Re: Kitchen Labor Equity | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Stuart Staniford-Chen (staniforcs.ucdavis.edu) | |
Date: Mon, 6 Mar 95 12:02 CST |
N St's meal system is very voluntary. At the beginning of the month everyone signs up with a cooking partner for which date they wish to cook. The number of meals per week thus ranges from two to four. We try to discourage more or less than this, but it does happen once in a while. Sometimes people forget to sign up at the beginning of the month and then add their meal to everyone's copy of the calendar later. We are each supposed to cook once a month if we eat most of the meals. If we eat fewer meals, then we are supposed to cook about every eight meals. Someone who doesn't eat at all is not expected to cook. In practice this doesn't cause a problem: a few people don't get involved, but enough of us do that it is a much-valued institution. I guess I'd say that people who don't cook or eat cause occasional mild concern about why they don't choose to be involved, but it's never been a big issue. We have no accounting of how many meals are cooked or eaten - there's a general culture of trusting everyone to do the right thing overall and not sweating the exact details. Dan Suchman writes: > used (or not) by some participants. One of my criticisms of the system is t > 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 > additionalmeals eaten by their children. We have no requirement for children to cook, so I suppose that we have the same inequity. I've never heard anyone complain about it though (and since I'm not a parent it's likely I would have if they were). We have had serious disagreements over other aspects of the kid issue. I don't know why it's not a problem when Winslow does apparently have a problem. I don't think we think about how our meal system works any more - it's an ingrained habit. I guess (speaking purely for myself) that it would seem a little ungenerous to be carping over having to cook an extra five or ten small meals, when in general I don't have to do any work associated with kids because I don't have any. I wonder if the adult to child ratio is a factor? A typical meal would have 20-25 adults and maybe 5-10 kids here. I guess if there were a lot more kids, that might make a difference. Lately, several of the older kids have taken to cooking once in a while. I believe this was done on their own initiative. Usually they do it in association with an adult. This is a *really* pleasing trend, not because it corrects some perceived inequity but rather because it's neat to see them taking their own place in the community life. They cook very different menus too (they have strong opinions about some of the food that adults cook). > 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 suggestionsto offer. I'd say that if it's a problem, get the older kids to cook. There doesn't seem much point in making parents cook more often than non- parents when the former already have less free time. Stuart.
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Kitchen Labor Equity Dan Suchman, March 5 1995
- Re: Kitchen Labor Equity Stuart Staniford-Chen, March 6 1995
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