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| 60 Dinners on my Table! |
I joined a dinner co-op created by a friend of mine. This is just the information on how we operate our co-op. There are many ways to do it but this seems to work for us.
- We have 2 groups
- a large family group (servings are 6-8 people)
- a small family group (servings are 4-6 people)
- There are 12 participants, 6 in each group
- Our group meets once a month for 3 months
- A small commitment works well so people are not overwhelmed if they discover it doesn't work for their family
- We meet one time before the rotations begin to fill out likes/dislikes/allergy information to be shared
- We have three rotations: Beef, Chicken & Vegetarian (or non-meat)
- We only make the main dish
- Each month, each participant is assigned one of the rotations
- by the end of the 3 months they will have prepared one beef, one chicken and one non-meat dish
- Each participant, each month makes 5 meals & comes home with 5 different meal
- Participants can make 5 identical meals to share or not just as long as they follow their meal assignment (meat, chicken, non-meat)
- Our group decided to purchase Glad Ovenware large sized pans (just smaller than an 9x13)
- They are technically disposable but can be used over and over
- This saves the hassle of returning dishes to the correct person
- It also makes it easier than having to store or purchase 5 baking pans
- These are more reusable than the thin tin pans used for catering (which are truly disposable)
- Because we come home with 5 meals, most of the participants freeze their meals to bring
- Each month we have someone volunteer to host at their home for exchange
- We plan to meet for an hour if you'd like to hang out (a bit of a social time as well)
- You can just drop off your meals if you don't have time
- The people assigned to the Vegetarian meal that month, bring a dessert to share at the exchange
- Normally that would be 4 desserts to share with 12 women
- We only ended up with 2 at the first one and that was plenty
- The host provides coffee/tea
- I volunteered to host the 1st month
- It was amazing to see my dinning table full of dinners!
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| Ladies chatting & visiting with coffee around the table. |
I have a family of 6 and my hubby eats more than most because he works physically hard for a living 10-12 hours a day 6 days a week. Some of the "small family" meals need to be stretched but a salad, some pasta or potatoes seems to make them work for us.
This is my first time participating in this dinner co-op. I used to belong to one that we assembled meals together and all pitched the same amount of money. It took far more coordinating. This seems much easier and I hope it works for us over the next few months because I would love to do it again. It definitely saves me time and we thought it many not save us money, but cooking in bulk is a money saver!
Pros:
- I don't have to cook every evening
- I don't have to plan a meal
- Cooking in bulk does save money
- Making 10 meals in an assembly line was far easier than if I was making 10 different dishes for my family
- Right after this, we needed to save a lot of money quickly and having 10 meals in my freezer reduced the stress of the need to save
Cons:
- I did invest in the Glad Ovenware which was about $2.50 a piece
- Though it's not a lot of money, it wouldn't have been something I would have purchased
- I do prefer it this way because I don't have to worry about my dishes getting back to me
- One has already cracked to the point that it will need to be replaced
- I do not get to choose dinner
- I don't usually cook for an entire day
- Not everything is fitting for my family's tastes
- My family has been very gracious and though there have been a few they didn't love, they knew it was a huge blessing to me and finished everything on their plates
- I don't think this would work for a family that is terribly picky or has lots of allergies
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