MEAL PAYMENTS Adult meals $3; Children’s meals $1.50 (7/12/01), which includes a $.50 and $.25 per meal surcharge to pay for all of the kitchen’s costs including stock items, bottled water, supplies, replacing dishes and equipment, and the like (12/94?) To participate in the meal system, there must be a deposit paid for each adult ($50) and each child ($25) (12/94?) If you want to eat meals in the community, you will need to pre-pay a set amount (we recommend $100 but that is your choice based on how often you eat in the community). Checks should be written to The Cohousing Kitchen and be deposited into the envelope next to the sign up sheets outside the kitchen door. Once you deposit your check into the envelope, you will block out the amount of meal credit you purchase with the highlighter pen we provide on the bulletin board outside the kitchen door. Each household will have its own Payment Grid for this. Cooks mark off meal sign ups on individuals tally sheets This done for accountability. 7/12/01 Guest meals, last minute additions to the meal, special meals, and leftover payments will be handled the same way, by crossing off your pre-paid credit for the appropriate dollar increments. If your appropriate payment is a fraction of a dollar, mark that within the payment box as a reminder to yourself and rectify it as you go forward. You may eat a meal even if you haven’t pre-paid by crossing off the appropriate dollar increments in the un-highlighted area of your payment grid. It is your responsibility to promptly make a payment so that you have credit again for more meals. We will provide replacement sheets for individual Payment Grids so that those households who eat often can keep up with their payments. Getting Cooking Bills Paid Shoppers will submit their shopping bills in the same envelope as the check deposits. Please indicate the day of the meal for which you are seeking reimbursement. You will be reimbursed by check. Do not give yourself a credit. There will be no meals sheet to fill out nor will you get a reminder to submit your bills. The Cohousing Kitchen is about to open credit accounts at Bread & Circus, Stop & Shop and Henion Bakery if possible. Once this is done a memo will go out explaining who will keep the credit cards and how to use them. We ask that shoppers attempt to use these cards when they shop and only to use it for community meal shopping as this will make the bill paying job much simpler. Shoppers should still submit these bills but indicate that they are “Charges” to the Coho Kitchen account. Accountability The system is a self-managed “honors” system which reflects the reality that no one was able to continue the accounting responsibility of the old system. This is an honors system and will only work if diners mark off their payments accurately and cooks keep to the agreed upon budgets. We have no one “making sure” that folks do the right thing. But the reality is that we never really have. We do however have some accountability checks. Paula Chadis will be banking the deposits received and marking who makes those payments. She will also pay the bills received by shoppers as well as those regular kitchen accounts (bulk purchases, charge accounts, etc.). Jamie Elkin will keep an eye on the big picture making sure that it seems like the money in and money out is staying in balance. He will also be the contact person if anyone has questions or concerns about the system. John Ryan has agreed to contact any one who gets significantly in arrears on their pre-payment