Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Meals

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Thanks all for replying so quickly. 

Here’s some more background information that may make a difference.  

At Takoma Village we have one sit-down meal a week called Soup n’ Simple.  I 
created this dinner after a number of other dinner and dining scenarios all 
crashed and burned.  All the former ones had some exchange of money with some 
people cooking and others not.  After a while the cooks got tired and quit.  It 
was also a chore trying to collect money.

So I came up w/ this idea of a “closed” group in which everyone is invited to 
participate.  If you cook … you eat.  You can join a rotation (which is a 
specified number of weeks) and then decide not to join the next time.  You can 
rotate in and out as much as you want.  But if you’re in … you’re expected to 
cook and clean one time during the rotation.   

Lately with the influx of new people we’ve recently had … they want to pay and 
not cook.  Now there are almost as many people paying and not cooking as 
cooking.

No money changes hands.  Meals are targeted to cost up to $4.00 per person.  So 
over the period of the rotation everything is about equal.

 Sometimes there are guests who then pay the $4.00.   Of course, we fix meals 
for people who are sick, have a serious other need or for some other special 
occasion.  

I think this particular plan is not served by having people who only pay and 
those who cook and clean.

Maybe it’s time for us to revisit this meal plan.  This one has been around for 
about 10 years +.  So maybe a new plan is in order.

Please note that while we have this one sit down meal a week … we eat a LOT 
here.  No one is losing weight.  Between holidays, birthdays, BBQs brunches, 
special events, work days, etc.  the calorie count exceeds the national 
standard.


Best --

Ann Zabaldo
Takoma Village Cohousing
Washington, DC
Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
Falls Church, VA
703.688.2646


On Sep 14, 2015, at 7:10 PM, Kathryn McCamant <kmccamant [at] 
cohousing-solutions.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> At Nevada City Cohousing, we donąt tie the abilty to eat common meals to
> cooking. We try to get all adults to participate in the cook teams, but
> other than reminders there are no penalties for not being on a cook team.
> This means we donąt really know if people are eating and not cooking. I
> suspect that those who donąt cook much, rarely eat common meals. But we
> would always encourage people who canąt cook (new baby, elder or sick, or
> just generally overwhelmed) to come to common meals if they can, even if
> they arenąt cooking.
> 
> That being said, Leal..who is 80 something and has had Stage 4 lung cancer
> for 4 years (She reports her doctors canąt figure why she is still alive!?
> Must be those common meals!!!), regularly comes to meals and pitches in as
> she can on mealsŠsometimes by providing her famous German Chocolate
> Brownies for dessert.
> 
> We just generally feel that meals is where so much of our community life
> happens or begins (new ideas, sorting out old ones) that we want to
> encourage everyone to participate as much as they can, with the idea if
> they are coming to meals more then they will likely also do more for/in
> the community all around because they will feel more connected to the
> whole thing. 
> 
> Katie 
> -- 
> Kathryn McCamant, President
> CoHousing Solutions
> 241B Commercial Street
> Nevada City, CA 95959
> T.530.478.1970  C.916.798.4755
> www.cohousing-solutions.com
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 9/14/15, 3:52 PM, "Cohousing-L on behalf of Ann Zabaldo"
> <cohousing-l-bounces+kmccamant=cohousing-solutions.com [at] cohousing.org on
> behalf of zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Are there any cohousing communities out there that allow members to pay
>> only? And not cook or clean?
>> 
>> Under what circumstances do you allow this? For instance if a person has
>> a new baby, is elderly, has a serious conflict etc.
>> 
>> Do any of you have a system in which only some people cook and clean and
>> other people only pay?
>> 
>> Thanks!
>> 
>> Ann Zabaldo
>> Takoma Village Cohousing
>> Washington DC
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> _________________________________________________________________
>> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
>> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
>> 
>> 
> 
> _________________________________________________________________
> Cohousing-L mailing list -- Unsubscribe, archives and other info at:
> http://www.cohousing.org/cohousing-L/
> 
>