The Kitchen Cabinet—What?

When members of Andrew Jackson’s official cabinet began disagreeing with his policies or becoming embroiled in scandals, or both, he began consulting other friends and associates on affairs of state. In December of 1831, Nicholas Biddle, then head of the Bank of the United States, wrote that the kitchen now predominated over the parlor.

Kitchen cabinet was quickly adopted as a derisive reference to the Jackson’s unofficial government leaders, but in neighborhood labor exchanges, the precursors to TimeBanks, it took on new meaning.

Before computers and interactive websites, all offers and requests were posted on a community bulletin board or listed in monthly newsletters. Members made connections by phone and sent notice of completed transactions were mailed or telephoned in to exchange managers who recorded each transaction on log sheets. It was serious paperwork.

In an early New England exchange, the group of managers met weekly spending many hours pouring over notes they or their members had scribbled down to record exchanges. They consulted and strategized and drank strong coffee, around a kitchen table

Like the president’s cabinet, they were the core of operations. And like Andrew Jackson’s most trusted cabinet they were largely invisible and unrecognized.