Meals minutes: 2018-03-18

Minutes:

Great Oak Meals Committee Meeting Minutes
3/18/2018

Present: Catherine, Yi Miau, Terrence

AGENDA
Debrief Servsafe training and next steps (tabled until Patti & Tammy can be
here)
Meals Accounts
Innovations we’ve noticed
Timely menu posting--- timely menus are posted 10 days prior to the meal
Jobs for next season
Meals Programming
Communication/Housekeeping
Next meeting or Open Table
Monkeys -- embrace things done
***

DEBRIEF SERVSAFE TRAINING AND NEXT STEPS

Thanks to Tammy and Patti for a very practical and comprehensive Food
Safety alternative meeting. The presentation also refreshes existing norms
and new-to-go recommendations for everyone: cooks, cleaners, table-setters,
shoppers, etc. Resources link includes slides and a self-scoring test! We
are thankful for the work of the ServSafe managers, especially their
thoughtful advice in ways that balances our unique common kitchen
environment with safety standards. Next steps will be coming soon from the
meals committee.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=14Yh-fkgGn5YxEequ6hR_fjb8yMGONI3X

Reminder of existing norms:
Throw away uneaten unpackaged food at the end of dinner clean (do not leave
leftovers hoping the next cook will use them)
Wash *and dry* common house laundry on HOT setting
Use color-coded cutting boards as assigned

New-to-GO
Thermometers
Gloves!
Sanitizing!
Food labeling


MEALS ACCOUNTS
We will check with the ServSafe organizers about how much money they will
need for implementing our new procedures. We may need to “beef up” our
accounts because the balance is typically very low by month’s end. One
option would be for Meals to be able to increase the surcharge. Our current
surcharge is 10%, which gives us about $200/month to cover pantry expenses
and kitchen and dining equipment.

INNOVATIONS WE’VE NOTICED
A space for diners to recognize initiatives and changes made to the Meals
program. Soup and Getting to Know Our Neighbors is a fun new event that
Kelly has been organizing. It’s also a slightly later meal, at 6:30, on a
different day (Friday). The whole event encourages more people and
different people to come to meals. Neighbors really appreciate yummy food,
sharing talents and getting to know neighbors! Meals would like to check
with Kelly to ask how we can support these events.

Another innovation is that since the beginning of the year, there are more
nights when all three communities are offering dinner. Recently there had
been a dinner with more than 110 people signed up across the three
communities.

TIMELY MENU POSTINGS
We think head cooks have been doing really well with getting their menus
posted at least 10 days in advance. We’ll continue to remind people when
their meals are 10 days away if they haven’t yet posted their menus.
Terrence-Sundays
Y-Miau- Mondays
Catherine- Tuesdays
Terrence- Wednesdays

Each of us will also be responsible for tracking how things are going for
meals on their day--example, Catherine will track the Farm Meals this
summer, check in with Tevah and the head cooks, etc.

JOBS FOR NEXT SEASON
We acknowledge that we pre-assign many jobs which are critical and/or
require training, but not all jobs are pre-assigned.

Billers: Becky H. and Kathy again.
We now have two incidences of CH Shopper.

Patti and Katie will be the shoppers. They have already divided up the
schedule by months.

The Meals Scheduler will be Willie and we continue with a Gather menu entry
job, which is not preassigned.

Grill Cleaner job will not be preassigned. We got rid of the wire brushes
for cleaning and can’t remember whether we ordered a new brush or not.
Catherine will check with Elph.

Gayle will be the ServSafe manager.

Tevah will be the Farm Meal Coordinator.

MEALS PROGRAMMING -- standing item to review various meals

MEALS PROGRAMMING III: THURSDAY LATER MEAL PROPOSAL
Catherine and Yi-Miau are preparing for this agenda item, which has been
delayed because of other priorities at community meetings. We’ll present
when the time allows.

COMMUNICATION/HOUSEKEEPING
Nothing this month.

OPEN TABLE DISCUSSION Wed Feb. 21, no new dates
Dinner time discussion of Meals Program with Meals Committee and any
interested community members.

UPCOMING MEETINGS
APRIL 8, 7 pm
MAY 7, 7 pm


AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING
Plan email to new work season head cooks about timely menu posting

NEW MONKEYS
Yi Miau will talk to Tammy and Patti about implementation.
Terrence will check with Kelly to ask how we can support the Soup and
Getting to Know Our Neighbors events.
We got rid of the wire brushes for cleaning and can’t remember whether we
ordered a new brush or not. Catherine will check with Elph.
REMONKEY Catherine will check with Mary King to find out whether the
kitchen orientation happened or not.
RE MONKEY Yi-Miau will check on 2016 meals numbers from Touchstone. She
will send a list of queries to the Meals Committee and Tom can run them all
at once.