Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: common house meals /[Mandatory cooking cautionary note]

[Kristina Spencer (kspencer]

On Tue, 17 Apr 2001, Peter Scott wrote:

> So while food preparing is not mandatory, it is mandatory if you want to eat?

Yup. The only exception is the honeymoon period after a new move-in. We
got to eat as often as we wanted for the first couple of months we were
here without being on the work schedule.

> This gets around the little red hen syndrome i suppose, even if it
> doesnt 'enshrine' a meal culture per se. A good compromise maybe.
> Being a structure-loving person, I rather like the mandatory flavour,
> although also like the idea of being able to chose a job within that
> structure, as you have done with the cooking/cleanup.

Yes. And the meal system has remained very healthy - as I mentioned, our
group has been here almost 10 years and we still are doing meals 5
nights/week. I don't think that there are many groups who have meals that
often.

> Your system would mean meals on different nights, per cycle or even
> week? I guess creatures of habit like myself would have to dairy more
> of our lives...

I'm not certain what you're asking. If you mean, can you eat on different
nights every week, the answer is yes. See below for more on this.

> Do you still sign up for meals (to eat) on a per meal basis? The piece
> of the common meals thing that has always bothered me is having to
> sign up in advance for meals, like do i sign up for meals at home! But
> im sure i could commit to a certain number of meals each seven weeks,
> if i could choose which ones i actually turned up to later. Does
> anyone have a law of averages type approach (maybe based on meal money
> comitted each cycle as above) that avoids advance sign up for each and
> every meal?

Yes, we still sign up on a per meal basis. Cooks are required to post the
menu a week in advance (and usually manage to do so!) so you can look over
the week's menus and decide which meals you're going to eat. And it's an
honour system thing - nobody monitors that you've eaten 2 meals one week
so you can't sign up for a 3rd... so if there was a week where 3 meals
appealed to you, you could sign up for them... and then perhaps the next
week you'd only sign up for one. I don't think it's encouraged to do that
often because commiting to a certain number of meals/week helps keep the
numbers fairly consistent. But occasionally it's fine to do that. Even
with a 3-year-old, we're almost always able to find 2 meals/week that we
can do.

> We are about 8 weeks away from first move ins. Thus far our "common
> meals" at weekly meetings are based on 3 rostered cooks and no sign
> ups to eat required. The low frequency and highish attendence due to
> the importance of agendad decisions usually ensures quantities are
> easy to estimate. Costs are covered by a $2 donation.

The way we work costs is that the cook, when posting a menu, posts an
estimated price/portion. It's just that - a ballpark. An average meal ends
up costing around $2.50, though anything under $3 is considered to be
okay. Fancier meals can creep over $3, but it doesn't happen too often.
The cook also posts a cut-off date/time for signing up so s/he can do a
count and shop based on those numbers. It's the cook's discretion as to
whether s/he will accept late sign-ups.

Kristina
Winslow Cohousing
Bainbridge Island, WA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kristina Spencer                   We are an endless moving stream
kspencer [at] drizzle.net                  in an endless moving stream.
                                              -Jisho Warner
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



_______________________________________________
Cohousing-L mailing list
Cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org  Unsubscribe info:
http://www.communityforum.net/mailman/listinfo/cohousing-l