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

[samantha (samantha]

At Emerson Commons, we use a similar system for our twice-weekly meals.  
All adults who participate either prepare a meal or hire someone to do 
it (or get their spouse to do it).  Participants for either the Thursday 
or Sunday meals (or both) sign up on a Google sheet that lists both the 
people preparing food and the people who will be eating each meal as 
well as their dietary restrictions.  There's space on the sign-up sheet 
for an assistant, but you can be your own assistant if you want.  We 
have 20 households and most participate in at least one meal a week

I love that, in exchange for preparing only four meals a year, about 90 
meals are prepared for me and most are delicious and healthy.  Also, 
that no accounting is required and that so many people cook!

Samantha Embrey

Emerson Commons, Crozet, VA

On 2024-06-18 16:19, Tara Gallen wrote:

> 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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