Some food servers don’t seem like they are trying to give genuine personal care and aid to the comfort of the older people they serve, yet that is what they are doing. If they love their job, love the work they do, and care for the older people they serve, it appears to be a natural part of the day … Continue reading
Many stories of many kindnesses being extended to a customer come to me in many different ways. The stories aren’t always directly related to Long Term Care or Retirement Living, but the idea of kindness stretches from one station to another. For instance, a father checking into the Ritz Carlton for a conference brought his young son along. As they … Continue reading
In these trying times of the COVID 19 crisis, studies reveal Long Term Care communities with ample staff who are well-trained have fewer cases of the Coronavirus. Training is a keyword here that works for your food servers who hold vital positions in the community. Kind Dining® training modules are so much more than bringing a meal to a resident. … Continue reading
Open and honest discussion is essential, and for me, an anticipated part of my training session of Kind Dining®. I don’t use a formatted script for this, and I am often pleasantly surprised by the responses that come. I recall a teenage dishwasher/busboy in one of the classes. He needed a job and happened to find one in the community … Continue reading
If you are employed in a senior or assisted living community and serve a beverage to a resident, you are a food server. If you only fill in on a day when your dining rooms are short-handed, you are a food server. If you only serve food on an occasional basis, you are a food server and all food servers … Continue reading
Personal stories about food service, whether they are restaurant-based, institutions, or more often today, come from residential communities. One story that came to me recently was from a gal who probably was a natural leader in the senior community she worked in because she had a restaurant background. “My parents owned a small neighborhood restaurant,” she said. “None of us … Continue reading
It seems multicultural and multiracial items are in headline news every day. Retirement living and long term care residents are more multiracial and multicultural than in the recent past. Today’s retiring seniors are widely traveled and exposed to other cultures by the choices they made in how they lived their lives. Travel, communication, and TV have opened the doors for … Continue reading
Looking at it from a resident’s point of view, after their own grooming, followed by waiting for hours for their next meal, what do they see when you enter their room? Can they rely on an enthusiastic “Hello, Mr./Mrs. …, How are you doing today?” Can they see a smile behind the mask being worn? The smile that moves up … Continue reading
“When I entered the store, with my mask on,” a lady was telling me, “I was terrified! Everyone looked so weird and scary hiding behind their masks. This was all new and looked so very strange. I took a deep breath. This is life today, I told myself. Then I truly looked and found that people were smiling at me … Continue reading
Gail has been a food server in a senior living community for fifteen years. “Our community service team donned masks and closed communal dining early in this pandemic” she reported. “But we still lost some of our food serving team because they were afraid of taking the virus home to their families.” She went on to comment on how helpful … Continue reading
