Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Blue Zones/Buettner

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Apr 28, 2015, at 10:54 AM, Bryan Syverson <bryan.syverson [at] 
> fresnocohousing.org> wrote:
> 
> So no, our cohousing community doesn't do much to promote the sort of
> common-sense healthy eating that Buettner sees in the Blue Zones.  Not
> through our common meals, at least.  But I'd love to hear ideas about how
> we could.

One way is to start your own meal. Layout guidelines for meal planning and 
purchasing ingredients (whole foods, organic or natural, etc.) and let it grow 
from 1-2 households to more. 

Choose a regular time of the week. For all activities, I find that a set time 
is preferable. Moving events around becomes a job in and of itself and 
undependable.

We have a group that meets on Mondays called Soup and Simple. Soup or a simple 
meal, salad, simple desert. Usually vegetarian because we have both vegetarians 
and vegans.People sign up for a rotation and usually with set cooke/clean up 
teams. The team signs up. 

Others can pay $4 to sign up for one meal.  One popular meal of tacos can be 35 
people. The group is smaller in the summer and may only have 15 or no rotation 
at all.

 A rotation lasts as long as there are cook teams signed up. One person 
reported that if she had to cook more often than every 6 weeks, the rotation 
wasn't worth it too her. So there is probably a tipping point to success.

We also have had times when two households join and take turns cooking meals on 
a given night of the week -- you do Saturday and I'll do Sunday.

I think deadly is trying to make everyone happy. With diversity also comes diet 
diversity.

Sharon
----
Sharon Villines
Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
http://www.takomavillage.org