OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
In a move that helped maximize engagement, residents were involved in planning the Friendship Village culinary renovation project from the get-go, participating in focus groups, and expressing their preferences. The top requests: a wide selection of menu items, a bar, and a café with grab-and-go items.
living increased 500 percent from 2019 to 2020.”
Online ordering is flexible and can be
done at any time of day. Some apps also provide nutrition information. Technology aimed at personalizing the
dining experience is also emerging. Silva says that keeping track of resident dining preferences in order to offer optimum menus will become increasingly important. With all the changes occurring around
A Morrison Living chef works culinary magic.
What’s on the horizon Broad changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic will have long-last- ing impacts on dining in senior living. Communities may have to give up buffets and self-serve salad bars in favor of attend- ed stations, where staff can assemble salads to order or prepare parts of a meal in front of residents. Those options would satisfy the desire for choice that is so crucial to resident satisfaction.
Having options presented in a visually
exciting way keeps the fun of dining alive. “When people lose their choices, they lose some of the culinary magic of dining,” Dopson says. The pandemic also brought more tech-
nology into the dining experience just as with every other part of life. “COVID-19 really accelerated mobile
technology usage in senior living dining,” Silva says. “Online meal ordering in senior
36 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
dining, communities can lead by example to help residents adjust to new ways of doing things. “You have to step out of your comfort
zone to encourage them to step out of theirs,” Reid says. “Just because it’s some- thing that’s not traditionally done in the senior living setting doesn’t mean that it can’t be.”
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