One Community
Food Bars
This page contains the open source food bar plans designed for One Community’s use during our crowd funding campaign and/or upon initial arrival on the property. Food bars are a style of serving prepared meals, which is similar to buffet-style food preparation and service, where food is prepared and then placed in a central location (the bars) and individuals go there and choose which foods to put on their own plates. The plans are designed so they can be adapted for a variety of dietary preferences in almost any situation.
To see calculations and reasoning behind the nutritional aspects of these menus, please see our Sustainable Food Nutrition Calculations page. To see the reasoning behind how One Community has designed these for implementation during construction of sustainable teacher/demonstration communities, villages, and cities, please see our complete Food Self-sufficiency Transition Plan page.
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This page contains the following sections (click on each point to jump straight to that section):
- What is the Food Bar
- Why Open Source A Food Bar
- Ways you can contribute to this
- Key consultants to this component
- Food Bar Overview
- Food Bars
- Production Schedule Overview
- Weekly Shopping and Recipe List
- Resources
- Summary
- FAQs
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WHAT IS THE FOOD BAR
A food bar is similar to buffet style food preparation and service where food is prepared and then placed in a central location (the food bar, which is a type of table designed to hold pans of food and keep the food at specific temperatures). The breakfast food bar will feature a variety of items that can be combined for a balanced simple breakfast. For lunch and dinner (and occasionally breakfast), the food bars will feature at least one meal from a recipe of the day, and a corresponding staple item and supplementary items to fulfill the caloric and nutritional needs of that meal.
Here are all the One Community “recipes of the day.”
These are designed to offer daily food bar diversity and the rest of the food bar will always offer consistent options so anyone not liking the recipe of the day can still have something they’ll enjoy. All of this will be served on a hot bar and a cold bar, where people bring their own plates and serve themselves. The daily offerings will cover the recommended amounts of staples to make sure we are nutritionally balanced. Buffets on a daily basis will be based on rotating bulk items of the day, combined with the daily menu item for each meal based off the staple item of the week, and include seasonal and perishable staple items.
WHY OPEN SOURCE A FOOD BAR
This food bar strategy is part of our plan to make it easier for others to create a healthy, sustainable, and delicious food program into their projects in any situation where people are looking to establish a temporary kitchen and prepare food for large groups of people over long periods of time. We’ve chosen food bars and correlating recipes because they’re relatively, affordable, convenient, and easy to execute while providing proper nutrition and a fairly wide variety of foods and flavors.
Once we’ve finished this tutorial and open sourced all the updates, modifications/clarifications, and learnings from our experience implementing food vars as part of our Food Self Sufficiency Transition Plan with volunteer builders as part of our crowdfunding campaign, we’ll further evolve it with our core team through building the complete Earthbag Village (Pod 1) and Duplicable City Center®. Our goals in doing all this is:
- To provide menus and meals that can be of benefit to any group
- To demonstrate and share the healthiest and most delicious choices we’ve come up with so far
- To make the food production aspect of DIY sustainable building easier and more affordable for others
WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE TO EVOLVING THIS SUSTAINABILITY COMPONENT WITH US
SUGGESTIONS ● CONSULTING ● MEMBERSHIP ● OTHER OPTIONS
KEY CONSULTANTS TO THE FOOD SELF-SUFFICIENCY TRANSITION PLAN
Benjamin Sessions: Strategic Sales and Real Estate Development Entrepreneur and Food Connoisseur
Dr. Matt Marturano: Naturopathic Doctor & Holistic Recruiter, developing a holistic model for comprehensive digestive health
Sandra Sellani: Business Author, Speaker, Consultant, and Vegan Chef
FOOD BAR OVERVIEW
To make replication as easy as possible, we’ve provided the following sections related to food bar creation:
GENERAL OVERVIEW
The One Community food infrastructure is designed to meet the needs of vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores. To meet these diverse nutritional needs and desires, food items were chosen that are a common ground between these three main groups. The items included on the food bars will primarily be staples, such as fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and starchy vegetables.
The food selection on the food bar “buffets” on a daily basis will be based on rotating seasonal and perishable staple items that will cover much of the daily dietary needs. The bars will also include items that are coming from our bulk food storage, such as grains like rice. There will be a rotation to vary the grains from day to day, while using the same grain for both lunch & dinner in the same day to cut down preparation time.
For example, when the weekly recipes will be based on the ‘root veggie’ or perishable, we could offer brown rice on the lunch and dinner bar on the same day (made fresh at lunch and reused at dinner). Recipes that are chosen for that day would also include legumes or other proteins. When legumes are on the bar, the same legumes will be used within the same day for both lunch and dinner. The grain that goes on the bar will be selected to fit whatever is the best match for the accompanying lunch/dinner root veggie/legume combo.
SUSTAINABLE EATING DESIGN
The procurement, preparation, and consumption of food will take up a large portion of the group’s financial and temporal resources, and even more so in the beginning. Since there are so many differing opinions and theories about nutrition and diet, it is important to have a set of core principles that govern how decisions will be made with respect to these. Here are the principles our food selection and menu design for food bars and daily primary recipes is based on:
- Nutritionally-complete meal plans – Minimum of 100% RDA for nutrients
- Nutrition-dense foods – quality comes first
- Minimizing spoilage/waste – through food selection & storage
- Food education – including macronutrient and micronutrient content & needs
- Replicable recipes – straightforward/easy
- Adaptable recipes – for changes in group sizes and activity levels
- Taste and presentation – food that is inherently pleasurable
- Coherence – food policy seeks the highest good for the individuals/groups it effects
You can find the details of this and the other specific details of our food plan, as suggested by our consultant Dr. Matt Marturano, and which can be adapted to suit the needs of any group, on our Sustainable Food Nutrition Calculations page and in his guide on How to Get All Your Nutrition From Food.
Calculations on How Much Food is Needed
We answered his four main questions that affect how much food is necessary and the answers to them will be used in devising the transitional food strategy for One Community. We will be designing menus with the following needs in mind:
- 50 people between approximately 25 – 65 years of age with a mean estimated weight 178 lbs and height of 70 inches, who will be very active (from physical labor since we will simultaneously be in the preliminary construction phase)
Please see the Sustainable Food Nutrition Calculations for detailed information on how much total food will be needed while the pioneer group is in the food transition phase and preliminary construction phase.
FOOD BARS
Based of the above calculations, and accounting for our bulk goods selection, we have a general layout below for the breakfast, lunch, and dinner bars.
BREAKFAST BAR
The breakfast bar will offer staples such as oatmeal, cereals, milks, and fruits. As needed, recipes will be included for breakfast that feature left overs from the previous day (ex: left over stir fried veggies made into fritatas, or left over potatoes used for breakfast burritos, hashes, etc).
BREAKFAST BAR FOODS
This is the suggested daily breakfast arrangement:
- 25 cups (5 lb) oats (to be served both hot and cold per preference)
- 4 loaves (4 lb) of whole-grain bread (for toast and/or pb&j) (adjust as needed depending on people’s food preferences)
- 5 dozen eggs, scrambled and/or hard-boiled
- 1 gallon of ea Milk (vegan & omnivore)
- 32 oz container PB (or other nut/seed butter), 1 container jelly, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, and/or any dessert spices
- 6 cups (2 lb) combination of sunflower and pumpkin seeds plus 6 cups (2 lb) rotating other seeds/nuts for variety (4 lb total)
- 3 cups (1 lb) raisins or other dried fruit
- 15 lb bananas + 5 lb rotating other fresh fruit (+ more for people that want banana based smoothies for breakfast)
LUNCH BAR
The lunch bar will feature a salad bar, a daily hot staples section, and the daily lunch recipe.
NOTE – Lunch and dinner recipes will be made with a weekly theme ingredient and either a legume or grain of the day. Any amounts of legumes, grains, or veggies not used in the recipes for lunch and dinner will be added to the food bar to ensure the recommended daily quantities are served.
LUNCH BAR FOODS
- 15 lb root veggies
- 4 lb mushrooms/nightshades (can be either/or/combination)
- 4 lb cruciferous/other veg (can be either/or/combination)
- 2 lb alliums
- 3 lb dark/light greens (can be either/or/combination)
- Grain and/or legume of the day, amount tbd depending on what is used in the daily recipes
- 1 dozen eggs, hard boiled
- 1 loaf of bread (for toast and/or pb&j) (adjust as needed depending on people’s food preferences)
- 12 cups Hummus or bean dip (cold or in a crock pot)
DINNER BAR
The dinner bar will feature a salad bar, a daily hot staples section which includes leftovers from lunch, and the daily dinner recipe.
NOTE – Lunch and dinner recipes will be made with a weekly theme ingredient and either a legume or grain of the day. Any amounts of legumes, grains, or veggies not used in the recipes for lunch and dinner will be added to the food bar to ensure the recommended daily quantities are served.
DINNER BAR FOODS
- 15 lbs root veggies
- 4 lb mushrooms/nightshades (can be either/or/combination)
- 5 lb cruciferous/other veg (can be either/or/combination)
- 2 lb alliums
- 3 lb dark/light greens (can be either/or/combination)
- 1 dozen eggs, hard boiled
- remainder of grain and/or legume of the day left from lunch, amount tbd depending on what is used in the daily recipes
- 1 loaf of bread (for toast and/or pb&j) (adjust as needed depending on people’s food preferences)
- 12 cups Hummus or bean dip (cold or in a crock pot)
PRODUCTION SCHEDULE OVERVIEW
In order to make the lives of the kitchen staff easier, it is strongly advised that the chef and sous-chef prepare meals and base ingredients for meals days or weeks before using. Soups, stocks, and other base ingredients can easily be prepared in advance. These base ingredients will offer the most flavor to a meal, but are also the most time intensive for the kitchen staff. Stocks can take a particularly long time to make, but are vital to creating certain delicious and healthy meals.
The majority of the cooking and preparation should be done Monday through Friday, while preparing meals in advance for Saturday and Sunday that will require minimal preparation and cleanup. The kitchen will prepare meals to be ready by approximately 8am, 12pm, and 6pm.
It will be important to also offer healthy snacks to the Community throughout the day. Due to the projected hours of heavy manual labor, a higher caloric intake will be needed than can be satisfied solely through the primary meal setting. With this in mind, healthy snacks will be prepared and offered in cold and dry containers that can be accessed by anyone at anytime. Examples of this would be large dry containers offering food items such as granola, crackers, and mini-pretzels along with chilled water containers that will provide already prepared vegetables, fruits, and hard-boiled eggs.
WEEKLY SHOPPING AND RECIPE LIST
To effectively serve the One Community Team, we will create two primary recipe options: omnivore and vegan. Catering to too many varied diets would ultimately be costly and unsustainable. Many meals can flexibly be created from either a vegan or omnivore based meal plan. Our current menus are primarily vegan as they were created by Sandra Sellani: Business Author, Speaker, Consultant, and Vegan Chef, and we will be adding omnivore recipes soon. With this (and all the information above) in mind, we have created the following first draft of weekly recipe lists:
VIDEOS COMING AS WE IMPLEMENT THIS AS PART OF OUR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN: PREPARING EACH RECIPE, SHOPPING TIPS, TEMPORARY KITCHEN SETUP, AND MORE
SEE OUR HOW TO HELP AND/OR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN PAGE TO HELP CREATE ALL THE TUTORIAL VIDEOS FASTER
RECIPES
To address the dietary desires of omnivores, each of these vegan recipes have been chosen and designed as recipes that can easily be made with the addition of animal fats/proteins.
NOTE: In these meal plans, exact measurements may not be followed and are offered as suggestions. Particulars will be decided by the chef and the community size. Duplication of meals will also be important to offer economies of scale when buying weekly meals as well as making food production easier.
Recipe Lists
Here are all the One Community links to all the other recipe and menu pages (some of which are in progress):
ONE WEEK MENU
To create weekly food bar menus, we must first have completed recipes for the primary “meals” that will be created for the week. The food bar recipes are meant to supplement these daily meals and offer staple nutrition as well as alternative basic options for people who may not choose to eat the primary recipe at a particular meal.
For an exampleBelow are the links to the weekly set of rice recipes we have created for meals that can be used in conjunction with the lunch and/or dinner food bars. Groups with mixed dietary preferences can choose to use either the vegan or omnivore as their starting point, and then can add or remove animal products as desired.
Here are the rice recipes we have so far:
Example:
The “White Bean & Fennel Chili On Brown Rice” recipe already has rice as a grain and garbanzos as a legume in the recipe. In this case, you may look around your pantry and determine that you have an overabundance of another staple and decide to make it as a complimentary item or dish. A good pairing for this may be to make something for the chili to go on top of, such as using corn flour to make tortillas, or baking potatoes or yams for the chili to go on. Alternatively, it may meet your group’s needs better to simply make extra plain rice and/or garbanzos to place on the bar so each person can use them at the proportions of their choosing and for those that may not like the spices in the chili recipe.
ONE WEEK SHOPPING LIST
Our menus for preparing meals must be completed before we can solidify what will be provided on the food bars enough to generate a shopping list for both the primary daily recipes to create the menus for the supplementary food bars of the week. After our weekly menus are finalized, and as part of the upcoming crowdfunding campaign, when we are entering the construction phase, we will begin to provide videos of our activities.
VIDEOS COMING OF: WEEKLY GROCERY LIST CREATING, WEEKLY SHOPPING
SEE OUR HOW TO HELP AND/OR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN PAGE TO HELP CREATE ALL THE TUTORIAL VIDEOS FASTER
ONE WEEK MENU COST ANALYSIS
Our menus for preparing meals must be completed before we can solidify what will be provided on the food bars enough to generate a shopping list for both the primary daily recipes to create the menus for the supplementary food bars of the week. Then, cost analysis can occur. As stated above, after we finalize the weekly meal menus and when we are entering the construction phase, we will begin creating videos showing this component.
SEE OUR HOW TO HELP AND/OR CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN PAGE TO HELP CREATE ALL THE TUTORIAL VIDEOS FASTER
RESOURCES
On the following pages, you can find more information about our open source food program:
- Highest Good Food
- Transition Kitchen Setup
- Food Self Sufficiency Transition Plan
- Sustainable Food Nutrition Calculations
- Use this page (click here) if you have a resource you’d like to suggest be added here.
SUMMARY
In summary, the food bars are an integral part of One Community’s open source food program and enable us to create easy to make, sustainable, nutritious, and delicious recipes that everyone will love. The items included on the food bars will primarily be staples, such as fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and starchy vegetables. The food selection on the food bar “buffets” on a daily basis will be based on rotating seasonal and perishable staple items that will cover much of the daily dietary needs. The bars will also include items that are coming from our bulk food storage, such as grains like rice. There will be a rotation to vary the grains from day to day, while using the same grain for both lunch & dinner in the same day to cut down preparation time.
FREQUENTLY ANSWERED QUESTIONS
Q: Is One Community going to be a vegetarian community?
The One Community team consists of vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores. In accordance with our philosophy for The Highest Good of All we are maintaining a non-idealogical approach to food choices. That said, also in accordance with this philosophy, we will only support and consume food items that are ethically and sustainably raised, managed, and produced. The consensus process will be used to decide the evolution of the One Community food plan.
Q: I'm vegetarian/vegan, would I have to participate in any part of the process or raising animals for food and/or eating/cooking them?
No, you would not have to participate in any aspect of One Community's food diversity that didn't agree with your personal beliefs and preferences.
Q: I'm an omnivore or vegan, what if I don't want to eat a vegan or omnivore diet?
The complete food self-sufficiency transition plan is designed to meet the needs of all dietary preferences through:
- Recipes that can be made vegan or omnivore:
- Vegan recipes were chosen that could easily have animal-based proteins added for omnivores
- Omnivore recipes were chosen that could easily be made with 100% vegan ingredients
- Alternating weeks of omnivore and vegan focused menus: The weeks are alternating so that we could design complete 1-week menus for each dietary preference to provide complete menus for both philosophies AND so that groups containing mixed preferences would have an equal way of focusing on each dietary preference for a week while still providing for the other preference as per #1 above. They alternate to address any concerns that recipes aren't as good when a vegan recipe is made omnivore just by adding animal protein, or an omnivore recipe is made vegan just by replacing all animal-based ingredients.
In this way all dietary preferences can be provided, any sacrifices are shared in alternating weeks, and groups completely preferring vegan or omnivore options have clear menus they can follow for both choices.
Q: How do you intend to produce spices, mill grain for flour, cooking oil, etc. etc.
To us, "100% food sustainability" means we will demonstrate and open source share a model that doesn't need external food sources. Having achieved this, what we produce internally versus choosing to buy will be decided through the consensus process.
Q: What is One Community's stance on pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides?
If it is not safe to eat, we will not be spraying it on our food. Here's a video we feel is helpful in understanding why:
Q: What if I want something that isn't on the community menu?
The community menu will be agreed upon through the consensus process. If a person wanted something not included on that menu, then they would be welcome to purchase and provide it for themselves.
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