each utensil.
As we go into the 6th year of this, the whole kit has really held up. The pot kit from ScoutStuff is still great; the Coleman stoves work well, if only a little temperamental, the only thing I would change would be the utensil kit. It looked like a good idea when I bought them, but the utensils, while a scout kit, are really designed for over the fire cooking, not stove cooking, and I’ve replaced or added a few of the items like the spatula and the can opener.
I’ve included the details of our troop patrol boxes in the show notes, this is what works for us.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this was patrol boxes.
