Bisaria, a member of the Brown Co-op, was having dinner last Thursday with her fellow co-op members along with several guests from the International Food Co-op. The dinner was the second in a series of meal exchanges that will take place between the co-ops this semester.
Starting this year, all three co-ops — Brown, IFC and 2 Dickinson St. — will host occasional meal exchanges, or “co-op swaps,” in which members of one co-op will dine at another. A few weeks ago, IFC and 2D held the first exchange.
While all the co-ops allow guests to dine with them and organize an annual Co-op Hop, a semiformal event when members eat at each of the co-ops, these swaps mark the first attempt at a more regular interaction.
There is no official policy or schedule in place for these swaps, unlike exchanges among the eating clubs and between the clubs and residential college dining halls. Instead, co-op leaders informally organize the exchanges on an ad-hoc basis.
“While it’s really fun to eat with the same people, we wanted to liven it up sometimes and swap members between the co-ops, in this case between IFC and Brown,” IFC co-president Pietro Rea ’12 said of last Thursday’s exchange. “I thought it would be a great way to meet new people, see how they cook and maybe learn something from them.
Brown president Sara Peters ’11 said, “We’ll try to do these exchanges as often as we can. We won’t do it every week, but maybe a couple times a semester.”
Members of both co-ops seemed to enjoy the event thoroughly.
“I think it’s nice to have this intermingling between the co-ops because we didn’t always get that before,” Bisaria said. “It’s similar to having Casino Night between three different eating clubs.”
This new initiative comes as co-ops have grown in their popularity and presence on campus. As of last February, all three co-ops reached capacity and had to institute waiting lists for potential new members.
Peters said that Brown, which has a membership of 33, had to place 35 to 40 people on a waitlist last spring.
Members said co-ops are becoming a more mainstream dining option on campus.
“When I bring up co-ops in conversation, it’s difficult to find someone who hasn’t heard of it, whereas when I was a freshman, I didn’t know about the co-ops at all,” Rea said.
Many members mentioned price as a factor in the increasing popularity of co-ops, which are significantly cheaper than meal plans at the eating clubs and dining halls.
2D costs $1,000 a year for seven dinners a week, while Brown costs $1,200 and IFC costs $1,400. Alternatively, an annual unlimited meal plan at a residential college costs $5,473, and eating club dining fees range from around $6,000 to $8,000.
Other co-op members cited the close-knit social culture provided by the co-ops, which are limited to between 30 and 40 people. Members not only bond through meals, but through cooking and completing required chores on a daily basis.
“It’s a really great community, and I like having a place on campus with people I know that is also small,” IFC member Kate Huddleston ’11 said. “I really like the intimacy, and I didn’t think I’d get that at an eating club or dining hall.
Perhaps most importantly, many members said they found co-op food to be the best on campus.
“Every day you get a meat, a veggie, a grain and dessert, so it’s always a balanced meal,” Bisaria said. “And every single day is something great.” She added that Brown has not repeated any meals this semester.
“Here, the food goes from the oven to the plate,” Rea said. “That doesn’t happen anywhere else on campus.”
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