Every board has been through this: the campout is set, the Unit picked the menu, and someone asks, "how many kilos of rice do we buy?" That's when the guessing starts. Guess too high and food spoils in the heat. Guess too low and Saturday's dinner runs out before the last Unit is served.
This guide settles it with numbers per person, not adjectives. Portions are based on the official per-capita figures used in Brazilian school meal programs, with an added margin justified by the physical activity of someone spending the day pitching a tent and hiking a trail. Everything is scalable: double it for 60, halve it for 15.
If what you need is the technique — which fire to use, how to treat water, how not to get sick —, the companion piece to this article is campout cooking. Here the conversation is about how much, what, and how much it costs.
How much food per person? Numbers you can scale up
There's no official Adventist table of grams per Pathfinder. What does exist — and is the best benchmark available in Brazil — is the school-meal per-capita figure, calculated for ages 6 to 15, which is exactly the age range of most of the Club. It's found in the Manual de per capita para o PNAE (UNIFAL-MG, 2023), built from Resolution CD/FNDE No. 6/2020, which governs Brazil's National School Meal Program.
There's one detail that changes everything: school meals are calibrated to cover 20% to 30% of a student's daily needs. Campout cooking covers 100% — and for someone who's been hiking, carrying a pack, and pitching camp on top of that. That's why the "at camp" column below adds roughly 50% on top of the school per-capita figure for main dishes. That margin is this guide's own estimate, not an official rule: adjust it to your group's appetite.
| Food | PNAE per capita (ages 6–15), per meal | Suggested at camp | For 30 people, per meal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw rice | 50 g | 75 g | 2.25 kg |
| Raw beans | 32 g | 50 g | 1.5 kg |
| Raw pasta | 50 g | 75 g | 2.25 kg |
| Bread | 50 g | 75 g (1½ rolls) | 2.25 kg |
| Raw potato | 80 g | 120 g | 3.6 kg |
| Raw carrot | 40 g | 60 g | 1.8 kg |
| Tomato | 30 g | 50 g | 1.5 kg |
| Cabbage | 25 g | 40 g | 1.2 kg |
| Fruit | 90 g (1 banana) | 120 g (1 medium piece) | 3.6 kg |
| Powdered milk | 30 g | 40 g | 1.2 kg |
| Egg | 75 g (1½ eggs) | 100 g (2 eggs) | 60 eggs |
| Cheese | 40 g | 40 g | 1.2 kg |
| Rolled oats | 30 g | 45 g | 1.35 kg |
| Oil | 7 g | 10 mL | 300 mL |
To calibrate the day's total, it helps to look at energy needs. The same Resolution CD/FNDE No. 6/2020 uses, for full-day coverage (70% of daily needs), 1,656 kcal for ages 11 to 15 and 1,902 kcal for ages 16 to 18 — which works out to roughly 2,370 kcal and 2,720 kcal per day, respectively. On a campout with hiking, add a margin: planning for 2,400 to 2,800 kcal per Pathfinder per day is a reasonable target. That rounding is ours; the reference figure is from the FNDE.
One consistency note, so it doesn't catch you off guard: the 9 meals in the next section's shopping list deliver around 2,000 to 2,200 kcal per day — below that target. That's intentional, and it's how nearly every campout works: what closes the gap is snacking between meals (extra fruit, nuts, bread), which the list only partly covers. If your program has a long hike or cold weather, increase main-dish portions or beef up the snacks. This calorie estimate is this guide's own calculation based on the menu itself, not a figure from an official source.
What's the 9-meal menu?
Nine meals make up three full days: three breakfasts, three lunches, and three dinners. The menu below is ovo-lacto-vegetarian (no meat, with eggs and dairy), uses foods that keep well without refrigeration, and reserves the hiking day for a cold meal — in line with what the Campfires and Outdoor Cooking honor requires, which calls for a balanced menu across six meals, one of them light and requiring no cooking for the trail day. Requirement numbering shifts from edition to edition of the Honors Manual, so check the card your Association or Mission is currently using before counting this as a completed requirement.
| Day | Meal | Dish |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Breakfast | Bread with margarine and cheese, milk with grain coffee, banana |
| Lunch | Rice, beans, sautéed zucchini and carrot, tomato and cabbage salad, orange | |
| Dinner | Vegetable soup with pasta, bread, tea | |
| 2 | Breakfast | Oatmeal with banana and milk, bread with margarine |
| Lunch (hiking day, no cooking) | Chickpea spread sandwich, fruit, nuts and raisins | |
| Dinner | Rice, soy-protein stroganoff, boiled potato, salad | |
| 3 | Breakfast | Bread, scrambled egg, milk, fruit |
| Lunch | Pasta with tomato sauce, carrot and cabbage salad, watermelon | |
| Dinner (or trip-home snack) | Sandwich, fruit, and juice — if the Club breaks camp early, this becomes a snack for the road |
Notice two choices that aren't just style. First: pasta shows up in two meals, not every meal. The Manual Administrativo warns that pasta — including instant noodles — is a carbohydrate just like rice and potato, shouldn't become the campout's go-to main dish, and shouldn't share the plate with the other two. Second: no leafy greens. Lettuce, watercress, and spinach wilt outside a fridge and travel poorly; the manual itself suggests swapping them for cabbage, carrot, tomato, beets, and other hard-skinned vegetables.
What if my campout isn't a full 3 days? The most common format in Brazil is Friday night through Sunday after lunch: that's 6 main meals, not 9. Drop day 1's breakfast and the last two meals, and cut the shopping list by roughly a third. The Camping Skills honor, meanwhile, calls for camping three days and two consecutive nights, with the Pathfinder actively involved in preparing at least two meals — which fits well within that reduced 6-meal format.
Shopping list: how much to buy for 20, 30, or 40 Pathfinders?
This is the finalized list for the 9 meals in the menu above, already totaling every use of each item. The "per person" column is the one that matters: multiply it by your actual headcount and you have your list, whether that's 12 or 120.
| Item | Per person (3 days) | 20 Pathfinders | 30 Pathfinders | 40 Pathfinders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raw rice | 150 g | 3 kg | 4.5 kg | 6 kg |
| Raw beans | 50 g | 1 kg | 1.5 kg | 2 kg |
| Raw pasta | 115 g | 2.3 kg | 3.5 kg | 4.6 kg |
| Bread | 450 g | 9 kg | 13.5 kg | 18 kg |
| Powdered milk | 120 g | 2.4 kg | 3.6 kg | 4.8 kg |
| Eggs | 3 units | 60 | 90 | 120 |
| Vegetables and seasonings (potato, carrot, zucchini, tomato, cabbage, onion, garlic) | 700 g | 14 kg | 21 kg | 28 kg |
| Assorted fruit | 900 g | 18 kg | 27 kg | 36 kg |
| Chickpeas and soy protein | 80 g | 1.6 kg | 2.4 kg | 3.2 kg |
| Rolled oats | 45 g | 0.9 kg | 1.4 kg | 1.8 kg |
| Tomato sauce or paste | 80 g | 1.6 kg | 2.4 kg | 3.2 kg |
| Cheese | 80 g | 1.6 kg | 2.4 kg | 3.2 kg |
| Margarine | 45 g | 0.9 kg | 1.4 kg | 1.8 kg |
| Oil | 60 mL | 1.2 L | 1.8 L | 2.4 L |
| Sugar | 60 g | 1.2 kg | 1.8 kg | 2.4 kg |
| Salt | 15 g | 0.3 kg | 0.5 kg | 0.6 kg |
| Grain coffee and tea | 30 g | 0.6 kg | 0.9 kg | 1.2 kg |
| Nuts and raisins | 40 g | 0.8 kg | 1.2 kg | 1.6 kg |
| Total food | ≈ 3.2 kg | ≈ 64 kg | ≈ 96 kg | ≈ 128 kg |
| Water for drinking and cooking | 18 L | 360 L | 540 L | 720 L |
The water row deserves a close read, because it's the one that wrecks planning the most. The 18 L per person is 6 L a day just for drinking and cooking, within the range the WHO uses for those two purposes (2.5 to 3 L for drinking and eating, plus 3 to 6 L for cooking). Hygiene isn't in that count: add 2 to 6 L per person per day for washing dishes, hands, and faces. If the site doesn't have a reliable tap, that total volume is what needs to fit in your transport.
Three practical warnings before you head to the store. Buy 10% extra of dry goods (rice, beans, pasta, salt, oil): they don't spoil, they go back into the Club pantry, and they save the night if unexpected guests show up. Don't buy 10% extra of perishables — leftover fruit, cheese, and vegetables that sit out in the heat become waste and a health risk. And sort purchases by meal into labeled boxes: the cook shouldn't have to dig through seven bags to find Sunday's tomato paste.
Dehydrated foods deserve a spot on the list because they weigh little and last long. The Manual Administrativo lists powdered milk, dried fruit, plant-based protein, and instant soups as useful examples for camp — especially if the Unit will be carrying food on a hike.
Read alsoCamp Cooking: How to Cook OutdoorsWhy is the menu ovo-lacto-vegetarian? What's a rule and what's a choice
What the rule says. The Manual Administrativo do Clube de Desbravadores, from the South American Division, has an entire section on campout food. On the menu, it's explicit: in the past, some Clubs allowed meat products on campouts, but the Church recommends against using that kind of food — and since the Club is a Church department, it must follow that rule. The manual also spells out what the menu needs to include: foods from every group (carbohydrates, proteins, milk and eggs, vegetables, fruit, and nuts/oils), with energy-dense foods used in moderation.
At large events, the requirement gets even stricter. The Manual de Orientações do VI Camporí DSA 2027 states that the menu must be ovo-lacto-vegetarian, following the Church's guidance, and that it will be inspected. The same document brings other kitchen rules worth studying ahead of time: a kitchen tent no larger than 10x5 m for Clubs with more than 70 Pathfinders, gas canisters purchased on-site at the Camporee itself (Clubs may not bring their own), a ban on microwaves and electric ovens, and two separate trash streams — dry and organic.
What varies, and who decides. The menu itself belongs to the Unit: the Manual Administrativo says Units should get to put theirs together according to members' preferences, but leadership supervises. Additional kitchen rules, schedules, and vendors change from campout to campout and from Field to Field (Association or Mission) — the event organizers publish those in their own guidance manual. Confirm with your board before locking in purchases.
The reasoning behind it. There's a practical reason baked into the rule: meat is the riskiest food to transport without a reliable cold chain, and a mass food-poisoning incident thirty kilometers from the nearest hospital is the worst-case scenario for any campout. And there's a teaching reason too — the Manual Administrativo notes that at least once a year there should be a campout where the Units themselves do the cooking, because that's what several Class and Honor requirements depend on, from the menu to proper trash disposal.
Temperature, water, and hygiene: what RDC 216 requires
Brazil's reference technical standard for food handling is RDC ANVISA No. 216, of September 15, 2004. It was written for food service operations — cafeterias, industrial kitchens, restaurants — not for a Club's field kitchen. Even so, it's the best benchmark available, and it's what health inspectors check when a large event gets inspected.
| Situation | Rule | RDC 216/2004 item |
|---|---|---|
| Hot food waiting to be served | Above 60 °C, for at most 6 hours | 4.8.15 |
| Leftovers that will cool down | Drop from 60 °C to 10 °C within 2 hours | 4.8.16 |
| Once cooled | Below 5 °C, or frozen at -18 °C | 4.8.16 |
| Ready food stored at 4 °C or below | Consume within 5 days | 4.8.17 |
| Thawing | Under refrigeration below 5 °C; don't refreeze | 4.8.13 and 4.8.14 |
| Frying oil | Don't exceed 180 °C; replace if smell, taste, or foaming change | 4.8.11 |
Translated to life inside the kitchen tent: don't cook food hours ahead of time. Without a steam table or a fridge, the safe window between pot and plate is short. Cook close to serving time, serve it all, and whatever hot preparation is left over unserved should be tossed — it's not worth the risk of keeping it around a campout.
Water is the item that most often disappears from planning. The World Health Organization, in its technical note on water and sanitation in emergencies No. 9 (updated July 2013), breaks down per-person daily consumption like this: 2.5 to 3 liters for drinking and eating, 3 to 6 liters for cooking, and 2 to 6 liters for basic hygiene, for a total of 7.5 to 15 liters. For 30 Pathfinders over 3 days, that's 675 to 1,350 liters total — which is why the site's water source needs to be confirmed before you pick the campground.
It's worth repeating what the Manual Administrativo already requires: for cooking, use filtered or boiled water, even from a clean-looking stream. Food can't sit on the ground or be left exposed to the sun; dishes get washed right after each meal; organic trash goes into a hole roughly 20 cm wide by 40 cm deep, covered with dirt, and dry trash gets carried back home. Details on fire, gear, and water treatment are covered in campout cooking.
How much does food for a 3-day campout cost?
Food prices shift month to month and city to city, so any fixed figure published here would be out of date within weeks. The honest path is different: price out your own list. Take the table from the previous section, multiply each line by the per-kilo price at the market where your Club shops, and add it up. It takes twenty minutes and gives you the right number — yours.
Until you do that pricing, here are order-of-magnitude references, each with a stated date.
| Reference | Value | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Most expensive basic food basket in the country (São Paulo) | R$ 965.47 per month, or about R$ 32 per day for one adult | DIEESE/Conab, June 2026, released 07/08/2026 |
| Least expensive basic food basket in the country (Aracaju) | R$ 630.40 per month, or about R$ 21 per day | DIEESE/Conab, June 2026 |
| Food package in the international registration for Camporee DSA 2027, ages 10 and up | US$ 85.00 for 15 meals, or about US$ 5.67 per meal | Manual de Orientações do VI Camporí DSA 2027 |
Two ways to read this table. The DIEESE basket is the minimum essential ration for one adult for one month and includes meat — meaning it works as a reference ceiling, not as the cost of your menu, which is meat-free and bought in bulk. The Camporee figure, meanwhile, is the food package for international registration — the one that applies to Clubs and people from outside the South American Division's territory —, a mobile restaurant buffet contracted for a large-scale event, with structure, staff, and logistics built in: it's useful for comparing self-catering to a licensed restaurant, not for estimating a grocery run. Brazilian Clubs follow a different path: registration is billed in reais by the Union (R$ 354.00 or R$ 379.00, depending on the Union, per the VI Camporí DSA 2027 manual), and food is the Club's own decision — set up your own kitchen, which goes through inspection, or hire one of the licensed restaurants listed in the manual, negotiating price directly with the vendor. That manual doesn't publish what the restaurant charges the Brazilian Club.
On the management side, three habits cut real costs without touching the menu: buying wholesale together with other Clubs in the same region, finalizing the list only after the registration deadline (buying for 40 and bringing 26 is the most common waste), and logging every purchase, item by item, so the next campout starts out already budgeted. How to do that logging is covered in club treasury.
Allergies, restrictions, and who's accountable for the menu
Before scaling up a single gram, survey the restrictions. In a Club of 30 Pathfinders, there's a good chance of at least one case of lactose intolerance, or an allergy to milk, egg, or peanuts, or celiac disease — and an ovo-lacto-vegetarian menu happens to lean heavily on milk and eggs. That information comes from the health form the family fills out at registration, not from the Counselor's memory.
Two simple steps handle almost everything: set aside the restricted person's portion before seasoning the big pot (rice and beans without milk work for everyone; white sauce doesn't) and post the full menu in the families' group chat a week ahead, asking that any restriction be flagged. Anyone with a severe allergy brings their own medication, and the board needs to know where it's kept and how to use it.
One honest note about systems: the Pathfinder's official registration and annual insurance only exist in the SGC, the Church's Club Management System — no app, spreadsheet, or website replaces it, and that's where the formal registration data lives. Learn how it works in SGC: what it is and how to log in. Tools like Desbravai are for day-to-day use — organizing lists, schedules, and communication with families — never for official registration or insurance.
Finally, the menu has an owner. The Unit puts it together, Club leadership approves it, and the board is accountable for food and hygiene during the campout — at Camporee DSA 2027, in fact, cleaning the kitchen area is explicitly the Club's responsibility. Settle this at the planning meeting, along with the cooking and dishwashing rotation, and it stops turning into an argument at 9 p.m. in the middle of the woods. The step-by-step for setting up camp is covered in pitching camp.