Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Food Values

[Craig Ragland (craigragland]

As you know Rob, we're a bit of an unusual cohousing community. And full
participation is not an expectation, but our history.

On 3/4/06, Rob Sandelin <floriferous [at] msn.com> wrote:
>
> It's a bit unusual to expect every person in a cohousing community to
> participate in a community meals system, in fact, as far as I know, its
> unheard of. Perhaps you should rethink the expectation.
>
>
> Rob Sandelin
> Naturalist, Writer
> The Environmental Science School
> http://www.nonprofitpages.com/nica/SVE.htm
>
> ><((((º>`·..·`·..·`·...><((((º>...·`·..·`·...><((((º>.·`·..·`·...><((((º>.·`
> ·..·`·...><((((º>·.. ><((((º>
>
> ·`·..·`·...·..·`><((((º>.·`·..·`·...><((((º>.·`·..·`·...><((((º>..·`·..·`·..
> .><((((º>·.. ·`·..·`·....·`·..·`·...><((((º>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Craig Ragland [mailto:craigragland [at] gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, March 04, 2006 2:04 PM
> To: Cohousing-L
> Subject: [C-L]_ Food Values
>
> This conversation on food labor is poignant for me as I prepare for
> facilitating a sharing circle here at Songaia this evening on our values
> around food. I'll be quoting from the thread, as well from Dave Wann's
> book
> Reinventing Community; Stories from the walkways of cohousing - many of
> you
> are contributors... thanks
>
> Some of the values we're addressing are:
>
> What food Songaia buys as it relates to:
> - organic
> - cost
> - protein
> - fair trade
> - local
>
> How we buy/share food
> - common meal food
> - pantry food (available to all families for use in private homes)
> - privately purchased food
>
> How we make the buying/sharing happen
> - amounts of free labor
> - types of labor
> - hidden costs, e.g. gas (buyers currently pay for their own gas)
>
> Forms of participation
> - Traditional: Common meals + pantry
> - Pantry-only sharing (no common meals)
> - Common meal-only sharing (no pantry)
> As a check-in, I'll ask people to recall and share memories of a
> particular
> dish or food, sharing why its special for you.
>
> Part of what is triggering this attention at Songaia is a shift in
> participation as a family recently decided to withdraw from the common
> meals. This is the first time since move-in (2000), that anyone living at
> Songaia has chosen not to participate. The couple's concerns are twofold;
> (1) the level of noise/activity (mostly kid energy) in the common house
> during our meals and the poor support for their diet preferences... they
> prefer meat and potatoes, while our meals have emphasized poultry/fish,
> rather beef/pork and also support vegetarians. Another recent development
> is
> that two families (both with kids) who do not live here now join us for
> some
> of our common meals. Like many cohousing communities we support a wide
> variety of diet needs, but the idea of preparing red meat dishes on a
> routine basis has not attractive.
>
> I would love to hear any insights out there on approaches toward dealing
> with this disparity? We're meeting in 3 hours, but the circle is really
> just
> take another step in growing our relationships around sharing food and
> growing community.
>
> Craig
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