OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE


on order, says Phillip Dopson, senior vice president, consumer experience, design, and retail at the provider. “We’ve had some great success with a


robot in the dining room as a server as- sistant, busser, and host,” Dopson says, reporting that the robots ease the workload for associates and have been well received by residents. Robots even could become involved in


food prep. Sally, a robot offered by Chow- biotics by DoorDash, creates on-demand salads, bowls, and snacks, drawing on an assortment of up to 22 ingredients. The 3-foot-by-3-foot machine is in hun-


dreds of hospitals, college campuses, and grocery stores, and its owners have plans to expand its use to restaurants and other venues, according to Restaurant Business magazine.


Apps and codes Robotics is only one of the tech tools being integrated into senior community dining ser- vices, and Lenbrook offers a telling example.


For instance, the community added an app for reserving tables in dining facilities for its residents while continuing to offer the option to call or email in a reservation request. Over the past four months, 40 percent of reserva- tions were made with the app. As did many communities, Lenbrook implemented the use of tablets for servers during the pandemic, speeding service time and improving the efficiency and accuracy of orders, Sveda says. Technology increasingly also will give


residents more options for how they dine. Phones, tablets, and kiosks are rapidly be- coming the normal methods for ordering food. Online ordering and reservations for dining venues increased during the pan- demic and are here to stay. At Asbury Meth- odist Village in Gaithersburg, Md., where dining services are provided by Sodexo, the majority of residents now order their food online. At Asbury, the majority of residents now order their food online. As part of a recent major expansion, Lenbrook opened an unstaffed convenience store. Residents


can purchase items at a kiosk using their key cards. The community is now exploring a kiosk in its casual dining venue that would allow residents to use self-service to order meals for either takeout or dining in. Both efforts align with searching for ways to allocate staff where they are most needed for service. Sveda believes Lenbrook eventually will


give residents the opportunity to use mobile ordering to order from the menus of any of the community’s five dining venues, no matter which one they are dining in. “As the senior population becomes more


tech-savvy, I expect to see greater desire and engagement with interactive menu boards, app-based menu selections (self-paced advanced ordering), and greater customi- zations to personal menus through resident or family web/app portals,” Wescott says. “Technology can be an effective bridge


between resident, family, and service provid- er—making communication more efficient, clear, and actionable.”


“Food is, and should be, fun, and robots can streamline dining experiences so that humans can focus on the fun,” says Kimberly Regillio, senior manager of public relations for LG.


WHERE COGNITIVE HEALTH AND CULINARY INTERSECT


Technology plays a big part in LCB’s new brain health program, implemented in November 2021. Virtual reality headsets are used to measure brain health in 5-minute assessments that residents can take as often as they wish. The data is used to advise the residents on lifestyle changes including diet.


The program is called SHIELD, which stands for Sleeping, Handling Stress, Interacting with Others, Exercising, Learning and Diet. It was developed by scientists from MIT and Harvard Medical School. The program assesses brain health while actively promoting dietary changes and other measures residents can take to improve their well-being.


“It has definitely impacted how our residents interact with food,” says Ted Doyle, vice president of marketing and communications.


34 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MARCH/APRIL 2022


He says he has noticed an increase in resident interest in healthy eating as a result of their participation in the program.


Sunshine also began a new brain health initiative in 2021. It bases its menus on the MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet. The diet is not strictly imposed on residents, however. Sunshine takes the approach of incorporating MIND ingredients into foods that they already enjoy. Chefs might substitute healthier proteins, replace canola oil with olive oil or add more leafy greens to a meal.


“We can still give them meatloaf, but we incorporate ground turkey or ground chicken,” says Spencer Guzman, regional director of culinary services. “It’s all about the ingredients, and all about creativity.”


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