What is a coop kitchen? ^_^

Oberlin has an Cooperative (called coops for short, pronounced as though there was a hyphen: co-ops) option for students who don't want to eat in the dining halls. They do all their own food purchasing, cooking, cleaning, etc. And unlike the dining halls, they use actual SPICES in their foods. They're also more vegetarian and vegan friendly (not that I'm either), and the one in our building also doesn't use sugar. And their food is good and smells yummy.

Why can't you join it? I guess I'm still slightly confused.

It's for students only, as an alternative to the dining halls. It's all student run and definitely not open to the community. Here's a link, if you're interested: http://www.oberlin.edu/osca

i ate at keep for one year and there were some non-students who would split a membership with a member. the non-student would pay a percentage of the membership to that person and agree to work a percentage of hours and then they could eat there that percentage of time (so like 10 meals a week if they pay and work 50% of the time). i forget what phrase they used to explain the concept but if you're interested it is possible.

-obie in mpls who found you through IB!

Thanks Kate! I didn't know anyone could do that. It's an idea, but I don't know how feasible it is for me. My partner and I get a meal plan as part of her work benefits (which means her pay is even less than it would normally have to be to sustain a normal person's eating habits), so for me to pay to be part of a co-op would strain our budget big time. But it's definitely good to know about and worth considering.

What's your screenname on IB, by the way? And hello!