Kia ora koutou,

I have created a Meal Train for Karen and Sander, as a way for cohousers to help them out if they wish to. A meal train is simply a schedule for co-ordinating people who wish to make and drop off a meal as a way of supporting the new parents. I've tried to include everyone but if I've missed you and you want to know about it, please let me know (I had to input everyone's emails individually) - you should have an email with a link from "take them a meal".

Karen is doing Chinese confinement so I asked her to give me some information to educate us all about that. It's included in the meal train information but here it is below as well:

*Preferred drop-off time for meals for you?*

Around 6-7 pm is fine. Food can be dropped off on the table inside by the back door.

*Can you give me a short explanation of what you're doing for confinement:*

Karen will go strictly to the Chinese confinement after delivery. Confinement (Sitting the month) is a Chinese tradition to recover for one month after delivery. During this month, mothers stay indoor to rest most of time, and do not normally receive visitors. Mothers will avoid touching tap water, or go outdoor to prevent capturing the cold and wet energy.

There’s a special diet made up of confinement foods targeted towards specific functions like dispelling “wind” from the body, quelling heatiness, boosting blood circulation, increase mom’s milk supply, revitalizing strength, etc.

*Special instructions/dietary restrictions*

- Hot (temperature) cooked food. No salads. - No beef, no shrimps, no shellfish. - No deep fried foods, no Indian curries, no spicy foods. - During Week 1 and 2 confinement foods are clean and easily digestible foods, e.g. chicken or fish soup, multi-grain porridge with chicken or pork, steamed eggs, steamed veggies, little bit of ginger, and overall a lighter not so greasy food. - Week 3-4: More veggies and meat(chicken,pork,fish) for strength recovery: Lots of grains(mostly rice), stir fry, chicken soups, chicken dishes with sesame oil, lots of ginger, and cooking wine.

Here’s a site with some good confinement recipes if people want to get some inspiration: https://whattocooktoday.com/category/chinese-confinement-recipes

*Favourite meals/ takeout options*

Chinese, Papa Chou, Impression Manor (e.g. stir fried veggie meat dishes)

*When to start the meal train and how long to keep it going for: *

Happy with 2-3 times a week, can start from Sunday 1 Aug, happy to do it for 3 weeks (if possible).

There is no pressure to participate but knowing how lovely we all are I thought it'd be helpful to set something up for those of us who are keen to be involved :).

Jess