Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Meal Participation

[netipotlady (netipotlady]

Our meal program at Stone Curves Cohousing in Tucson, AZ seems to be  
working well. 
People who are interested in participating sign up for the rotation  
(usually 6 weeks long). Then the Weekly Meal Club person (assigned by our work  
program coordinator) puts up a calendar with the dates of the meals and how 
many  people are needed to work at each meal (this is dependent upon how many 
sign up  but is usually 4 people, usually two cooks and two set up/clean up  
people). The team decides what the menu is and posts it both online and in  
the dining room. Members then sign up for meat or veggie option and if they 
plan  to bring a guest. The cooking team buys the ingredients (and is 
either  reimbursed or puts the amount spent towards their meal accounts). and 
serves the  meal. There is a separate person assigned to keep the meal account 
book and  deduct the cost of the meal from each member's account (up to $4 
per adult  and half of that for children 3-12 yrs. old). Each family/person 
at Stone Curves  has a meal account page and regularly puts money into the 
account to pay for  meals. The meal account book keeper, also reimburses the 
cooking  team in whichever way they chose. Meals are served once a week on a 
rotating  schedule- Wed., Tues., Monday, and Sat. nights at 6:30pm. We 
usually have about  35 participants including children but sometimes it is up 
to 
50 and during the  summer when lots of people are away it can be in the 
teens. We have several  double dipper groups that meet either weekly in 
members' 
homes. These are small  limited in number groups. The cook pays for 
ingredients and it seems to even out  in the end. We also have a vegetarian 
group 
of 8 which meets monthly. Members in  this group take turns preparing dishes 
for the meal (main course, soup or  appetizer, salad or side dish, and 
dessert). Stone Curves has a birthday potluck  each month and there are other 
spontaneous community meals and events on a  regular basis.
The only problem I've heard is that large families find the cost to be  
objectionable at times.
 
 
Gina  Kruse
Stone Curves Cohousing
Tucson, AZ