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Stoves for Centralized Cooking for Emergency Settlements by Robin Papafio

Boiling Point
Front cover of Boiling Point issue 37
Issue 37 (1996) Household energy in emergency situations
ArticleStoves for Centralized Cooking for Emergency Settlements
AuthorRobin Papafio?

[top] [end]Background/problem specification

The centralized cooking of food in relief situations is usually dependent on biomass fuels and so makes a number of critical demands on the cooking method used in terms of the need for reliability, ease of use and maintainability, as well as on the very difficult operating environment. Ultimately, the failure to cook regular large quantities may lead to the deaths of the malnourished children and adults being fed. At the same time, the demand for fuel supplies often leads to severe local environment damage.

Feeding kitchens typically cook for 100 to 300 individuals identified as needing specially developed foods (supplementary and therapeutic feeding) as part of a nutritional programme to improve their health. In the case of cooking daily food rations for an identified population where an entire group, both children and adults is cooked for, irrespective of nutritional status (as is the case in some refugee camps) numbers will be much higher. Some refugee camps number up to 50,000 individuals.

Foods cooked, will of course, depend on the situation but tend to be protein enriched mixtures. One common example is 'UNIMIX', a premix of grain or pulse flour, sugar, oil, and milk or cream powder, which is supplied for cooking in the form of a coarse powder. Porridge made from high energy biscuits, oats or other cereals as well as milled pulses, grains or soya are also common. General ration foods, such as porridge or stews, are often similar to the indigenous staple food of the refugees and will be cooked in the same way. One major variation is the making of bread (usually unleavened) which will obviously require different cooking methods.

No matter what is being cooked, consistency tends to vary from that of a soup to a thick porridge or stew. If cooked from a powder or grain mixed with cold water, it will need to be boiled or simmered, or a combination of both, for times ranging typically from 30 to 90 minutes. The average supplementary feeding centre run by the Save the Children Fund in Mogadishu during 1992 catered for 200 children, cooking around 300 litres of UNIMIX four times per day. Large general ration cooking will involve amounts much larger than this.
No food for the children
No food for the children


During an emergency, the fast response nature of most relief situations and the need to prioritize the many immediate problems, means that the methods and equipment used for cooking are not normally given much attention. They are usually very inefficient, slow, unreliable and difficult and unpleasant to use, are smoky, badly ventilated and extremely hot. In addition to these immediate, short term problems, the location of many feeding centres makes the logistics of fuel supply and its continuity difficult. both for imported fuel such as kerosene, and for firewood and charcoal, their most common sources of energy, which increasingly comes from further away.

The most pressing long term problem is that of widespread and chronic environmental degradation resulting from the excessive use of firewood to supply the unusually high population concentration in camp and feeding situations.

There appears to be a need to develop cooking methods to cater for relief situations where there are special constraints and demands. Emergency relief organisations, often ad hoc and inexperienced. are unlikely to have the skills or experience needed to design and produce stoves and cooking pots for these conditions and would be well advised to obtain specialist advice or assistance. A well planned and constructed cooking system will save fuel, and produce better food more quickly and in safer and healthier conditions and will last much longer than several, enlarged and inefficient, mud or oil drums stoves. However, a set of criteria or a format for setting out these requirements and conditions and the skills and material available would be helpful.

The following requirements are almost always present and can be e met in several ways:
  • Ability to cook large volumes of various foods up to six times daily
  • Must be fuel efficient
  • Ideally, ability to use various forms of fuel
  • Fast cooking with sustainable boiling/simmering capabilities and with various cooking modes to provide good temperature control
  • Clean and safe to use with a minimum of smoke
  • Ability to cook continuously at any time of day or night
  • Ability to accommodate various pot sizes and to fry and cook with a hot plate.
  • Camp planners should always remember the stove maxim 'even the most efficient stove will not save fuel if it is not used' or in this case, if the camp occupants don't like the way the food is cooked, it will not be eaten.

[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 37: Household energy in emergency situations

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Energy options for Refugee Camps - ApTibeT Refugee Projects in Ladakh - Solar Cookits for Kenya Camps - Cooking Energy as Seen by a Planner - Stoves in Emergency Actions - Stoves for Centralized Cooking for Emergency Settlements - Camp Cooking - Stove Checklist for Refugee Situations - African Refugee Energy Workshop - Sunseed solar cooker-Tanzania trials 1995 - Vietnam Low-Cost Solar Water Heater - Energy for domestic brewing and bread baking - Indian Chulha technology since 1983



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Page created: 13 August 2007; Last edited: 02 December 2008; Version: 2
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Pagename: StovesForCentralizedCookingForEmergencySettlements @HEDON: DNGA