talking with the residents, which is where you get some of your greatest satisfaction. The biggest complaint I would get was, “When I need something, my server's gone.” That's not happening now. Also, everybody has a much better
workflow and work-life balance. I don’t have servers and dish people leaving work exhausted because all they've done all day is run back and forth from the dining room. You also mentioned during the roundta-
ble that because of supply chain issues, you were having trouble finding the creamer residents like, and you’ve already started getting food for Thanksgiving. How is that going? Everything we do depends on petro-
leum, so not only does creamer need oil to create it, the petroleum is used to create the containers, so it's a twofold issue. I would say creamer is still an issue. However, retail is getting more of that market than health- care is. I have my teams buy it retail, as much as I hate that, because why fight that battle? If I can get it retail, why fight that? Why constantly talk about how we can’t get it and then the resident says, “But I was just at Albertson’s and they had a whole shelf of it.” So it’s one of those things, but I would say, for the most part, it's not as bleak as it was. But turkey’s going to be a big problem.
One of the things we like to do at Thanks- giving for our staff is let them choose a turkey or ham. We want to give you that tangible thing; we don't want to give you a gift card. We want you to have a turkey or a ham, so you can take that home and cook that for your family. There's a huge turkey shortage, since the
avian flu really affected the turkey market drastically, so what turkeys they’re able to put into market, the majority of that is go- ing retail. So, I’ve been telling my teams that if you can purchase turkeys now, do that and keep them in storage because they hold really well for six months.
How has inflation affected your overall kitchen purchases? Since we’re in double digit inflation and I manage our order guide, I keep a very heavy hand on that because we could easily be way over budget in our spending. I'm
constantly changing the order guide as far as commodities go that are expensive, so if Blue Bell flour is more expensive than King Arthur, then I’m going to move Blue Bell. We’re making those commodity changes rel- atively frequently and I’m having my chefs not order from their list. Usually, a chef will place an order and say, “This is the stuff I want,” and then go back and order from that, but I’m having them look at their guide more and more so they will definitely see the new prices and the price differences.
What would you say is the key to nur- turing and appreciating senior living staff? I would say we don’t buy into that fake at-
titude of we’re a family. We’re not, that’s not us. We’re a finely-tuned, high-functioning sports team. Everything I do affects the rest of my team – and that's all of us together, the entire company. That’s the way we see it. Stellar walks the talk and I think this is why we have mostly positive reviews, and we also have low turnover.
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