Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Dietary preferences/restrictions/aversions/allergies

[Jessie Kome (jehako]

Hi-

How big is Gainesville Coho? Here at Eastern Village (55 households), we are 
big enough to have executed multiple strategies. We have always had at least 
one regular potluck dinner at which everyone identifies their dishes vegan, 
dairy, meat, nuts, gluten. And there is a bi-weekly vegan sign up dinner, and 
also a carnivore sign up dinner. We also have sign up dinner circles, which are 
a quarterly cycle of private (in individual homes) dinner parties where the 
host family tries to find out and honor all invited guest preferences. And a 
lot of random, more spontaneous meals, snacks, happy hours, and the like. 

We have an overall commitment at community-wide planned meals to always have a 
vegan option, and we have also agreed that it is always ok to bring your own 
food if you want to attend a meal but the selection doesn't work for you ( in 
other words, bringing your own food is not a comment on the quality of your 
neighbor's cooking).

Dietary preferences inside the community may affect how you set up your 
kitchen. Our common kitchen has some identified cabinets for dishes and pots 
that are only used by people keeping vegan or kosher/vegan. (FWIW, our 
commercial dishwasher gets hot enough to kasher dishes.)

Jessie Handforth Kome
Eastern Village Cohousing
Silver Spring, Maryland 
Where we are having salons to discuss our thoughts and feelings about how EVC 
community is supported by (or might be supported better by) our "secret garden" 
courtyard and "urban oasis" green roof.

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