Cohousing-L Mailing List: Fwd: Meal Tracking Programs

[Malcolm Eva (malcolm]

> Hi Kathy
> 
> By term, I mean school terms, 3 a year. It will depend upon the length of a 
> school term - the Autumn (Fall) is always early September to just before 
> Christmas, Spring is early January to shortly before Easter, always a 
> moveable feast of course, and Summer just after Easter to July.  
> 
> We cook three times a week: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and once a month 
> on Saturday so that people who work and can't manage a cooking shift on those 
> days still have a chance to be part of a team.  Each team comprises a lead 
> cook and three members.    The rota is published shortly before the term 
> starts, so that at the beginning of each term we can put in our diaries when 
> we're due to cook and just turn up on the day with our aprons.  The food will 
> be ready and waiting to be chopped etc.  If there's a day of the week we can 
> never cook, we let the rota organiser know, and she takes that into account.
> 
> The menus are agreed by a team at the beginning of the term - the lead cooks 
> can often have an input if they have a favourite dish.  The menus are just 
> for the main course; if a team wants to do a dessert as well, that's decided 
> on the night according to time and ingredients available.   We have a 
> seasonal vegetable box delivered each week from a local organic farm, so the 
> veg content is often an unknown quantity in advance.
> 
> People sign up at the beginning of the week for any meals they want to eat, 
> so by Wednesday morning the buyer knows how much food is needed.  We have a 
> store cupboard for dry goods, bottle goods, sauces and the like, while food 
> with a short shelf life is ordered (from a wholefood wholesaler) in time for 
> the meals, based on the menu and numbers signed up.  Residents pay either by 
> cheque to the person who looks after the sign-ups, or by electronic 
> transfer/standing order to the kitchen account.  We ask people to pay in 
> advance so that the account is able to pay the suppliers up front.  Some have 
> just enough in their account for each week, others pay a big chunk in advance 
> so they have credit for several weeks.  The accounts are published each month 
> and posted on the board.  The accounts - and sign-ups - are done according to 
> the household rather than by individuals, so if a family of three is coming 
> to eat we don't need all their names, just the number 3 against their house 
> number for that day.
> 
> It's worked very well for the 9 years the kitchen has been running.  The 
> expectation is that everyone over 18 does one cooking duty per month.  Where 
> this can be problematic is when teenagers turn18 but don't want to cook.  If 
> lodgers and tenants are here for more than a certain time they too go on the 
> cooking rota.  Some people over a certain age find a 3 hour cooking shift 
> very tiring, so we have a share arrangement whereby two might split a single 
> shift and just do some food prep or just do the clearing up at the end of the 
> meal.  
> 
> All the meals are vegetarian; some people don't come because the food doesn't 
> suit them i.e. if they are dairy intolerant, or gluten intolerant, or can't 
> have too many carbs, most meals may be uncomfortable for them.  I'd like us 
> to explore the possibility of preparing vegan and gluten free dishes 
> alongside the main meals, but I think most team leaders would find that 
> rather onerous on top of preparing the main meal.  Keeping track of how many 
> special meals for each day would be an extra overhead and I understand their 
> reluctance.
> 
> I hope this helps with your considerations at Santa Cruz - if you want to go 
> into any more detail on any aspect, please do ask.
> 
> best wishes
> 
> Malcolm
> Springhill UK
> 
> On 13 Mar 2014, at 18:07, Kathy Kelly wrote:
> 
>> Hi Malcolm,
>> I was intrigued by your post on your meal system. Would you mind sharing the 
>> details? We here in Santa Cruz, CA are in the midst of revamping our meals 
>> program.
>> 
>> Here are my questions based on your post:
>> 1. How long is a term?
>> 2. Do you always have meals on the same days of the week each term?
>> 3. Setting the menus. We have always had the cooks of a particular meal set 
>> the menu. I love the idea of having a group that sets the menus ahead and 
>> then finds cooks for the meals. I would love more info on how this works in 
>> practice for you.
>> 
>> Thanks for any info you can pass on!
>> 
>> Kathy Kelly
>> Coyote Crossings Cohousing
>> Santa Cruz, CA, USA
>> 
>>  
>> On 13 Mar 2014, at 17:39, Sharon Villines wrote:
>> 
>> >
>> > Katie mentioned that they have a great mealtracking program. What do you 
>> > use? And what do others use?
>> >
>> > We are still paper and pencil on a bulletin board and I find it very 
>> > inconvenient. There could be many more possibilities if we had it online.
>> >
>> > Sharon
>> > ----
>> > Sharon Villines
>> > Takoma Village Cohousing, Washington DC
>> > http://www.takomavillage.org
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>