Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Meal Participation

[Mariana Almeida (missmgrrl]

Thanks, Joanie for the dirty dozen list. This could be the start of an actual 
agreement of what we should buy organic and what we should not.

As for the non-working eaters -- there is an idea we're floating to break away 
the meals into a "meals club" where it is self-contained in both labor and 
costs. 

Right now, many functions of it are rolled into other community chores -- for 
example staples shopping is someone's chore, but could become a meals club 
chore that would count towards participation. This is the type of job that 
someone may want to do who cannot cook and clean. Other chores we could roll 
into it are the financial reckoning, organzing of kitchen items, periodic 
deeper tidy-ups of dining areas, that sort of thing. 

We're thinking all this through. There is definitely a labor shortage coming, 
with maybe another 2-3 people who are seniors and who find the cooking process 
to be very demanding, and maybe soon, will find it overly demanding. We'll 
see. One of the appeals of meals club is that enables us to welcome in 
non-residents who want to participate in meals (= provide labor),  but who may 
not have an interest in participating in committees or other community work. 

If anyone has insight on splitting off costs, labor, people for meals prep and 
clean, please let me know. I'd love to trade ideas. 
 
Mariana
Berkeley, Calif Cohousing




________________________________
From: Joanie Connors <jvcphd [at] gmail.com>
To: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Sun, January 24, 2010 7:24:12 AM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Meal Participation


A couple of thoughts in response to Mariana's questions,

Is there nothing these two nonworking eaters can do? Shop? clean &
organize the cabinets? make birthday party arrangements? Call to find
the best prices for ingredients?

It seems like the imbalance there will cause resentment at some point
if not now.