Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Meal Participation Program

[Joanie Connors (jvcphd]

It's amazing to me that the cook pays for the meal and is not
reimbursed. How does that all equal out? There is a vast discrepancy
on the cost of meals, and some ingredients are quite expensive, such
as fresh veggies, meats, fish and fruit.

I would imagine you would get a lot of bread and pasta. And what do
you do about the people who don't cook?

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 8:06 AM, Robert Heinich <robert [at] enocommons.org> 
wrote:
>
> Eta,
>
> We have a scheduler who assigns folks to cooking slots (of course, taking in
> account folks' preferences and restrictions).  It is not perfect but thanks
> to the scheduler, it works.
>
> However, if you have been assigned a cooking slot whose date no longer works
> for you, it is up to you to find a replacement.  Generally, one posts to the
> listserv and someone is usually willing to work out an arrangement.
>
>>>> It would also be helpful to find out how much they charge for a meal per
> person.
> The cooks pay for the meal.  Also we do not RSVP.  The cooks take their best
> guess on how many will show up for dinner.  Any leftovers is divided by the
> cooks or shared with the community.  (For dinners when we expect a large
> attendance, we assign more cooks to share the expense.)
>
> So the cooking team plan the meal, prepare the meal, serve the meal and do
> cleanup.  Who does what is worked out by the team.  We have had this
> arrangement for over 10 years and it works for us.
>
> Do you know why your meal attendance has been dropping?
>
> -Robert Heinich
>  Eno Commons Cohousing
>  Durham, NC
>  http://www.enocommons.org
>  where we have a house available for rent as the owners are in New Zealand
> for a year.
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 3:11 PM, Eta Braun <etabr [at] charter.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> I live at Oak Creek Commons in Paso Robles for about 5 years.  We still
>> struggle with scheduling two dinners per week (Thursdays and Sundays).
>> The number of cooks and cleaners has become smaller over time as well
>> as the number of people eating.
>>
>> We would like to hear from other communities how they handle their meal
>> participation program in general and specifically how they ensure
>> enough cooks and cleaners for each meal.  It would also be helpful to
>> find out how much they charge for a meal per person.
>>
>> Thank you in advance for giving us this information.
>>
>> Eta Braun
>> Oak Creel Commons
>> Paso Robles, CA
>>
>>
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