Food and Meals at the Helix
Creating Community Around Food
The ability to organize at the face-to-face level is central to forming the social networks which are at the heart of community. One goal of the Village Helix is provide space for people to practice village building skills together, and the preparation and consuming of food is a great context for that work.
Having breakfast and supper together will help round out the day and provide space to come together to make announcements for workshops, schedule changes, and share feedback about the goings on of that day.
Meals focused on local resources such as soft-white-winter wheat ground fresh on-site and locally grown vegetables are a staple of life at Windward, along with an emphasis on using simple, resilient techniques such as haybox cookers. This tradition caries over in the preperation of food at the helix.
Seeded-Potluck Meals
Breakfast and dinner will be in the form of a seeded-potluck, wherein Windward provides the main dish (like spaghetti and marinara sauce) and participants bring additional side-dishes, salads or desserts to supplement the meal. Feel free to bring raw ingredients that can be made into a dish in the event kitchen before the meal-- these ingredients can either be passed onto the cooks or prepared by those who bring them.
Meals will always include a vegetarian option. And some of the meals will include meat and other animal products raised and harvested at Windward.
If you have allergies or follow a specific diet please bring items you know you can eat. And if you have children, please bring food that you know they will like.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I Have to Cook Something?
No, however each person attending the gathering will be assigned to a crew to help in the prepartion, serving and cleanup of one of the four meals. This involves more than just cooking, chopping vegetables, setting the tables, and washing up afterwards. So you will be asked to participate in the wider context of creating a meal.
Upon arriving you will be given a color which is associated with a particular meal. You will find a chart of the meals and who you need to make contact with to see about helping with preparations.
For those who are particularly interested in the food preperation component of the gathering are welcome to help out with more than one meal. Let us know so we can plan ahead.
What should I bring?
It's been our experience that some people will underestimate how much food they'll consume over a long weekend, and one of our goals through the seeded potluck is to ensure that no one winds up having to choose between going hungry and making a grocery run. Not only is it a twenty-mile drive to the grocery store, but a key part of this event involves using energy wisely; in short, better planning and sharing enables better resource utilization.
In that vein, you should plan to bring food to meet your needs for the spaces between the two main meals of the day. If you will be camping over the weekdays, plan on meeting all of your food needs for those days, as there is no garauntee of group potluck meals during that time.
Remember, lunch is not provided, so please be sure to bring lunch food, as well as snacks to keep you going throughout the day.
Will there be refrigeration?
Our capacity to refrigerate food is very limited for the event. So please plan on bringing ice, coolers, etc. to handle your personal food refrigeration needs.
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