October 4, 2013

Meal Swapping

This week is the first meeting of our church’s meal co-op.

I know, many of you are saying “What is a meal co-op?”

Well, it’s going to be a learning process for all of us! This is the first time for anyone in our church to try something like this, and we are really excited to experiment with new ideas. From what I have read about the process, this is how it works.

	Meet together with all the members of your group. This is an important step because at this meeting you will decide what recipe you are going to make, as well as see how many meals you will have to make the following week. For example, if there are 5 members at the meeting this Sunday, then I will know to prepare 5 of the same meal next week.
	Go home and make your meals during that week. So after I have been to the planning meeting with my members, I go home with my recipe and I make my grocery list. I make enough for each member of the group to be able to feed their family. So, if like in the previous example, there were 5 members in the group, then I would multiply my meal by 5.
	Step 3. Meet together the following week. All the members in our meal Co-Op are moms from our church. So it is convenient to meet each week after services. The second week is the “swap meeting” where we all bring our coolers and exchange meals. So, continuing the example of 5 moms. I would bring my 5 meals, and give 4 of them to the other 4 moms in the group. And the other 4 moms in the group would all give me one of their meals. Therefore, I would go home with 5 meals for my freezer (including my own).

Some things I have thought about, but not sure how it will work out in the end:

Family size – there are several “couples” in our church. This might not be a problem if they like left overs. That being said, I believe that I have the largest family in the church with 6 members. So there will be some compromise on this part.

Food Choice – When asked about the meal swap, one of the first questions I had was, “what about my picky eater?” The old fashioned part of me wanted to say – peanut butter and jelly? – but I just smiled and answered. “That is why we have a planning meeting every other week.” Each of us can bring our recipes and decide what we want to try that is new. I agree – I like to try new things, but Bulgar wheat and asparagus probably won’t feed my 2 and 3 year olds. 🙂 So like before, there will have to be some compromise.

Length of Time – I set up the “trial period” for every week. Meaning (week 1 – planning, week 2 – swap, week 3 – planning, week 4 – swap) Thinking that we would only have to cook for the freezer every two weeks. AS I researched more, I realized that most groups do this on a monthly basis. So I may have over reached, we shall see, and of course – compromise.

I am looking forward to trying this new and exciting program at our church. It reminds me that there are other people that want to be active in our congregation and that is a GREAT feeling. It is wonderful to try someone else’s idea and know that they want to see success among our little group. It is my prayer that this brings us closer together and creates bonds that last a lifetime.