Kitchen Labor Equity
From: Dan Suchman (71756.2661compuserve.com)
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 95 01:10 CST
Here at Winslow, we are currently examining the fairness of our meals system.
Meals are served at the Common House 5 nights per week to an average of about 40
people, including children and occasional guests.   Residents can participate in
as few or as many Common House meals as they desire.  Only adults who
participate in the meals system are sheduled to work in the kitchen.  Adult
participants are scheduled to work once per six meals eaten by the adult
participant (meals eaten by the participant's children, regardless of age,
and/or guests are not counted), based on estimates that each participant submits
at the beginning of each 6-week meals cycle.  Two cooks and two cleaners are
scheduled for most meals.  Three cooks and three cleaner are scheduled for
Sunday night meals, which tend to be most heavily attended.  The current labor
pool consists of approximately 40 adults.

We recently created a Task Force on Distribution of Kitchen Labor and Cost to
examine some perceived inequities of this system and the way that it is being
used (or not) by some participants.  One of my criticisms of the system is that
it causes adult participants without children to subsidize (with their labor)
adults participants who have children.  At Winslow, children (whether 3 years
old or 17 years old), are not required to work in the meals system.  Nor are
their parents scheduled to work any more frequently on account of the additional
meals eaten by their children.  There are currently approximately 20 to 25
children and teens participating in the meals system.

In a recent group discussion of the issue, most parents acknowledged the
inequity, even if they could not agree on what to do about it.  A smaller group
of parents asserted adamantly that no inequity existed and that even if an
inequity did exist it should be viewed as a cost of community (how convenient
for those with children).  Meanwhile, 5 of the community's 7 single and
childless households have almost completely stopped participating in the meals
system (for various reasons, among them the perceived labor inequity).
Virtually all families with children eat in the Common House at least once per
week.  There certainly seems to be a correlation.  At the very least, it appears
that there is *something* about the meals system that is not working well for
single and childless households.

I noticed in the messages posted by residents of other cohousing communities a
variety of systems and sentiments surrounding their respective meals systems.  I
was wondering what people in other groups might think of the way that Winslow
handles this issue, and whether you folks might have any comments or suggestions
to offer.

Dan Suchman
Winslow Cohousing Group
Bainbridge Island, WA

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