The Cooking merit badge introduces principles of cooking that can be used both at home or in the outdoors. Scouts who earn this badge will learn about food safety, nutritional guidelines, meal planning, and methods of food preparation, and will review the variety of culinary careers available. This merit badge became Eagle-required on Jan. 1, 2014.

Camping is one of the best-known methods of the Scouting movement. The founder of the scouting movement, Robert Baden-Powell encouraged every Scout to learn the art of living out- of-doors. He believed a young person able to take care of himself while camping would have the confidence to meet life’s other challenges, too