Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Meal payments

[R.P. Aditya (aditya]

On Wed, Jan 23, 2008 at 08:31:15PM -0500, Ruth Hirsch wrote:
> So,  feedback, please: What system/s do you use?  Do you find it works?

At Great Oak in Ann Arbor, MI, we use the following system we inherited from
Sunward, our neighbor, for apportioning meal payments:

- cook posts the detailed menu as far in advance as practical

- signups close in time for the cook to go shopping

- at the the meal any late signups are recorded

- the cost of the meal + pantry fee (12.5% currently) is divided by the number
of diners (teens pay 75% of adults, kids over 6 years of age pay 50%, little
kids under pay nothing)

over the last 908 billed meals we've had in just under 4 years, the average
cost per adult has been $4.57 and we've averaged 31 adults, 1 teen, almost 4
kids and 5 little kids per meal

top twenty meal titles :-)

 count | meal name
-------+--------------------------------
     9 | Jambalaya
     7 | Quiche
     7 | Hobbit Pie
     6 | Mac & cheese
     6 | Build your own salad
     5 | Earthen Jar take-out
     5 | Tortilla Soup
     5 | Lasagna
     5 | Mafe
     5 | Burrito/Taco/Salad
     5 | Ciw Yapp or Ciw Niebe
     5 | Make your own burrito/taco/salad
     5 | Meeting Night Pizza
     4 | Gazpacho
     4 | Meeting Night Meal
     4 | Enchiladas
     4 | Stuffed Shells
     4 | Stroganoff
     3 | Make your own burritos
     3 | Tortilla soup

You can see a current list of our upcoming meals on our website (refreshed all
the time :-)

Previously posted information on our meal program referenced at:

  http://gocoho.org/blog/?p=13

at 5 meals a week, and a strong desire not to reduce that number, the system
seems popular, so in a community our size (37 households, approx 60 adults, 30
kids) it seems to work well

hope that helps,
Adi
Great Oak Cohousing
Ann Arbor, MI
http://www.gocoho.org