Experiment No. 39: Shared Batch Cooking

What We’re Trying to Solve: The work of cooking for a household during a busy work week

Target Audience: Members of a community, any household type

Ages: Adults

Category: Meal Planning and Cooking

Estimated Time: 1-2 hours per week

Length: At least two weeks, but we recommend committing to four

Difficulty Level: Medium

Interested? If you're willing to give this a try, we'd love to hear from you about how it went! Take our survey here. Participants who complete the survey will be entered into a raffle courtesy of our experiment partner, Potluck. The winner can choose either a $50 gift card or have a donation made in their name to the food bank or shelter of their choice

1. Brainstorm potential partners for batch-cook sharing. Think about members of your community who 1) do some cooking, 2) have food tastes that overlap with your household's, and 3) might want a break from doing all the cooking in their household and a chance to incorporate someone else’s into their weekly routine. Do you have a friend from work who has also mentioned being overwhelmed with feeding their family during the week? A relative, like a cousin or an in-law? Someone from work, a faith group, school, child care, dog park, or a community center? Can you put up a note at a local coffee shop bulletin board? Post to a local email listserve, Facebook or other local online group, or neighborhood app like NextDoor? The goal is to find people who live nearby.
2. Find your partner and strategize to find out what kinds of meals and timing will work for both of you. Reach out to a potential partner and explain the idea of Potluck and shared batch cooking. You then each commit to cooking more servings of a meal you’ll already be cooking during the week. Then, you take the extras and swap them with your partner. You might even start by forwarding this experiment to them and asking if they’re interested. When you find someone who is game to try it, figure out a plan. Discuss your kids’ or partners’ likes and dislikes. Are there allergies you need to know about? What day does exchanging meals work? Will you bring them to work on Monday and swap? Will one of you drop off a meal at the other’s house when it’s convenient? Decide how to share. Will you use Tupperware or cookware? How will you return dishes to one another? What happens if one partner needs to cancel or fails to make the exchange? Set clear expectations from the outset.
3. Cook and share! Choose a recipe that fits your needs and your Potluck partner’s needs. Then cook! Double the amount you would cook for your own family. The beauty is that cooking twice as much of one meal generally takes way less time than cooking two different meals. Exchange meals with your partner on the day you’ve chosen, and voilá! You’ve doubled your access to nutritious home-cooked food, without drastically increasing the amount of time you spend in your kitchen. And, unlike traditional batch cooking, you and your family aren’t stuck eating the same thing all week long!
4. Reflect together on how it went. Is this something you could agree to do once a week? Once a month? Or once in a while, if you’re going through a particularly busy or stressful time? Is it primarily women who are organizing and executing the potluck? Or are partners and children involved? If not, how could they be?