Join the foodies at #Lote4!

Hi all, here is where we draft options for good healthy eating and collaboration with food providers in Matera during Lote4. We have a budget of 3300 EUR for LOTE4 meals and other food activities, to be managed between @Natalia_Skoczylas@katalin and whoever wants to be involved.

Please add your ideas in here or in a comment below.

Aims

Based on this conversation and community calls, the aims are

(1) The unMonastery experience made us all realise the importance of sharing meals together in order to build and nurture the community

(2) to support local producers and businesses in Matera

(3) create an opportunity for them to showcase and even teach agricultural, organic ways and cooking skills eg Food Safari where people would buy fixed amounts tickets in advance from local shops/restaurants and have a walk stopping by “unAperitivo”

How many days? How many people?

  • 3 and 1/2 event days - 23 afternoon, 24, 25, 26.
  • 60-80 participants estimated (as of October 1, there's 40 confirmed, not including the people in Matera and new registrations over the course of this month)

Budget

Noemi’s draft budget includes: breakfast (croissants, biscuits etc), sandwiches lunch - seems catering is more accessible and manageable from logistics point of view, and a community dinner each evening.  If we can put something aside for the hackathon great, but we only know once we have the numbers right…

(Maybe two sandwiches per person is too much? Although it would probably be eaten later. Also tap water is really good in Matera - we had some large plastic bottles to take them upstairs, maybe still around? // Katalin) (Just in from Marc: Saverio’s sandwich prices: €1.50 for prosciutto, €2.00 for vegetarian. @Noemi, @Natalia_Skoczylas)

What? Lumpsum Unit price No. of units No. of days Subtotal
Morning snacks (24,25,26) 100     3 300
Lunch sandwiches (24,25,26)

(how many per person?)

  1.5 80 3 360
Evening community meals (23,24,25) 500     2 1500
Drinks (water 1.5l)   1 160 3 480
Coffee, tea, sugar 150       150
Plates, forks, cups 150       150
what else do we need? add it here          
what else do we need? add it here          
TOTAL         2940

Evening community meals

Given that the kitchen has consistently been the heart of the unMonastery project - It feels absurd to me to even contemplate not making it a major aspect of the conference, at very least dinner. It’s clear from the way that we ran unMo that it’s way more efficient to put in a substantial block of time into cooking on one day so that others will do the same for you on another day. - Ben

Ideas so far: We need to keep it simple, both for costs and time. These meals could be cooked at unMonastery or take the shape of nomadic dinners and set up in other parts/neighborhoods of Matera. Local friends will be invited to contribute with a dish, as it is accustomed, but not to cook for 80 (careful distinction pointed out by Katalin: My instinct is that it is condescending to ask for help with cooking and call it cultural exchange. But it may be just me. Teaching how to cook Italian food and producing dinner for 80 people are very different things).

Another idea is to include options for vegetarians!

Perhaps we could do one at Piccianello market, glean food that will be thrown out and making a meal together. As we have a good group of supporters already in Piccianello and so might be able to swing it without too much difficulty-- plus there are a lot of empty spaces there as we know. (Maria)

How can I get involved and register for cooking, shopping, cleaning up?

Groups/numbers/time:

  • SHOPPING (2 people/day = 1.5 hour)

  • BREAKFAST CLEANUP + garbage (2 person/day= 30 minutes)

  • LUNCH CLEANUP + garbage (2 person/day= 60 minutes)

  • DINNER COOKING (as many as possible, at least 5 = 2 hours)

  • DINNER CLEANUP (5 person/day = 2 hours)

  • DINNERTIME garbage (2 person/day = 30 minutes )

Please leave a comment if you would like to be added to the list, specifying which group you prefer to help in!

You will also be able to add yourself to the team on the spot, as soon as you arrive at Lote4.

We need a driver for each day, to take the shopping team to the market, - please consider signing up for shopping if you come to LOTE by car.

Logistics

  • tables and chairs: It'd be good to have more foldable tables, given that most of the weighty ones will be used for sessions.
  • pottery, bowls, possibly another hotplate: need to borrow them
  • car: need to borrow one to do the shopping
  • add it here

Food Safari on the 26th (not confirmed)

A tour of eating spots in the city. We invite a small number of local restaurants to be included on a map where visitors who show them event badges + Tickets, and they can sample a small piece of their speciality. Then tickets could be sold from any of the participating restaurants or at the Lote4 check in by them, so we are not handling money. The map could be included in the little booklet that participants receive on location More info soon to come.

What happens during the hackathon 20-22?

The unMonastery team will be there, and they will be able to extend cooking duties to cover the few extra people in the house.

No waste policy

The unMonastery operates “secondary raw materials stations” instead of garbage bins. We collect (nearly) everything into recyclable/compostable piles. There will be containers in the kitchen, clearly labeled, please use them. If you are not sure where your trash should go, ask an unMonasterian. Cigarette butts go into assigned cans, we store them, they are not recyclable.

One idea is to ask people to bring their own plates, cups, forks (not fond of it// Noemi)

Last year at Lote we encouraged everyone to write their names on cups and wash their plates to avoid plastic dumps piling up!

Building food sessions in the Lote4 official agenda

Maybe we can have a session about local food and cooking, separately from feeding the crowd.  Is it realistic to invite local food producers to showcase their food and show us how to cook it as sessions during LOTE? And Make sure we buy the produce from them for the meals at a fair price? One thing we can offer is to do high quality video footage of the session and help promote it on social media after the event.

What’s missing? Add it here?

People already signed up to help with food (from Trello)

Hi @Noemi, hi @Natalia_Skoczylas, I moved the list from trello here, and came up with an estimate of number of people and time commitment (above in the wiki) - please feel free to change if you think I estimated wrong.

[x] Gaia Marcus

[x] Kei Kreutler

[x] Maria Byck

[x] Katalin Hausel

[x] Anna Peregrina

[x] Ramona Bavassano

[x] Noemi Salantiu / dinner+cleaning 24, 25

We should ask people to bring their own cups, plates and cutlery

No? Saves us both buying plates etc and ensures everyone helps with the dishwashing :slight_smile:

Own “Eating Tools” for everybody

Does sound reasonable. But than I would recommend basins so everybody can wash their own stuff after having finished. Only a smaller Crew necessary for kitchen cleanup (pots and pans etc.)

So you all think this is feasible?

It’s not unheard of, I just thought it would make for too much of a hassle…

Basins are there at the unMonastery, yet I find it somewhat difficult to manage lines and make sure this rule applies to everyone. We’ll ask alright.

Signing up for Dinner cooking and cleanup on 24,25

Thanks Katalin for updating the wiki!

Made changes to the budget, I had estimated 2 sandwiches per person because I didn’t know how large they are. 1 is good then!

For now we surely have the lunches fixed, we made a food stroll today with @Katalin. Then, I will arrange breakfast food myself, and for the dinners we still have to talk tonight about the final ideas. No worries, the team is so motivated to the task that we will be surely all properly fed each day;)

Where we are

It seems this is all well taken care of by @Natalia_Skoczylas and @katalin, if anything they will keep us up to date here.

What we discussed today:

  • plan food for no more than 60 people given the current no. of registered for the event 
  • have people register for dinner every morning, so we know how many to cook for
  • consider a good dinner on the 23rd when the Conf Opening takes place (probably better if it's not nomadic since it's our first evening together, schedule ends late anyway), 24th, 25th and 26th, so 4 nights in total
  • keep an eye on the entire schedule to plan eating hours 
  • ask people to bring their own cups
  • make sure there is enough cutlery at the unMonastery and how much we still need to buy
  • make sure enough chairs and tables are set for eating. Perhaps not everyone can eat standing up!

@ArthurD, is there anything you need to make sure Edgeryders LBG deals well with finances? Please let the girls know if you will need receipts and what kind, so they know in advance.

I would insist we provide the water from the fountains around. This way we save quite a lot of money. I will take care of having enough containers.

It looks from my rough estimation that we will spend less on lunches and breakfasts. I will keep you updated once I place the orders.

Suggested menu, based on discussions with Ramona and Natalia

23 October
 
dinner: 
 
- spaghetti with white wine and cream mushroom sauce, parsley
- fresh tomato bruschetta 
- fruit
 
24 October
 
breakfast:
 
- bread, oil, carrots, coffee, tea
 
lunch:
 
-Saverio's sandwiches
 
dinner:
 
- Minestrone soup with pasta
- jam cakes
- fruit
 
25 October
 
breakfast:
 
- bread, oil, carrots, coffee, tea
 
lunch:
 
- hot sandwiches
 
dinner:
 
- hand-made orechiette pasta with fresh tomato and capern sauce
- cooked and stir-fried rape with garlic and pepperoni cruschi
- baba ganoush (baked eggplants crushed with garlic, olive oil and salt)
- fruit
 
26 October
 
breakfast:
 
- bread, oil, carrots, coffee, tea
 
lunch:
 
- Saverio's sandwiches
 
dinner:
 
- white wine, onion, garlic and celery risotto
- baked beetroot salad
- fruit

Quantities

Sounds absolutely wonderful.

And you are familiar with the quantities to cook for about 50 to sixty persons? Or would you like me to do some research on this? I could ask the cook of the clinic I’m working at about the amount of pasta, sauce, vegetables a. s. o. needed.

Anna, that would be very good! we think we estimated ok but if you can let me know in two-three days, it would be helpful;)

Amount of food

Will do. Thursday. Promised :slight_smile:

This week I am starting buying all the necessary supplies - dry food, cans, sugar, chemicals, toilet papers, soaps, blablabla. We made a list with Katalin already, now I will wait for Anna Peregrina to give me the last green light about the quantities - and on Friday I will have the first big shopping done. The same day I will publish here what was ordered and how much money was spent.

I can help with cooking and shopping. I speck italian and know the town so maybe I can be of help in the shopping area. I am glad to help with all of the other duties related to food, I arrive on the 22 evening so from the 23 I can start.

ps: the menu looks great