Cohousing-L Mailing List: re shared meals

[lienjud [at] aol.com (lienjud]

thank you for starting this thread and thank you to all who have contributed to 
give us a picture what might be happening in the coho world post covid. 
I live at Cascadia Commons in Portland. our community of 26 households opened 
in 2000 and I moved to PDX in 2001. Once the CH was up and functioning, we had 
a solid meal plan. I served on the meal plan committee for many years. during 
our 20 years, we adjusted the meal plan several times to maximize 
participation. 
pre covid, we were at about 50% of households taking part in the meal plan. in 
March 2020 once the pandemic was declared, the meal plan was suspended by the 
covid ad hoc committee and very few people went into the CH for much of the 
pandemic. 
in 2021 when we thought covid was coming to an end and vaccinations were 
available, there was talk of restarting the meal plan. we did a survey and it 
looked like many were interested and many offered to cook. but no one wanted to 
fill the role of the coordinator. the previous coordinator did not feel up to 
the task. and then in the summer of 2021, there was an upswing in covid with 
the first big variant. and people got scared again. 
at some point in 2021, i don't remember when, a small group of us organized 
sharing meals in the CH or outside depending on weather but bringing our own 
food. the turnout was low-11 at the highest and some meals, one of us ate there 
alone. we continued that until Nov 22 when we had a disaster in our CH and it 
was a construction site till just now. BYOP seemed ideal esp with so many food 
preferences, you ate exactly what is on your diet, it is affordable and no 
clean up is involved. you just show up when you can!
one community member had visited a group in NC and suggested using their 
system. this community had regular meals and it was not highly structured like 
ours had been. It sounded like someone would get a team together to cook and 
clean and members would bring $ to that meal. several meals were organized at 
Cascadia and attendance was good-15 to 21 people. But, it was the same people 
who stepped up to cook and no other teams followed their example. So, that 
effort fizzled. Even holiday meals, where we used to have 30 to 50 people, 
during the last few years, we had 11 at the most. 
i have done a lot of thinking about this and cohousing post covid. I am 
relieved that we are not the only community that seems to be struggling and 
wish this would be addressed at the national level.
I wonder if communities that have been in existence for 15 years or more are 
esp affected. In younger communities, there might be more commitment and 
energy?  from my life experience, it seems that it is hard to pick up again 
after stopping an activity. It is easier to start something new. After not 
having a meal plan for 1 year +, and having stepped away from those 
responsibilities, I can imagine people rethought their commitments. As of now, 
we are all 3 years older, many in their 70's and some in their 80's and our 
health and energy might not be the same. From conversations i have had with 
members, I learned about misgivings about our meal plan. some want a meal plan 
but like we had and are not willing to organize it. It would be a lot of work 
to find out what people would want and what they are willing to do.  Some are 
burned out, some realized that they don't wish to cook after working all day 
and want their weekends to themselves. people's lives changed in these years. 
Some households that used to participate are estranged from the community.  one 
big deterrent to cooking now vs 2001, is the # of dietary restrictions. We went 
from omnivores and vegetarians to many, many variations. we also had new 
households join during the pandemic that maybe were not well informed  re 
participation. 
I also think that the pandemic brought unresolved conflicts to the surface and 
added many more. We have not resolved those conflicts and the lockdown and 
people's fear of others led to much mistrust.
 We are struggling to say the least (from my perspective).
Judith Lienhard, Cascadia Commons, Portland Oregon