Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Food Values

[Tree Bressen (tree]

Hi,

Rob S. 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.

Doesn't Doyle St. in Emeryville, CA (where Katie M. & Chuck D. used to 
live) have a requirement that everyone cooks?  My impression is that if a 
group wants to have that expectation they had better put it in place early 
in their development--by the time they have 3/4 of the future members 
coming to meetings it's too late to get everyone to agree to it.

In my (non-cohousing) community (http://www.icetree.com/walnut) everyone is 
required to cook and it's *wonderful!*  Our dinners, which happen 5 nights 
a week M-F, are one of the best things about living here.  Because we cook 
in teams, new members who sometimes believe they can't cook get plenty of 
support.  Even after 5+ years it continues to amaze me that i only have to 
cook once a week and then 4 nights a week i can show up at 6:15pm and there 
is food on the table.

I also notice that when i have been feeling a bit frustrated toward one of 
my housemates, i feel grateful toward them for providing dinner and that 
feeling overflows into my general attitude toward the person, thus 
smoothing community relations.

Cheers,

--Tree



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Tree Bressen
1680 Walnut St.
Eugene, OR 97403
(541) 484-1156
tree [at] ic.org
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