Cohousing-L Mailing List: Question about Meals...

[Jose Marquez (marchpower]

Hello!

I am a community member of the new Duwamish Cohousing Community under
construction in West Seattle.  We are planning to move into our homes around
April.  One of the subcommittees we have is supposed to work on issues
surrounding Common Meals.  From how often to who cooks to how meal work
counts toward community contribution to what size pots and pans to buy and
how to shop...we have to come up with some ideas about all these things.
I'd like to know how other communities have dealt with this?  We have 23
families and a large common house with a common eating area and kitchen.  So
far I've gotten the impression that people like the idea of 2-3 dinners
together per week, but there is NO expectation placed upon people to attend.
There's another issue...how to know who's coming so you cook enough or not
too much food!  Some of our members who are coming from a smaller cohousing
community have suggested waiting until we move in to deal with this since
we'll all live close to each other at that time.  Other people want to have
the community pretty much ready to live in upon move-in and want to start
researching this and other issues sooner.

I'd love all of your ideas and suggestions!  How have you handled common
meals, what are your favorite large group recipes, did you do more before or
after move in or wish you'd done one or the other, etc!

Thanks!
March
Duwamish Cohousing
West Seattle, Washington
March (Mama to Roman)
"Live Simply"