Cohousing-L Mailing List: re: please help us figure out

[Bonnie Fergusson (fergyb2]

Here at Swan's Market Co-housing, where Joani Blank
currently lives, we do the following.
   1.  We have 3 common meals a week.  Our particular
days are every Tuesday and Thursday and every other
Monday and Sunday--obviously each community works out
which days work best for them.  One family here hates
the idea of Sunday common dinners, interferes with
weekend plans etc. but many of us who work 9-5 Monday
through Friday jobs appreciate the opportunity to cook
on a weekend day when it is less difficult to fit the
job in and the Sunday meals are usually the first
one's signed up for on the cooking schedule.
   2.   We have a large Calendar with colored circles
pasted on the Common Dinner days, every 5 weeks the
color of the circles changes to indicate a new cooking
rotation (this would vary depending on how many people
are in the community and on the cooking roster--in our
case about 30 adults more or less).  Every adult is
expected to sign up once in every rotation.  We cook
in teams of two and the cooking team plans the meal,
shops, cooks, sets the table, and cleans up.  It has
occasionally been suggested that we alter this
arrangement to provide a third to help clean up but we
have as yet not done that.  Partly because people
often will pitch in and help when it's needed and we
like the unforced cooperative nature of this better.
   3.  Our rules on meal planning are simple, a
vegetarian entree must be provided and we try to
accomodate peoples allergies and dietary restrictions
(the specifics of these would obviously vary by
community) in our case we have 9 vegetarians and a
couple of people with milk allergies, one egg allergy,
and one dried pea/lentil allergy and a very strong
aversion to green peppers.  We often will offer some
ingredients "on the side" so those who want them can
sprinkle them in and those who are avoiding them can
do so with ease.  Some common meals are entirely
vegetarian and most have both a vegetarian and a meat
based entree (it's the cooking teams choice).
    4.  People sign up for as many or as few Common
dinners as they like (depends on date, what else
people are doing, and the menu which is supposed to be
posted several days in advance so people can decide).
However everyone must cook, whether they eat often or
not.  Our Meal sign up book has a page with everyone's
name printed on it for each Common Dinner Date and a
box to check to sign up for that date and a place for
the Cooks names, how much each spent, the menu and
room to put down guests names (and who they are the
guest of) and boxes to check if vegetarian meal is
required.  The day before the meal the cooks count up
how many have signed up and how many are vegetarian
and Close the meal which theoreticallly means no more
can sign up but in reality people are always begging
their way in at the last minute (it's up to the
cooks).  Personally I just always plan for a couple of
last minute additions since it nearly always happens. 
We also have "late plates" where people sign up for
the meal but do not plan to be there on time so they
write Late next to their name and the cooking team
dishes them out a plate of dinner and puts it, labeled
with their name, in the fridge to be picked up later. 
   We have a person who tracks the costs and once
every 6 months or so you get a bill or money back
depending on how often you ate, how much you spent
when you cooked and how many guests you invited, etc.
The person who is tracking this divides what the cooks
spent by the number of mouths fed and that's what is
charged each person for that meal (guest meals are
charged to the host family).  I think our average meal
cost is something like $3.50 per person but it varies
from day to day.  The number of diners at each common
dinner varys from 12 to 30 something but is generally
around 25.  Leftovers in the fridge are up for grabs,
we expect people to pony up money for leftovers they
take within the first 24hours after the meal (there is
a box in the pantry for this and that money is used
for cooking supplies, etc.) Anything still around
after 24 hours is free or may be dumped by the next
cooking team if they need the space.
   6.  Problems:  When we have additional adults
(renters, new roomates, etc.) we let three people sign
up for a cooking team so there is room for everyone to
sign up but sometimes too many people sign on as a
third and one day is short one or more cooks.  This is
a relatively recent problem.  At least once, one of
the two cooks forgot to cook and others had to jump in
at the last minute.  Some people seem to require
reminding to sign up each rotation.  Family
emergencies come up, a cook is ill, death in the
family, etc. and last minute trades must occur.  So
far we have always managed to pull it off, we are a
cooperative bunch and care about each other.  People
often come in the last 15-20 minutes before dinner and
help the cooking team with whatever needs doing. 
Sometimes meals are a little late (we hang a sign on
the common house door with expected meal time, when
timing goes awry--not often).  Too many late plates
can be a problem for the cooks, you have to dish them
out before you sit down to eat otherwise people coming
back for seconds may wipe out some favored dish and
there won't be enough for the late plates, and finding
enough space in the fridge to put them all can be a
problem if there are many late plates.  It's lovely to
have the option to have dinner waiting even when you
will be home late though, so despite grumbling no one
seems willing to give this feature up.
   Common Meals are among the very best features of
CoHousing in my humble opinion, it's here that you get
to know your neighbors really well and meals are very
social occasions.  Plan to have fun.
                Love,
                Bonnie Fergusson
                Swan's Market Cohousing
                Oakland, CA


                
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