Mealtimes are still your best marketing. Resident-centered food service is where your community quality shows through the strongest. The focus is still on the residents’ preferences and necessities whether making their meal choices from a menu or special food stations in each corridor that are being utilized now within pandemic guidelines of social distancing. The presentation may be different since … Continue reading
Leadership is no more about telling people what to do than good training is about being told what to do. Leaders of quality prefer a do–as-i-do rather than a do-as-i-say belief. They attend all meetings that are designed for food server participation so they can hear exactly what the food serving team has to contribute; their ideas, thoughts, and what … Continue reading
Alice was walking down the hallway and telling a new coworker that it has been a year that she wasn’t sure the community would get through. ‘Here it is, behind us, and we have overcome some difficult hardships, made tough decisions while keeping the safety and comfort of our senior care community. We were continuing our everyday service in the … Continue reading
Like never before, teamwork in the Assisted Living and Long-Term Care communities have been vital. The sudden transition of formal dining rooms, cozy corner in-house cafes, and food courts shut down because the pandemic has required food serving teams to make drastic changes to their normal routines and styles of serving meals. It generally takes time and practice to put … Continue reading
We have a new year to look forward to, carrying the experience of living through an unprecedented year of the pandemic that has not happened before in our lifetime. Many older adults have lived through sorrow and loss and had built resilience to get them through the difficulties we face today. Our senior living communities have changed guidelines and rearranged … Continue reading
While waiting in line to mail packages at the post office, a friend noted two women discussing, behind masks, of course, their disappointments in the year 2020. They both believed it was going to be a super year instead of the shocker it became, teaching us all new ways of living. “We are ending a year of living carefully in … Continue reading
We often can benefit from learning a new way of doing something we’ve always done without thought. This applies to the workday of many food servers in the community of older adults. Learning how to work smarter on the job, by finding solutions to our communication shortcomings is a goal. It takes cooperative teamwork to deliver top-notch food service. Holding … Continue reading
A friend of a friend was having a conversation about the blues, being in a terrible rut during this coronavirus-instigated quarantine until she received a greeting card from a long-time friend. She had not heard from her in a few years. She spoke of that special, particular moment of being lifted up out of her gloom and feeling elated by … Continue reading
In pre-COVID 19 times, the chef would create special socializing events to bring residents together over his food offerings for festive occasions, celebrate memorable holidays, family gatherings, and mark appropriate events for residents. Even though communities are in quarantine, the chef still needs to create special menus, interesting meals, and recipes to wake residents’ palates in the community. Unaware of … Continue reading
Even in these hard times of pandemic, we have much to be thankful for in our senior living community. We have been fortunate to learn quickly how to protect our environment, residents, staff, and have learned ways of social distancing in everyday activities. Incorporating virtual technology into our daily lives has kept residents from loneliness, kept all of us in … Continue reading
