This excerpt is from the book
called
"Cohousing: contemporary approach to housing
ourselves" Page 21
"People drift into the common
house. The few minutes before dinner are a time to relax and
catch up on each other's lives. At one of the tables, a little
girl tells her parents about her day at preschool. Shrieks of
laughter come from the play room down the hall. The cooks but
the last touches on the salad. By six o'clock the dining hall is
bustling with life as people find their seats. It's dinnertime
at the community.
For the 33 families who live in
this cohousing community, this was a typical evening. For us, it
was the first of many such evenings we would spend in the
community common house. We were not certain that first night how
we would adjust to eating regularly with 50 or more people, but
our wariness was soon dispelled.
After experiencing the
convenience and pleasantness of common dinners and community
life as a whole, we wondered why we had ever considered living
any other way.
Dinner is served in the common
house every night (except for two Saturdays a month when the
room is used for private parties). Each of the private houses
also has a full kitchen, so that residents may anticipate and
common dinners as often as they like. Many residency in the
common house three or four times a week, and have more intimate
family dinners at home the other evenings.
Some eat almost every night in the common house, using the time
they save from shopping, cooking, and cleaning up to spend with
their children. We quickly came to appreciate having several
extra hours each day. Community dinners and not only convenient,
but also pleasant social gatherings filled with interesting
conversation. On any given evening, 50% of the residents,
and often more, take part.
The one responsibility required of every adult resident is to cook
dinner. Two adults, assisted by one child, planned, shop, prepare,
serve, and wash up after dinner. Cooking for 60 may seem like an enormous job for two people, but with a
well-equipped community kitchen, it's not much more complicated than
cooking for six in a normal kitchen-you just learn to use 10 times as
much of everything.
The first time we prepared a common dinner-enchiladas for 80-was an
intimidating experience. But the satisfaction we felt at the end of the
evening made up for all our anxieties. Our next efforts were
considerably easier as we learn the ropes of cooking for large groups.
One resident, a doctor, told us he had been very apprehensive about
cooking for the community; he had never really cooked for himself, let
alone for 50 people. To his surprise, he had not only succeeded, but
discovered he actually enjoyed cooking and began to cook more at home as
well. With more than 60 adults
in the community, each has to cook only once a month. Cooking one day a
month is well worth the time and trouble when you can do show up for
dinner the other 29 days. The community residents are convinced
that they have the best dinner system of all-it's dependable, yet
flexible enough to accommodate the changing needs of each family. We
agree."
This is a convenient example that I know about to show you the
convenience and enjoyable aspects of eating as a community. Though it's
taken from a book on cohousing, as you perhaps can surmise, this
community proposal is not a proposal for cohousing. There are plenty of
cohousing situations around. Though I can tell you, I believe very few
in America have achieved the degree of cooperation that this community
has which is in Europe.
I would like to be in the community where all value their time enough to
want to eat all meals cooperatively. And of course, along with that
comes greatly simplified housing, much fewer resources needed
individually and as we would be growing and producing our expensive food
(fruits, vegetables and animal foods), food would
mostly be available for only the labor
of producing it.
If there is a concern, or we find the need for intimacy and quietness
surrounding food, I believe those needs can be met without having
(houses with kitchens). It could be with special rooms attached to the
cafeteria to meet that need. Also depending on the climate and season,
there could be tables outside. And finally, there is no reason why food
could not be picked up in the cafeteria, packed in insulated containers,
and quickly bicycled back to one's room.
Cohousing has been around for
around 30 years, and in that time and experience some of the feedback I
am reading indicates that these early pioneers have consistently
reported that they have overbuilt and overestimated their true needs.
In other words, they could have got by with a lot less. There is a
heavy cost to pay for having too much; heating, lighting, maintenance,
taxes come to mind right off, and they're probably others.
