~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~
☆ Harkness Co-op is one of a few housing and dining co-ops at Oberlin College. This means everything is totally student run- the cooking is done by students, the cleaning is done by students, and the college has very little oversite. There are 50 housing members and over 100 dining members, and many members are in both dining and housing. There is a website, the link is here however this website cannot be relied on to have accurate information, because it is not updated frequently. The other co-ops at Oberlin are Tank and keep, which are both housing and dining, and Pyle, which is a dining only coop. Harkness is the largest housing coop, and is currently the largest dining coop, although it does not have the largest capacity for dining members.
☆ Co-ops at Oberlin are all part of an organization called the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA). OSCA uses a consensus based decision making process, meaning when making decisions as a co-op, instead of just going with majority rules, we aim to get a proposal that everyone is at least okay with. Discussions are facilitated by DLECs (Dining Loose Ends Coordinators), which is one of the many elected positions in the co-op. Other elected positions include the Food Safety Coordinators (that one is pretty obvious what they do), KitchCos (Kitchen Coordinators, they help the FSCs and maintain the kitchen), and AccessCos (work to keep the co-op accessible) and a lot more! In addition to all of those, there are a whole bunch of elected positions which are in charge of making food for the co-op. Head cooks are in charge of planning meals and leading cook shifts. Bread Makers are in charge of keeping the co-op stocked with bread, and Tasty Things Makers are in charge of keeping the co-op stocked with tasty treats.
My Co-op Stories
~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~ ~☆~
Jellyfish Parade
Jellyfish parade is a tradition that has been around for some years now- I've heard it started in 2016, but I don't know if that's true. People gather in front of Hark at 11 pm on the night of the full moon every month. People from outside of Hark are welcome to join, but the core tends to at least be Hark-adjacent. Someone brings the jellyfish, which is made out of chicken wire and cloth, and various people will bring instruments. Traditionally, someone will have some large co-op item they can use as a drum- I have used a 5 gallon bucket, a friend of mine would use a shallow pot. Once there is critical mass, someone stands up on the ledge by the bench and welcomes everyone. They usually say what type of full moon it is, and then they give the signal to start marching. We walk from in front of Hark past Barrows, by Wilder Bowl, eventually ending up at the Arch at Tappan square. The most important part of jellyfish parade is the singing. As we walk, we sing a song in time with whoever is playing instruments. People will often see us walking and join in, and you can hear people remarking "Oh it's jellyfish parade!" out of their windows. Once everyone has gathered by the Arch, we have a moment of silence to appreciate the moon. I like to raise my arms up towards the moon and take some deep breaths. Sometimes people will howl at the moon after the moment of silence, if someone gets it going. After the moment of silence, we dance! Everyone with instruments gather together, and play a beat for people to dance to. People like to dance in circles, with lots of running and arm waving. This will go on for 30-45 minutes, and people tend to just trickle out. Usually, a smaller group will walk back to Hark, singing on the way back.
Making Lunch in 1 hour
It started out as a peaceful Wednesday morning, I get up, get ready, go to class (Intro to Archaeology), when all of a sudden I get a dramatic email. It's 10:30 and someone is telling me there's no Head Cook in the kitchen, and that the cook shift had left. I'm one of the DLECs, so I text my co DLEC and ask her what's going on. We both had class until 10:50, so we meet in the kitchen at 11:00. There is no one there, but she tells me she's determined to get lunch out. After sending out a desparate email, we get to work. We chopped carrots and zucchinis, make oatmeal for our starch, and decide to go for tofu for protein, because it doesn't take too long. It was a very stressful hour, but we made it happen. I learned in that hour that the head cook had arranged in person for someone to cover her head cook shift about a week ago. I guess the person who agreed to cover her forgot about it, and there was no written record of the inital deal.