Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: common house meals

[Elizabeth Stevenson (tamgoddess]

Wow! Sounds like you guys need to revamp your work system! There are lots of
issues in your post, and I have to leave soon, but I'll get to the one I
think is most important.

Work and cooking should be separate. Everybody eats, not everybody gardens.

But what of your gardening? Are you talking about work you do in common
areas? That should be counted as work, and expenses paid for by the
community, if the whole community benefits, say if you are weeding lawn
areas or doing landscaping for common areas. That's backbreaking stuff, and
I'm not surprised you feel resentful. If you're just making your own plot of
vegetables, that's a hobby you should do on your own.

If there are people who don't do work, your system needs a real overhaul. We
have many different categories for work, including grounds type work, work
in the neighborhood association, cleaning the commonhouse, doing tours, and
everything in between. All work is valued work. Everyone has to work. Make
some noise and be heard before you go postal. You're doing hard work.

--
Liz Stevenson
Southside Park Cohousing
Sacramento, California

tamgoddess [at] home.com
http://members.home.net/southsideparkcohousing

----------
>From: "Kay Argyle" <argyle [at] mines.utah.edu>
>To: <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
>Subject: Re: [C-L]_common house meals
>Date: Tue, Apr 17, 2001, 10:00 AM
>

>> IMO stipulating that those who want to eat should
>> cook or clean makes sense.  I think I would feel resentful
>> if some people got to participate without having to
>> contribute any labor.
>
> People use the grounds without having contributed labor to the landscaping
> installation or upkeep.  Do I feel resentful?  Yes, because landscapers and
> cooks aren't valued equally.  I don't expect everyone to be out there
> digging sprinkler trenches if they want a lawn; why should the cooks expect
> everyone to cook if they want to eat?
>
> If cooks/cleaners eat an average of 13 meals a month, they pay $33.  If I
> spend the same five to ten hours they spend cooking/cleaning, staking out
> the community garden instead, I pay $65.  I can't justify that on a tight
> budget, so I don't eat, so I feel disconnected from the community, so
> instead of experiencing landscaping as joyful service, I feel like (in a
> fellow-gardener's less-than-tactful phrase) "somebody's yard nigger."  It's
> a nasty phrase, but then it's a nasty feeling.
>
> I have fantasies about selling "sniff 'n' play tickets," to be punched every
> time you take a deep breath lingering by the common house flower beds, have
> a game on the lawn, or sit under a tree; sold at a reduced price to
> residents who do landscaping and at a higher price to everyone else (modeled
> on our meal tickets), funds to finance landscaping purchases (the budget
> intended to pay for landscaping went almost entirely on stuff cut from the
> construction budget).
>
> I always assumed I was going to be cooking.  I looked forward to the
> challenge; I was on the committee setting up the kitchen.  However, I feel I
> need to serve where I can do the most good, and I'm a better gardener than
> cook.  It hurts that the community puts pressure on to get the landscaping
> done, and then rewards people for cooking instead.
>
> Kay Argyle
> argyle [at] mines.utah.edu
> Wasatch Commons
> Salt Lake City
>
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