RECIPES FOR RESILIENCE
Over the past two years, senior living culinary and dining services in all regions and levels managed to turn lemons into lemonade, continuing to improve menus, service, and safety. In this issue, they share their ideas, tips, and outlook for the future.
BY SARA WILDBERGER D
uring days of quarantine and social distancing, culinary departments met the challenge of trying to keep dining alone in a room tasty, interesting, and delivered to them in the past two years. And now come new challenges. The economy is roaring forward—as fourth- quarter 2021 real gross domestic product was at a record-breaking 6.7 percent increase. The Bu- reau of Economic Analysis pointed to “an upturn in exports as well as accelerations in inventory investment and consumer spending,” even as household aid programs faded away, indicating the comeback wasn’t just a benefit-check blip. But on the other side of the scale are factors
that make the food business tough: inflation, competition, and scarce supplies due to continu- ing supply chain woes. “It feels like there is a different supply chain
issue to navigate each week,” says Davis Martin, procurement manager at Maxwell Group, Inc. “When it comes to ordering in today’s market
you have to be creative—this goes especially for kitchen equipment. You have to be willing to uti- lize many different distributors. It’s been helpful to
lean on GPOs [group purchasing organizations] to provide additional contacts when suppliers outside of my normal circle have lengthy lead times.” This is echoed by others in culinary, from chefs
to procurement: Be creative, be flexible, and be collaborative. “The past two years have not been easy, and
that’s no exception for the senior living industry,” writes Jeff Porterfield, chief customer officer, North America, at Entegra, in an email interview. “No one expected this; no one was prepared for the unique challenges, supply shortages, work- force issues, and isolation felt across senior living communities.” To meet the challenges, in October 2021, Entegra, a division of Sodexo, launched its re- freshed brand with services including not only procurement and a GPO, but also a digital plat- form, advisory services, and a corporate respon- sibility commitment (not a surprise, considering Sodexo’s reputation for excellence in that area). “What we saw as the trends unfolded were op- portunities to step in and find solutions for our clients,” Porterfield writes.
MARCH/APRIL 2022
ARGENTUM.ORG 9
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
