Camps and Kitchens
Camps and kitchens are the basic community units of the Gathering. Camps may be based on regional, spiritual, or even dietary commonalities. For example, Kid Village attracts attendees with children. Brew-Ha-Ha specializes in serving herbal teas in a drug-free/smoke-free environment. Bread of Life Camp promotes Christianity.
Not all camps are kitchens, but all kitchens are camps. In addition to feeding passers-by, kitchens send food to the two large communal, predominantly vegetarian, meals served daily in the main meadow.[11]
Water and Sanitation
Drinking water is filtered at gatherings, both by small pump filters and large gravity-feed devices. Attendees are encouraged also to boil drinking water. Water is often tapped at a source (such as a spring or stream) and run hundreds of yards to main kitchens in the gathering via plastic hosing.
Sanitation has historically been a major concern at Rainbow Gatherings. Human waste is deposited in latrine trenches and treated with lime and ash from campfires. New latrines are dug and filled in daily. The 1987 gathering in North Carolina experienced an outbreak of highly contagious shigellosis (a.k.a dysentery) (known at the gathering as Beaver Fever) causing diarrhea.[12] The 1996 Gathering in Missouri also had a large outbreak, reportedly of shigellosis. The source was rumored to be animal waste pollution in the creek which ran along the site.