Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: [C-L] Paying for common meals

[Laura Fitch, A.I.A. (lfitch]

We used to have a complicated system at Pioneer Valley, now it is VERY 
SIMPLE.  We charge $3 per adult and $1.50 per child, but do not require 
cooks to do any accounting of actual meal costs.  We pre-pay for the 
meals by dropping a check into an envelop and then highlighting how many 
$3 meals it pays for on a clipboard full of family charts.  Most people 
pre-pay about a months worth of meals, and then sign-up for about a 
months worth of meals as well.  After the cook has prepared the meal, 
he/she flips through the clip board and crosses out the highlighted 
boxes corresponding to how many folks from that family signed up for the 
meal (this takes about 2 minutes to do).  Then they sign the front sheet 
showing that they remembered to do this).  If they happen to notice that 
a family is way behind in highlighted, pre-paid boxes, then they can 
drop a reminder in their community mail box.  Generally everyone 
remembers to periodically check their family chart.

If this sounds complicated, it is only because it is hard to discribe - 
it is really a very simple solution.

The other major simplification that we toke at the same time (about two 
years ago) is that we developed a rotating menu of recipes.  These 
recipes had proven popular over the many years of eating together, were 
fairly simple to make in large quanitites, and met this low cost.  Most 
cooks choose to cook the meal in the pre-planned rotation, but they can 
do their own menu if they want.

Laura

--
Laura Fitch, A.I.A.
Principal Architect

KRAUS-FITCH ARCHITECTS, INC.
110 Pulpit Hill Rd.
Amherst, MA  01002
413-549-5799
413-549-7918 (fax)

lfitch [at] krausfitch.com




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