As people with full schedules and limited budgets, how do we get everything done? I'm at a reasonable point in life: my kids are grown and out on their own, and it's just me and my husband. He works full-time, I'd like to work that much, but my business is not that busy.
Even so, we have very little free time. People with jobs and kids - whoa. You people are busy!
I remember. I raised 5 children as a single parent, and I went to college and worked full-time while I was doing it. Let's just say I was a bit more - ahem - organized, in those days. And my house wasn't real clean.
I knew a lot less about food back then, but I still knew it was important to cook my own food as much as possible and to use whole grains and limit the soda (my kids hated that!). I refused to buy sweet cereal for my kids. It was reserved for a birthday treat. Five times a year, the birthday kid could pick any cereal they wanted for all of them to eat. It was always a lot of fun to watch them hit the cereal aisle on those days!
I got up at 5:30 and read the newspaper and cooked a homemade breakfast for my kids. And for me, too - breakfast is still my favorite meal of the day. I loved waking them up and watching them sit down to a hot breakfast. I also packed lunches for them - in those days, I didn't know better and we used a lot of Little Debbie snacks. I wouldn't go near that stuff, anymore!
I cooked dinner every night and I was a master at the fast, homemade meal. Of course, we were quite poor too, so we had our share of Top Ramen, which I tried to supplement with leftover meat or frozen vegetables.
All of this is to say that I understand what families are going through. So when I preach about eating whole grains and buying local, organic produce and NEVER using processed foods, yeah, yeah, yeah...
I know what I'm asking you to do. I know it's not easy.
But I also know it's possible.
I have an idea and I'd like some input from women about it. It involves a community kitchen.
The idea is that a group of people - neighbors, co-workers, PTA, whatever - forms a co-op, of sorts. The co-op plans menus, shops for ingredients, and cooks the meals. Members can pick up their prepared meals to take home, or they could eat at the kitchen and enjoy a little social interaction.
This could be done in member's homes and the homes could rotate, so no member is stuck with all the work. Or, the co-op could rent a commercial kitchen for the purpose.
This could be carried a step further and members could grow their own vegetables, too. The co-op could buy from area farmers and ranchers, so members would have the best food available, for a much cheaper price.
There is a kitchen doing something like this in Berkeley: Three Stone Hearth. I buy from them sometimes, and I love what they are doing. I don't know how big the co-ops would have to be to make it viable, but it would be great to have hundreds of these in communities across the country. Small is better, really - so no one is tempted to industrialize the food.
So there it is. Any comments?
3 comments:
I attended a workshop about this exact same subject in my home city of Toronto, Canada yesterday. It is an absolutely wonderful ideal just waiting to take hold of the culinary world of at-home cooks. I hope your idea takes off and becomes a reality. The world needs more people like you to make sure it survives. Ann btbcooking@gmail.com
I hope it's an idea whose time has come. Not only is it a great way to get Real Food in our diets, it's a great way to increase our community connections. I know I would love that!
Hi Mom (and fellow readers)! I am one of Marlene's 5 kids and probably the most avid and dedicated cook of them all. I loved spending time in the kitchen with my mom growing up and luckily her skills and love for cooking rubbed off on me. It is funny to read this blog and know that what I experienced growing up is now being read by other people and that my mom is getting her wonderful ideas and interests out to the world. I don’t know how she managed all those years, but everything she wrote about having 5 kids as a single parent while also going to school, working full time and managing to get home-cooked food on the table every day is 100% true. She was and still is amazing to me (especially since I feel I can hardly get by with just my husband and one dog, let alone kids).
Mom, you and I have talked about this co-op idea before and I just want to say it is one of those ideas that I truly think will change the world, the hard part is getting it started. I know I would love the opportunity to cook with neighbors and friends, not only sharing the responsibilities, but also recipes, ideas and a great time. This kind of thing is exactly what people need at times like this, when the economy is suffering, gas prices are out of control, meaning food prices are soon to follow, if they haven’t already; and meanwhile we are being told to eat better and take care of ourselves.
One simple thing my husband and I started doing recently is sharing dinner nights with friends. We have one night a week where we cook with a group or a couple of friends and then the next week we switch houses. This night has become one of my favorite nights of the week. We all cook healthy and tasty meals and it gives us a chance to not only spend time with our friends, but also share in new ideas and cooking styles. For instance, one couple we do this with often introduced me to turnips for the first time and I LOVED them.
With all this said, I will now make a promise to my mother. I will work on starting a co-op in San Diego if you proceed with your idea to start one in your community. We can have a franchise of sorts and really get this idea off the ground. Anyone else in?
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