CC Pioneers
The Rise of Collaborative Consumption

Michelle Shearer, Founder of MamaBake

MamaBake aims to…
bring back a sense of local community and support for all Mothers through cooking big batches of food up together.

The idea came …
from being brought a huge lasagne so that I didn’t have to cook dinner one night, by a wonderful friend, when my second child was six months old.

Mamabakehome.jpg

I believe it’s the right moment for MamaBake because …
1. Mothers are increasingly struggling and are often away from support networks of extended family and friends
2. Mothers are beginning to reject the competitive and judgemental atmosphere that can exist amongst Mothers. MamaBake is about saying we’re all in it together, and we can help each other along the way. It’s an inclusive movement
3. As a society we tend to undervalue the work of the Stay At Home Mother. MamaBake is about bringing back matriarch pride!

The easiest way to explain MamaBake is …
a regular group, big batch cookery for Mamas. Often, these groups tend to double up as undercover, feminist thinktanks.

The biggest misperception about MamaBake is…
that we’re just another Mother’s group.

The best moment so far was …
putting a shout out on the MamaBake Facebook wall for a number of Mothers who hit Struggle Town in a major way (surgery, nervous breakdowns..) and seeing how Mothers in their area rallied and organised weeks and weeks of meals and cleaning so the Mother could recover. MamaBake came into its own in those weeks.

Another example of Collaborative Consumption I admire is …
FreeCycle. I love how it reuses one man’s trash as another’s treasure. It hasn’t taken off where I live yet but I can’t wait until it does. I love trash.

In the future for MamaBake …
A worldwide network of MamaBakin’ Sisters supporting one another in their streets and a shift in the way the Mothering community thinks; from competition and judgement to honesty and support.

Link

POSTED IN: CC Pioneers and Protagonists / FOR: April 7, 2011