Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Good/Problematic Community Meals Programs

[Tara Gallen (tarabytransit]

Chiming in late to note that we also pretty directly adopted Capitol Hill's
meal plan and it's awesome. Spencer and Sheila from Capitol Hill (see video
at the bottom of Grace's writeup) came and gave us a talk when we were
under construction and we modeled it off of their plan. It has worked
extremely well for us and we haven't revisited the essential concept in the
~10 months we have been doing meals. There are things we have tweaked and
things we still need to tweak, but the structure is so simple and strong
and there's such a minimal amount of administrative overhead. The absence
of cost tracking is a joy. Our community size makes this plan possible; we
have 12 units, 9 of them occupied.

The core pieces are all the same: no cost accounting (cook pays), each
adult cooks, delicious and nutritious, accommodates all dietary
restrictions (and we have some challenging ones), late plates available,
guests welcome, etc. The differences:
-We are very informal about the 'crewing'. We don't have a formal duty
assignment aside from the cook role. The cook does most of the cooking
work, though they will often or usually call for a pair of helping hands to
some degree.
-This does mean that some people end up doing more of the cleanup work more
of the time. We are very privileged to have a high and consistent rate of
participation among community members. So there hasn't been a sense of
disparity (and we have done temperature checks on this often to make sure).
I am sure that duty assignments could be on the table if that wasn't the
case.
-We have the same concept of date rotation, but since we have about 2-2.5
meals/week, the specific days of week are a bit more variable from week to
week. We use a Google calendar to keep track of meal dates and who is
assigned.
-Our meals are usually at 6PM, which is necessary for weekdays, but we have
some folks who prefer to eat on the earlier side. A meal we held at 5PM
this Saturday landed very well. We have been testing out some variety (like
brunches) which also seems good.

Another dimension is that the cook is only responsible for providing a
meal, not necessarily cooking a meal. In reality, almost everyone cooks,
but it means that there is an invitation to lean more heavily on prepared
foods or low-key meals if desired. That option provides a bit of a pressure
release valve in the event that the assigned cook is short on time, and
also makes it accessible to people who aren't that jazzed about cooking.
I've put out Costco potato salad or bag salad before alongside a cooked
main. The vast majority of our meals are absolute bangers; we have a large
number of people who really love food and many who adore cooking.

We use Slack for digital communications, and we have a channel there for
announcing the meal components.

Thank you Grace for the writeup on your meal plan, it's wonderful. We're so
grateful that Capitol Hill have shared their experiences with us all along
the way.

Tara Gallen
Our Urban Village Cohousing - Vancouver, BC
Live with us: three units remaining! oururbanvillage.ca


On Thu, Jun 13, 2024 at 2:29 PM Grace Kim <grace [at] schemataworkshop.com>
wrote:

> I should have added (though its stated in the article), we have 17 adults
> that all take a turn cooking.  We have full participation at meals
> (everyone eats, even if they had a tiresome day, they will come get a plate
> and eat at home while their family joins the rest of us).
>
> We have meals together every other night (except Saturdays), and no money
> changes hands.  So people on a budget work within their means, and people
> who want to be more elaborate can do that without worry that some won't
> come due to price.  We accommodate everyone's food health
> needs/preferences/allergies - the meals must be "delicious and nutritious"
> for everyone.
>
> Its very simple program and we've been doing it for the past 8 years (with
> a big modification during covid).
> When it was safe to do so, everyone was enthusiastic about resuming our
> meal program.
>
>
> grace h. kim faia | schemata workshop, inc.
> principal
> pronouns: she/her
>
> 1720 12th avenue
> seattle wa 98122
> p 206.285.1589   c 206.795.2470
> schemataworkshop.com
>
> Watch my TED talk at TED.com
>
> ------------------------------
> From: Patricia Bailey <editorialcaptive [at] gmail.com>
> To: cohousing-L [at] cohousing.org
> Subject: [C-L]_ Good/Problematic Community Meals Programs
>
> Cohousing ABQ in Albuquerque is looking for input from other communities
> on what has worked well or not worked well when it comes to policies or
> programs around Community Meals. Lots of factors to consider! We?re working
> on getting our policies in place prior to construction getting started
> later this year. Your experience in this area would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Pat Bailey
> Cohousing ABQ Membership Team
>
> ------------------------------
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