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

[Elizabeth Magill (pastorlizm]

Before Covid we had 3 or 4 meals per week, since covid 1-2 meals per week.

We use the cohousing designed "Gather" data base which reminds cooks,
cleaners, and eaters of the meals, and lists each person and what they have
signed up for (meat or vegetarian, half or whole meal).

It is $5 per meat serving, $4 per veggie, half portions at half price.
Cooks aim for some lower dollar amount (I don't remember as I'm always way
below it), but can be reimbursed for a bit over the meal cost. We also have
"at-cost" meals where the cook announces it will cost more and a guess as
to the cost, then tells gather the actual cost and it charges everyone for
the meal. (Lobster Fest in July is a big deal.)

Pantry items are purchased with money from meals, one person has that
responsibility.

The biggest thing that is different from many communities is we have a
meals scheduler who looks at the calendar and when cooks are available, and
assigns everyone to cook and clean according to their own schedule (we use
doodle to report when we are available.)
So I say here are my dates, I'm willing to cook once a month, and the meals
schedule is published, and there I am on one of the dates, and I look and
see who will be on my team. (An assistant cook and 3 cleaners.)

Meals run 15-50 people, with most around 30.
We have saturday brunch and weekday dinners, rotating days between Monday,
Thursday, and Sunday evenings.

Lately we have a shortage of cleaners.

-Liz
(The Rev. Dr.) Elizabeth Mae Magill
Pastor, Ashburnham Community Church
Minister to the Affiliates, Ecclesia Ministries
www.elizabethmaemagill.com
508-450-0431


On Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 8:14 AM Chapel, Thomas (CDC/NCIPC/DOP) via
Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> Thanks this was very helpful
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cohousing-L <cohousing-l-bounces+tchapel=cdc.gov [at] cohousing.org> On
> Behalf Of JoAnna Allen via Cohousing-L
> Sent: Tuesday, June 18, 2024 6:10 PM
> To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org
> Cc: JoAnna Allen <jowooallen [at] verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Good/Problematic Community Meals Programs
>
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>
> Hi all,
>
> *Hoping this is not too lengthy* but I wanted to share since we at Phoenix
> Commons in Oakland have a system that IMHO works pretty well.
> We are seniors, 41 units, 50+ residents, 8 years old, very urban, 4 story
> building.
>
> _Schedule_:  Mondays and Wednesdays at 6 pm are Common meals, Friday is
> Pot Luck.  Spanning 8 years we seldom have had an empty slot, although with
> some regular cooks having moved away, we recently had our first blank meal
> days.  Our large size facilitates getting folks to cook.
>
> _Manpower_:   We use our Mosaic software to sign up for such tasks as:
> cook, assistant,  salad bar, set up , and 2 cleanup persons (5 per team).
>   Task Hours are credited in accord with actual time spent.  Pot luck has
> a lead person  who gets task credit but all other work and dishes are
> contributed for pot luck. /[This is my favorite meal--always well-rounded,
> casual, time to try out recipes, clean out your pantry, and use up
> leftovers from the common meals, and everyone chops in to clean up -- a
> nice sense of generosity all around]/
>
> _Menu and sign up system:_   Cooks post their menus on Mosaic and do
> their own shopping.  Once posted (jenerally weeks ahead of time), others
> sign up for meal and/or tasks.
> The cook indicates if options are available for gluten free, dairy free,
> and vegetarian diners.  Also if there is a limit (usually none).
> Various cooks specialize as in vegetarian or ethnic.  We have residents
> who are Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Swedish, Jewish, Japanese, and a
> couple of gourmet specialists. Indian curries are well received.
> Our developer's wife is one of the top chefs and we al know to sign up
> no matter the menu.   For a while some of us offered Saturday brunches
> for 12 (as in a dozen muffins!)
>
> _Finances_:  This system has to be separate from HOA etc. so we maintain a
> separate account under 3 names.  Each meal costs $6.00 per person, guests
> welcome, and there is a "salad bar only" option for $4.00.  We encourage
> other residents to join us and bring their own meals from home.
> Theoretically each cook has a budget of $6/diner and tries to stay under
> budget with unused funds
> going to pantry and supplies.     The over budget occasions have so far
> balanced off
> the under budget.  A few cooks are amazingly shrewd in their menu planning
> and shopping as much as $40 under budget each time. Each incoming residents
> puts in an initial deposit of $50 which is returned when they leave.
> There is also an initial pantry fee of $35 which does not repeat.  We
> recently have debated raising the fee to $7.00 but are currently on hold.
> Instead, more cooks are working to stay more under-budget
>
> _Participation_:  Participation ranges from 18 to 34, depending on menu
> and who is the cook.   Several persons cook every month (for 8 years so
> far!) and others
> jump in when they see a need to fill in.  We also have many residents who
> never dine due to diet restrictions or preferences. They still support the
> dining program by signing up for tasks.
>
> _Dining Facility: _Our dining room seats 60, with 2 stoves, frig and
> freezer. lots of storage space.  Luckily we invested at the start in Herman
> Miller stacking chairs that slide and are relatively light.  The tables all
> fold quickly and seat 6.  One of the fun components of meals is arranging
> the tables in combinations or angled in a creative layout.
> We have turntables (as in Chinese restaurants) that can be placed atop two
> tables pushed together to seat 8 or even 10.
>
> _Covid measures_:   For 5 months in 2020 we stopped all common meals but
> then in July 2020 gradually re-instituted them by using strong precautions
> and having meals picked up in clam shells.
> We have an enclosed outdoor courtyard and that became the site for many
> residents to gather while spaced apart and still enjoy community including
> singing from overlooking balconies.
>
> Happy dining!
> JoAnna Allen
> Phoenix Commons,
> Oakland CA
>
>
> On 6/18/2024 1:19 PM, 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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