Solar Oven Partners

Solar Oven Partners (SOP) has distributed ovens to more than 11,300 trained users. The ministry works to place ovens in the hands of the poor in deforested land. This Volunteer in Mission (VIM) ministry travels to the Dominican Republic and Sierra Leone several times a year.

Why Are Solar Ovens Needed?

A woman in the Dominican Republic is visibly happy about her new solar oven, and the instruction she received on using it effectively.

For a third of humanity, a hot meal means cooking over an open fire. More than 40% of the population of the Dominican Republic live in poverty. The women of the household are frequently balancing the purchase of cooking fuel against buying adequate and healthy food to feed the family.

Solar Ovens provide relief. It is an economical way to cook food. Our solar ovens also pasteurize drinking water to help reduce life-threatening disease, such as diarrhea and dehydration. This helps to reduce the child- and infant-mortality rates resulting from water-borne diseases.

Cooking with charcoal, the traditional fuel in countries like the Dominican Republic, is unhealthy. Solar Ovens eliminate the air pollution from burning charcoal, which also reduces respiratory and eye disease, and dangerous burns among women and children who tend charcoal cooking fires.

How Can I Help?

Volunteers assembling solar oven parts in one of the workshops in the Dakotas.

– Give the gift of a solar oven to a family in need. Costs of components and shipping for the high-quality ovens have topped $100. When added to the cost of the program’s two-day training seminars—an essential element in successfully placing an oven—the cost is approximately $150 per family. Tax-deductible gifts of any size are important. You may make a one-time gift or a monthly contribution through the UMCOR link. Click here to donate online.
Or send a check to:
Solar Oven Partners UMC
1331 W. University Ave.,
P.O. Box 460
Mitchell, SD 57301

The Advance project numbers are:
Dakotas UMC Advance #637
UMCOR Advance #418812

– Serve on a Volunteers In Mission (ViM) team at your own expense to help with solar oven assembly and training for solar cooking.

– Volunteer to help fabricate oven components at our Montrose workshop, reflector workshop at Rapid City and help package oven boxes and other items for shipment at our centeral workshop in Raymond, SD.