About Us
Mealpool is a service where individuals and families can come together to make cooking easier and more cost effective. We promote familiarity and safety by requiring each participanting unit to have a Facebook account.
General Rules
Here we will go over some basics so you understand how to use this service, its basic etiquette, and what to expect.
First, let’s go over some basic definitions. Each participating person is considered a member. A collection of members (for example a family, a couple of roommates, etc.) signing up as a single participating body is considered a unit. There are 3 tiers of units - a 1 member tier, a 2-3 member tier, and a 4+ member tier. Each unit combines with other units to form a group. A valid group must have between 5 to 10 units and each unit must be of the same tier.
Basic Process
Getting Started Essentials:
1) Please change your password to something easy to remember.
2) Log in to MealBuds.com and either join a group or create your own.
3) Once your group has 5 units, by the Friday before the cooking week starts, please go to the schedule to select the day and meal you'd like to cook.
4) Gather your cooking ingredients that weekend and be ready to cook on your day!
5) Pick up times for dinners will be between 7:30pm and 9pm but exceptions can be made with your group.
The Details:
Each unit takes turns cooking for the group based on which day was selected in the 2 week calendar.
By the Friday before the beginning of each 2 week period, all units will select, for each day of each week, what dish they will prepare from the menu selection, or offer a new recipe to cook and add it to the recipes list. Adding of new recipes by the community is encouraged! If the other units object to the new suggested recipe, it needs to be vetoed. Your own meal choice suggestions need a 3 day lead time and have less than 2/5ths of units vetoing it.
The submission template for submitting your own recipe consists of the following elements:
-Meal title
-Tags (ethnic type, meat type, vegetarian or not)
-Link to original recipe (if available)
-Serving size
-Total duration of prep and cooking time
-Ingredients
-Recipe
-Nutrition information
The days will be assigned in a “first select, first assigned” manner. Any member that does not make the Friday night deadline will be automatically assigned a day and a meal at random.
If a member wants to do a change request, the requestor can click on his own name to put it in an “open” status, then a volunteer can click the “open” spot to take it. If the volunteer then "opens" his spot, the original requstor can take the "open" spot to in effect swap days.
We also encourage you to post a message on the message board or in private messages if you have a scheduling issue with which you want help from the group.
Dinner meals should be picked up between the window of 7pm - 8:30pm but specifics can be decided through the messaging system and diners can make arrangements with cook for exceptions. You must bring your own containers.
A dine in option is at the cook’s discretion.
Breakfast and lunch diners will typically be at work, so they will dine together at the workplace dining area.
Members are encouraged to give each cook a review and rating after each meal!
If you enjoyed a cooks meal and effort we also encourage you to leave a tip and say thank you, so tipping through the PayPal information listed on the Tipping Info page is recommended!
Creating New Groups
Anyone can create new group. If a group has been created but does not have the minimum number of units (5) to be active and this is for over a year, the group will be deleted. The group creator will be the group administrator. The group administrator can approve or disapprove new members.
Enrollment
Existing units can move groups, but the original group must approve the new members.
New units (units that are completely new to the platform) can join at anytime, but the selected group's owner must approve each new unit.
A unit can only participate in one group at a time.
If the remaining group is left with less than 5 units, the group will become inactivated until the remaining units recruit others to make the group whole again.
Potential Group Exclusion
Criteria for potential group exclusion include: sanitation, lack of effort, cost of meal, reliability, etc.
The offended units must file a complaint to the group administrator, then the administrator will send a survey to the other units for feedback. If confirmed, the offender will get one strike. The offender will then be advised to improve by the admin. After 2 strikes he/she will be banned from the group. You cannot submit the same complaint more than once in one month.
Canceling a Shift
Under extenuating circumstances, a unit can cancel their cooking turn once per quarter, but they must give notice by previous day, get another unit to pick up the shift, pay them for that day of groceries, and canceler will lose bonus points.
Alternatively, in these instances, you may have the option to call local delivery and order food for other members instead of cooking. Please notify all of the group's units of any meal or schedule changes as soon as you are aware of them. Courtesy keeps our community strong!
If you pick up a shift from someone who cancels:
You won’t have to pay for that day’s groceries (shift canceler needs to pay extra for that day ~$7/meal). This payment should be arranged directly between you and the shift canceler (you can use the Tipping/Reimbursement Info page).
You will be able to pick up extra tips.
You can gain higher rankings.
You may be eligible for special incentives in the future.
Peer Rating
We encourage members to rank (5-star system and “Not Applicable”) each cook after each meal based on these criteria:
-Overall quality of meal
-Quality of ingredients
-Taste
-Balance of food groups
-Meal appearance
-Healthiness
-Cleanliness
Canceling Your Membership
If you need to quit the group and cancel your whole membership, please notify the whole group via the group message board 1 week prior to cancellation and send a membership cancellation request to the site administrators.