Meals minutes: 2004-07-15

Minutes:

Please read the following summary of the ideas that came out of the Meals committee meeting, Thank you.

Please remind folks to help with clearing the tables as they leave.

Clarify what to throw away and what to keep A- all family style food left in dishes needs to be thrown away or taken home by those at that table. Buffet food can be saved for the next meal.

Remind people to bring A-take homeA- containers back.

The meals committee wants feed back from the community about adding a potluck to a community meeting night. Let your meals coordinator know your opinion A- Lisa or Mary..

Please note A-kids/or adults touching food that others will eat is a BIG sanitation/health NO, NO A- this needs to stop. Parents please take extra care when children are going through the food line to be sure they only touch what they take to put on their plate. Please do not put food back in a serving bowl after it has been on your plate or touched. We do not what the health department in our lives so we need to be very cautious to avoid food born illness.

Should members have to pay for a meal that they were not able to get any food for? At what time do they not have to pay for the food? If eaters show up after 6:30 and there is no food, then they donA-t have to pay for it A- but they need to talk to heather, Rachel, or the head cooks before they cross their names off.

Please wait to take seconds until 6:30 to give folks 15 min to show up and have firsts.

Maybe we should do a test run for a week with four people cleaning? Please comment to meal coordinators Mary and Lisa especially if you are a cleaner.

Meal meeting attending: Mary SC, Mary K, Willie, Katie, Malcom, Rachel, Jim, Melissa B., Nancy. Please let me know if you were in attendance and you are not listed.

FOCUS on cleaningA-. see questions below

Go around on cleaning issues

Cleaners Brainstorm - Still need job descriptions A- the description that is posted in the kitchen is not adequate and thorough. Cleaning would be better when thereA-s four people than three A- In the works/discussion, maybe do a test run of a week with four people. Remind folks to help with clearing as they leave Clean set up for diners so they know where to put everything A- done? Clarify whose job it is to set up for clean up A- setting up bins and soapy dishes. Turning on dishwasher, turning it off -- This is happening Clarify what to throw away and what to keep A- Family style it all has to be ditched, buffet we can keep. Having enough big to medium containers to put leftovers in, need more containers Get people to bring containers back -- Choice of cleaning supplies A- room for this Have someone to analyze the flow in the kitchen to help streamline it Environmentally safe cleaning supplies as well Checklist: this is what needs to happen for cleanup A- with buy-in from cleaners Have this group look at a list, massage it, and run it by the community but not for consensus Emergency cleaners Clarify distinction between CH cleaners and Meal Coordinators/cleaners We need consistent, clear directions about cleaning Do cleaners have expectations of how cook cook A- some cooks clean as they cook, some cooks make five or six courses, and others donA-t Timing, and issues of how we use the CH A- eg getting ready for community meeting Potluck on meeting nights? Sandwich bar on meeting nights? Paper plates? Laundry clarification Proper tools Figure out how to make cleaning fun and rewarding Have them stand up and applaud them as well as cooks New Ideas that came up during the meeting: Fewer cleaners needed on meeting nights Emergency backup cleaners for big bad meals Buffet is easier to clean up after than family style (fewer serving dishes) Kids sticking hands in food is a BBBBIIIGGG sanitation/health NO NO A- this practice needs to stop and needs to brought up at a community meeting.

Review when leftovers are available, when seconds are available, and when scavenging is available. Billing question A- should members have to pay for a meal that they were not be able to get any food for? At what time do they not have to pay for the food? If eaters show up after 6:30 and there is no food, then they donA-t have to pay for it A- but they need to talk to heather, Rachel, or the head cooks before they cross their names off. Have extension service lady come to community meeting to give mini-training about how diners (and their children) should behave.

Garbage disposal backing up unsanitary A- talk to Tom about fixing it Billing question II A- tonightA-s meal was a perfect example. The meat eaters got to eat what the vegetarians got to eat + chicken. So money wise it doesnA-t seem fair that vegetarians are paying as much for much cheaper food. Ideas for vegetarian snack kitchen. Encourage cooks to do menus well in advance so that you have knowledge of what is being made. List of veggie friendly food (pie crusts frequently have lard! Etc.). Have a veggie friendly cooking class and a meat cooking class. Once/month community meeting potlucks. Monday nights so that people can cook for it on Sunday. 1 hour assistant cook on Monday night potlucks to set tables.

Meeting nights cleaners A- potluck nights 2 cleaners. On Wednesday nights 2 hours for head cooks and 1 hour for one assistant.

People cleaning up after themselves between meals because dirty dishes are accumulating, especially over the weekends. Common House committee decreed that people should rinse their dirty dishes and leave them in the sink so that they can be sanitized later on by the cleaners. What should people be using to clean? Could the kitchen cleaner person mix up some Quat in a sprayer?

Willie would like to see a cleaning class run by Jason and other head cooks.

Do Rachel and Heather want to continue as meals billers -- Rachel says A-sureA-, Heather wasnA-t at the meeting asked her after and she said yes.

If we should add hours for Willie to do the on-line meals planner A- Yes, how many? 1-2 hours.

Should we cut the number of cooks and cleaners on meeting night down to 2 (this would be good to get feedback about at the meeting) A- Yes.

If we should add hours for meals coordinators and which one of us should rotate off

-How do people view the workflow at the sinks? A- Hand washing from left sink going to the left. A- scrubbing for the auto washer from right sink to the right? North sink (small sink) needs a sprayer and higher faucet to fit pots under for cleaning.

-What things should/must get run through the washer? What things must not get run through washer (or must be hand washed)? A- If it canA-t go through the dishwasher, maybe we shouldnA-t be using it. No heating element in sanitizer so Tupperware wonA-t melt.

Suggestions: -It would be really nice to have a list of all the areas/things that need to be cleaned, and what cleaner should be used (ie bleach, vinegar, etc).A- The current checklist seems out of date. -Both deep sinks should have a garbage disposal.A- The left one is always getting clogged.A- And if you have two people working at the sinks (hand washing and auto), you can't use the right sink for hand washing (in order to use the disposal. - Jim