Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Paying for meals...and cooking them

[Rob Sandelin (robsan]

David Mandell, of Southside Park Cohousing asked:

 > If common dining at least a couple times a week is such a central
>feature of the cohousing concept, then shouldn't we at least exert major peer
>pressure to have all participate in the work (eating any given meal is still
>optional, of course)? I know that with us the issue never arose (not yet,
>anyway). If you live here, you're expected to be on a cooking team, and each
>cooking team is expected to do its thing once a month. Perhaps making the
>schedule less onerous than it seems to be elsewhere keeps anyone from 
>feeling too oppressed by it.

I would argue that community dinner simply does not work for some 
people.  They DO NOT want to have to eat with 40 other people.  So why 
should they have to prepare food?  Making dinner cooking mandatory 
really seems odd to me.  I am not sure I agree that if it isn't 
mandatory then it will go away.  Community dinner is a nice setup and 
it for those who are in to it, its appeals will keep it going.Those 
people who are into it will carry it on.

 We only have 12 families and we manage to do dinner 4 nights a week, 
with no expectations for participation beyond paying more if you decide 
not to cook. Occaisonally no one cooks and so there is no community 
dinner.  No big deal.     Forcing everyone to be on a cooking team 
seems to me to be a HUGE deterent to resale.  Oh yeah, you HAVE to cook 
for the whole neighborhood once a month if you live here.  Boy, that 
seems like it would scare away a lot of people.

Rob Sandelin
Sharingwood