by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
My friend’s brother opened a small lunch only bistro in a small town back in the 90s. The ambiance was warmth with black and white tiled floor and checkered tablecloths. Toulouse Lautrec hung on the walls. His wait staff was welcoming in French apron over black pants and white shirt-style dress, with full knowledge of each day’s menu and dish ingredients. Their attitudes were pleasantly friendly. His advertising budget was small and he would depend more on word-of-mouth than any other way. How was he going to attract people to come in and try his home cooked foods?
Knowing the next town south of him had been settled by Eastern Europeans in the early twentieth century and generations of those families still remained there, he borrowed a recipe from a friend for cabbage soup. When he featured it the following week his bistro filled up with ladies who grew up on cabbage soup, holding high standards about it. They came to check out his cooking skills and came back each week to taste his other offerings. He was in!
There are many similarities between retirement communities but the dining room is the place that makes a community stand out above the rest. That is what Kind Dining® does; it teaches the intricacies of training your servers to stand out with their attitudes, knowledge, and service. It’s easy to think that all who apply to work in your community know how to treat people with friendly respect, serve meals properly, and to excel at customer care. People are not raised with the training necessary to be an award-winning community. Developing the personal and professional skills is what will change habits that are insufficient and damaging to the reputation of your community. Commit developing your serving staff’s skills to ensure all residents receive the same level of service in your dining room. Raise service standards and quality that will attract customers to you over the competition.
Our B♥ Kind® Tip: Setting higher standards in dining is a positive change; embrace it!
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
Last week I ran into an old friend that I had not seen in a long time. After exchanging the polite pleasantries, we decided to have coffee and really catch up. Soon we fell into conversation about our work. She’s been a high school teacher and guidance counselor for at least 20 years. “There has been a major change in what I advise my kids,” she said. “It used to be to go after the big bucks. Now it’s, find what you love to do and follow that path.”
I replied, “I was fortunate to start my career early in doing what I love and continue today. I believe happiness comes from a deep seeded feeling of joy, of satisfaction in being appreciated for the difference you make in your work, and in the lives of people around you. Teaching people to become life-long learners is an element of Kind Dining®. It’s what I do.”
It was great to run into my friend and very satisfying to be able to talk about the choice I made for my life work.
Recently, there have been surveys and studies on people in the work-place. Results prove that happy employees produce more, regardless of what their job is and create a joyful atmosphere that spreads, making a better place for everyone to work. Happiness is a contagious emotion that is good for any company and brings remarkable results in senior living communities. A server’s disposition affects not only her co-workers but every resident she meets each day. It can turn a resident’s day from feeling sad to being happy that they chose your community to live in.
Employees happy with the work they do are healthier, come to work every day without taking needless, unnecessary days off for doctor’s appointments or because they have a headache. Unscheduled days off are costly and disruptive. Happy servers remain in the community, growing along with the changes that take place and knowing that they improve their status with each new challenge accomplished. They tend to love learning something new about the job they do and the results it brings. Kind Dining® teaches about learning.
Our B♥ Kind® Tip: Setting higher standards in your dining room is a positive change; embrace it!
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
I read in a blog that Glassdoor named a Senior Living Community one of 50 Best Places to Work in 2017. It noted the passion of the employees who stated that they loved the residents and valued their wisdom. Here are three direct quotes from the employees: “I find joy in working with my residents. I like to make them laugh, sing, and dance.” “I work for an awesome and amazing company. I have the support I need to be successful.” “Teams in the communities love their jobs and think of them more as missions rather than jobs.” The CEO states about his employees: “We’re honored they chose a career with us.”
When your servers are committed to their work, learning something new about their responsibilities on the job is like having an infusion of vital energy that pumps them up with excitement. Contentment can bring complacency. Doing the same work every day can become lackluster. A bit of challenge tends to bring out the best in employees who love what they do. Supplying your servers with learning, as with the new government regulations, places a goal in front of them. It’s an investment the company makes in the employee that will return benefits to the company by keeping a good server who wants to grow with the company.
The work of caring for the residents in the community can bring rewards in self-satisfaction when your servers know they are over the top with performance. An excellent server is an inspiration to others who work with her. This is leadership that can be encouraged by learning what Kind Dining® teaches. It is pride that comes from within, about one’s own job and about the company she works for. It’s about growth, personal and professional.
Empowering your servers with on-the-spot decision making adds to their responsibility, but also gives them more of a sense of being part of the company, not just hired help. Learning to greet residents when they enter the dining room, holding a chair for them, or even inquiring about a family member or some other personal item, opens the door for growth. Good manners create a happy, comfortable atmosphere where it is needed most in the dining room. Seniors will be very grateful for mealtimes where good digestion begins with the graciousness of their server with every mealtime.
Our B♥ Kind® Tip: When it comes to Kind Dining service, we can all be leaders—we just have to be brave enough to make positive changes.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
A friend told me about me her stay at Duke University Hospital during her scheduled heart surgery to replace a defective aortic heart valve. “I talked to everyone, the man who wheeled me down for an x-ray each day, the lady who cleaned my room, the nurses on the floor, and the person who brought my meals. I even queried the anesthetist.” she said. “I asked how long they worked there. How did they like it, etc.“ She quickly learned that she was in good hands in all facets of her visit. The day after 6 hours of surgery she was ordered to be up and walking as much as possible. So she continued her conversations about work.
She found that people traveled across country for the opportunity to work there. No one she spoke to had less than 8 years, and some had 20 to 25 years, most had 15 years of being employed at Duke. They were treated fairly with respect as employees. They worked 10 hour days, 4 days a week with a 3-day off period.
She watched and heard the cheerful camaraderie between mealtime servers and specialty nurses, between the anesthetist and the lady who brought her meal in when he was still sitting at her bedside. They all worked together, stepping out of their job classification to give a helping hand to whoever was nearby. Even the surgeon came in whistling at 5 am to check his work. Surely that was a sign of a man who loves what he does.
This ideal workplace can be your community with the best training from Kind Dining® showing you how to attain this status. Imagine having applicants moving to your area of the country because they want to work in your community. Imagine not having to advertise for replacements because someone has left your employ too soon leaving the expense of it. Imagine your employees coming to work whistling and the response they will receive from your residents. The people you want to work in your community have the positive attitude that Kind Dining® develops.
Our B♥ Kind® Tip: A Positive Attitude Affects Your Community
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
The culture of hospitality is the key factor in senior care community and the dining room is the heart of that factor. It’s usually where strangers come to first meet their new lifetime neighbors, to dine, socialize, and generally get to know each other. It‘s also where they will come to see the serving staff three times a day and get to know them as well. When your serving staff has been trained by Kind Dining® they will know how to make this transition easy for the newcomers to your community.
Serving meals, while creating a comfortable environment is a team effort that does not come naturally to everyone. Working together as a team is complex. Each person on the team has their own responsibilities, plus is there to help their teammate when needed. Team participants build trust as they become an important part of something bigger than the individual.
Your community dining room can be a winner that gets noticed in the same way that the late, great coach Vince Lombardi was in football. His legendary teamwork habits remain long after his lifetime ended because they brought the results of a winning team. Kind Dining® training can make your community and your dining room a winner by coaching you to build the best team, one that gets noticed!
Our B♥ Kind® Tip: Focus on teamwork that builds trust for a winning dining room.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
A friend of mine told me that she put her house up for sale. She followed all the tips the Realtor® suggested about staging the interior of her home. When one couple came to look at the house, they struck up a conversation. “I noticed how clean all the streets in the neighborhood are,” she commented. This surprised my friend who had concentrated on the interior of the house, but she replied, “Yes, we’re part of the neighborhood volunteers who do our share of tidying up the roadways. You’ll even see a plaque on the roadside letting people know that we care about our neighborhood.”
The couple bought the house because they loved it, but also because it was important to them to live in a place where people took pride and cared where they lived.
Caring and pride where you live and where you work are important and affects not only yourself as an employee, but others around you. When all employees care about the environment they work in, your residents will receive the overflow. A pleasant “Good Morning” can set a happy pace for a resident, as well as tissues dropped in a hallway and not picked up because “it isn’t my job” can turn their day sour. It’s more than being told what to do and doing it. It’s about wanting to come to work where fellow workers care like you do and kindly step out of their job description to be a part of a happy community.
Kind Dining® training knows how to turn your community around to be the best productive and happy community you want it to be. Showing servers, nurses, caregivers, staff, and all who work in the community how to look at the workday from a new perspective will change their life for the better and your residents will be happier for it. A new day will begin once Kind Dining® leads your team through the labyrinth of attitude change toward new regulations. Your employees will look forward to coming to work and your residents will take pride in where they chose to call home.
Our B♥ Kind® Tip: A positive attitude always makes a big difference in everyone’s day.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
Every senior housing community, whether retirement or skilled healthcare, must provide the best dining experience it can offer. In order to reach that goal a new mindset and skill set ought to be put in place. It’s time for the organization to realize that residents are not guests in the community but have chosen to make the community their home. It is necessary for servers and administrators to recognize this in order to alter their thinking when serving in the dining room. It is vital that servers are courteous, respectful, kind, and show friendly warmth. Patience is a key factor.
It is important that each employee knows that they are not separate from, but a vital part of the success of the community. Education and training skills will bring them to understand that this is especially meaningful in the dining room. Using social skills such as making eye contact and using a person’s name along with proper serving techniques need to be taught to part time servers as well as the full time staff.
A core company value in any community is empathy. Staff members are often unclear about this emotional skill that can be developed for use on a daily basis allowing it to become a natural response. The server’s job is complex, often affecting those with the least amount of educational background. This is where Kind Dining® steps in to fill that most important gap. Proper training that embraces all aspects of serving is paramount to success in your community.
Our B♥ Kind® Tip: Handle all your job tasks without needing to be asked. Embrace the new changes with a smile and positive attitude. Start with small, simple steps and keep going.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
My friend, who comes from a restaurant family, told me how everyone in their restaurant worked as a team. When the dinner hour became truly busy, the wait staff took a moment to clean a table to help the busboy, the sommelier and the host-both in tuxedos-carried a plate to a waiting diner to help a wait person, for the benefit of the customer and the company. When the rush hour was over, everyone returned to the position they were hired for.
It’s called teamwork and it’s important for the success of any organization for the benefit of all. It also creates a satisfied feeling of perfection to all who participates.
In today’s community, enlightenment of new regulations brings caregivers and ancillary staff together with the serving staff in the changing roles of the dining room. It’s time for all employees to work as a team especially during mealtimes. Kind Dining® can teach your staff how to apply these new government regulations to enhance your community starting with their positive attitude in embracing the changes. Each employee is important to the community’s reputation.
The changes affect the caregivers and nursing staff even more than the ancillary staff. When they learn the value of extended personal service to the resident, combining it with working as a team they, too will see the benefits of the new regulations. Courtesy between serving staff adds to the homey feeling so critical to a dining room, keeping in mind that it is the residents’ home. Meals served in the best, positive way, matters!
Camaraderie between servers is just as meaningful as it is with camaraderie with the diners receiving their meals. Servers can also help each other by restocking where necessary before their shift ends. It’s about respect for fellow workers, like doing a good deed that always somehow comes back to you.
B♥ Kind® Tip: Imagine your community mealtimes working like a smooth choreographed production.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
Watching a well-trained professional team work through a busy mealtime is like watching a theatre production of a top rated director. It gives the viewer pure pleasure to see each person have a part to play and interact gleefully with everyone else.
When your caregivers and ancillary serving staff learn the new routine enforced by the new regulations, they will have the power to create a smooth working mealtime that will enhance each diner’s experience. Kind Dining ® training is at the heart of bringing your staff to understand and comply, creating a beautiful choreograph. Showing the way for them to encompass the entire result intended by the new rules, will make their transition smoother.
Teamwork builds a bond of business friendship between those who work together for a better overall community. Respect comes into play as employees are introduced to routines that are new to them. They are expanding their knowledge and learning how others have been doing their workplace responsibilities. The residents will appreciate it, the organization will appreciate it, and when the serving staff sees the end results that they helped to bring together, they will appreciate it, also.
It’s a beautiful thing, to watch teamwork at its best.
B♥ Kind® Tip: Organizational roles and responsibilities in the dining room require staff to embrace different skills, attitudes, and commitments.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
Every industry has its focal point, the most important center that every other part of the production surrounds. In community living that focal point is the dining room.
In my first job in health care after years of experience in the restaurant industry, I learned quickly and surprisingly from a state surveyor just how important our dining room was to my community.
It started when four state surveyors showed up at our facility before 8 a.m. wearing their severe grey suits that shouted authority. But I was new on the job, naïve, and not intimidated like the other staff. Perhaps because of this, I learned from my interviewer and was grateful about what she taught me.
It made sense to me that if the most important parts of a resident’s day are mealtimes and the residents are the most important part of our community because they are the foundation, our reason for being in the community at all.
At the time I was the dietary manager working side by side with nurses and CNAs in a nursing home. On that day a path opened up for me because of changes in regulations and my attitude toward those changes. My career journeyed onward. I became a Nutrition and Dietetic Technician, attained my Masters in Nutrition and Foodservice Management, and worked in the corporate world of foodservice distribution as a healthcare specialist, working exclusively with Senior Housing providers across the country and locally, always improving the quality of food service and menu programs.
I am still grateful to that state surveyor Arlene, who took the time to teach me the importance of person centered dining in our community all those years ago.
Our B♥ Kind® Tip: Think about what life is like for your residents. How can you make mealtimes more satisfying for them?
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
I took note when the “Greatest Coach of All-Time” UCLA coach John Wooden said, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” This brief statement overflowed into all areas of his long, successful life and it does the same for every area of your dining room. You want your serving staff to work together as an award-winning team. You want your team members focused on your dining residents. And you want them working together as award-winning team mates.
Kind Dining’s® proven staff training teaches your serving staff about the importance of showing kindness while getting their work done, showing kindness to the next work shift by restocking and having the right supplies ready for them, and kindness when they help out by doing something that is technically not their job.
Your serving staff has the power to offer smooth, hassle-free mealtimes every day. Do they survey the dining room making sure it is clean, neat, and in order? Serving meals is a team effort that can be attained with the right coach: Kind Dining®.
B♥ Kind® Tip: Does your serving staff show kindness in all that they do?
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
Arlene – the state surveyor – sat down to interview me, and it changed how I could make a real difference. I had spent the first two weeks on the job organizing the inter-workings and cleaning of the kitchen, reading the notes from the nurses on each resident’s dietary information.
“Why is Ms. Anderson on a puree diet?” she asked.
I rose to the occasion and answered, “because Nurse Betty said so, you know they give you these little cards with all the dietary information on it.”
“That is not a good enough answer,” she said, stunning me. “You need to know Ms. Anderson well enough to answer that question yourself.”
I was thinking, ‘no one told me that.’ Arlene was stern, but kind and committed in that moment to making me feel valued. She called me to be an equal partner in the resident’s care.
If I could commit to change, by feeling valued, I continued thinking, and finding a new sense of purpose, so can anyone else. Arlene had called me to do something that was outside my job description to really know the residents, learn to work on equal footing with co-workers from all departments, because all people matter. We each have something to contribute.
Person-centered care is now mandated in an effort to ensure that quality of life is maintained as high a level as possible for every resident. Surveys state that residents spend 60% of their time focused on meals. Their anticipation in dressing for the social end of it, eating food they want,
visiting with residents and family and enjoying discussions on other aspects of the community day.
Mealtime touches the emotions. Residents anticipate being served in a courteous manner by those who have a positive attitude and are socially adept. Serving techniques need to be correct in a room that exudes ambiance to enhance the appetite. How meals are served matters!
Kind Dining ® training is necessary because residents, due to their age, were probably raised in a home with proper table settings and social manners. If the serving staff is of a younger generation, in their first job, or from a different culture who have never served meals before, they may not be aware of these important, competent skills of serving in a more person directed way.
Remember, happy diners make happy residents who will recommend your community to their friends and family.
B♥ Kind® Tip: Think about what life is like for your residents. How can you make mealtimes more satisfying for them?
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
A friend of mine told me that when he wanted to wait tables in a well-known, upscale restaurant, he first dined there, choosing the busiest time of the evening for his visit. He was interested in the quality and presentation of the food for the high price he was paying. Even more than that, he was interested in watching the wait staff to evaluate them before making the big decision to apply as a wait person. He looked for attitude to see if the wait staff loved the work they were doing or was it just a job. He saw a waiter joyfully deliver plates to a table that was not “hers” as the other waiter was busy with another table.
One waiter refilled all the glasses with water while he waited to pick up his next serving. Chairs were pulled out for the guests. Casual comments of welcome came easily and were returned with smiles. One table of diners mentioned their special occasion for coming and that they were first timers. My friend said it was like watching a well-choreographed ballet with the wait staff seemingly floating from one duty to another. The dining room was filled to capacity, yet the servers smoothly attended to their customers without a rushing hassle. It was beautiful to watch knowing he would be part of this scene in a day or two. He would be proud to work here.
A dining room is a dining room whether it is in a restaurant or in your community. The same results can be had when your serving staff is trained by Kind Dining®. Becoming aware of the entire room when it is overall neat, clean, tables set, and meals served properly is a beginning. It’s important that your servers come to know the residents by name and by small details that make brief conversations personal and easy. This will give your residents pride in the home they live in and pride to your serving staff in where they work.
Encouraging your servers to help each other and even to interact with other working shifts creates an award-winning team that turns your dining room into a ballet. Empowering your employees with this responsibility enables them rise to a challenge, to diffuse a situation before it becomes a situation. Your administration will appreciate this teamwork as much as the residents do and those who work in teams tend to stay happily where they are, rather than seeking a new place to work. That is a result makes everyone happy.
Kind Dining ® Tip: Wouldn’t You Like Your Team of Servers Working Smoothly and Hassle-Free in Your Dining Room?
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
When a friend of mine was widowed all her friends gathered around her to give her comfort. They also agreed among themselves that she would be included in all their functions in the future so she would not feel left out, even though they were couples and she was not anymore. After 6 months of being stuck on the end of the table in a restaurant or being the third person squeezed into the back seat of the car, she began to decline the invitations of her dear friends. She just did not fit anymore. It was better to stay home.
She eventually did find other friends who shared her single status, going out in mixed groups and enjoying her life as a single person. When she decided to move into a retirement community she remembered her earlier experiences and particularly looked at the dining room seating arrangement during her tour. When she saw round tables and long tables for family dining, that resident community went to the top of the list. She stayed for lunch purposely to watch the servers, noting their attitude, courtesy and overall competence. Serving staff greeted residents by name, pulled chairs out for them, exchanging words of welcome.
That particular retirement residence was the one she happily chose. She thanked the friend who gave her some extra tips on what to look for in a retirement campus. You just know she is going to pass forward this important information to other friends of hers looking for their retirement home.
The dining room is so much more than a place to eat, even if the food is excellent. It’s a place to socialize, to continue the bonds of family visits, a place to foster new relationships, and a place the serving staff need specialized Kind Dining© training to give the resident satisfaction. These personal touches are appreciated much more than the fancy coffee machine or a stunning reception area in the main office. It will make your community stand out among the others.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
As a friend and I were reminiscing about our teen years, she mentioned the agony of walking into a school dance and not knowing what to do, where to go and hoping someone would come to her rescue.
A single or widowed resident may feel that same agony when entering your campus dining room if she finds all tables are set for couples. It’s important to have some round tables with an odd number of seating to create a mix of people who are not part of a pair. Long tables may be created by pushing smaller tables together and will encourage a blending of singles and couples with ease.
Setting tables properly is more than where knives and forks are placed. The happiness of your resident seeing a place to sit without that odd man out feeling is a small adjustment to make in your dining room but creates a major, comforting moment for your resident.
Kind Dining training will show your servers how to use their power in making your residents happy and satisfied. No one in your dining room will feel alone in a room full of people. Dining is so much more than just eating.
B♥ Kind® Tip: In a room full of people, no one should ever feel alone.
And this is only the tip of the iceberg! For more information on the opportunity of Kind Dining© training, contact me at: www.HigherStandards.org
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
A Sense of Home
When I was growing up I was encouraged to invite a special friend to join us at lunch or dinner. This was a bonding factor in our friendship. It told her, without words, that she was special and belonged in the nucleus of our family.
It has long been held that the dining table is the heart of the home, whether it is in the kitchen, a sunny nook, or in a formal dining room. It’s where the family gathers to share their food and to share the events of the day. It’s where they blend as family whether they are related or not.
Kind Dining can show you how to create a community dining room that feels like home to your residents. Feeling at home is the deciding factor between being satisfied with where they live and feeling like they really belong there. When they feel they belong, they will settle in with permanence. They will encourage their family to come join them at mealtime. They will encourage their friends to move in next door.
B♥ Kind® Tip: Think about what life is like for your residents. How can you make mealtimes more satisfying for them?
And this is only the tip of the iceberg! For more information on the opportunity of Kind Dining® training, click here.
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
Hospitality Made Easy
Hospitality is much easier than your servers may think. Starting the day with a positive attitude, knowing this will make life easier for others, and smoother for them, is a win-win situation. A smile is contagious even to people who think they have nothing to smile about today.
On a daily basis the dining room is the most important part of the residents’ day. So this is the best place to start practicing hospitality. Kind Dining teaches how easy this can be and the positive results that will make your community successful.
A woman friend of mine who likes to travel solo says that when she is in Europe, she prefers staying at B & Bs rather than hotels. The hospitality of someone who invites you into their home is like being hugged by your favorite aunt, the one who always ‘got’ you when Mom didn’t have a clue. One time she stayed in the Town of Books, Hay-on-Wye, Wales. That night the host sat on the chintz covered sofa in the living room and brought out his guitar inviting us, three guests, all strangers to each other from the States, to sing along. The next morning there were two more strangers at the large dining room table. They were brothers-in-law who arrived late the night before after walking all day. A walk is a popular activity in the United Kingdom. They just go out and walk for 20 miles, or more on public pathways through private fields and forests and stay overnight at a B & B before walking home.
The hospitality can be the same in your community dining room where newcomers are strangers who are seeking a welcome feeling at the table in their new home. Your servers can mimic my friend’s hosts that put them all at ease with a few casual questions. She felt like family 3,000 miles from home!
When your servers give thought to who they are serving and the problems they may be facing on a given day, they will want to give a warm sincere greeting to each diner as they arrive. This is step one in developing a genuine feeling of hospitality. They can help someone overcome a sense of loneliness or isolation. Kind Dining will teach about the power of making eye contact and how to draw people out with casual questions giving them a feeling of inclusion.
B♥ Kind® Tip: Don’t act hospitable; have a genuine attitude of hospitality. After all, you are in your residents’ home
by Cindy Heilman | Leadership
Hospitality Made Easy
Growing up I was fortunate enough to interact with guests at our dinner table often. I learned naturally how to enjoy and extend hospitality. Later when I was a food service director I realized that others were not so lucky. I saw that my co-workers desperately needed those skills. My Masters in Nutrition and Food Management revealed my passion for hospitality in the dining rooms serving seniors and how an affordable tool like Kind Dining could transform server training to add success to any senior living community.
Even if your servers were not exposed to ‘manners and dining habits’ at home, they can learn and practice every day until it all comes naturally to them. They need to be brave enough to take on new challenges focusing on the accomplishment of their goals. Once their job comes easily they will love what they do. Once they see that they do set the ambiance of the dining room and bring warmth to the table, they will appreciate the training more than ever. Your residents will also appreciate smoother hassle-free mealtimes, forming bonds with those they are in contact every day and often considering staff as extended family. Confident servers interact with their co-workers and residents with grace and charm. Stronger mealtime relationships reflect on the community as a whole bringing recommendations to friends and families through the dining room.
B♥ Kind® Tip: Practice your Kind Dining skills every day; they will soon come naturally!
And this is only the tip of the iceberg! For more information on the opportunity of Kind Dining© training, click here.
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My friend’s brother opened a small lunch only bistro in a small town back in the 90s. The ambiance was warmth with black and white tiled floor and checkered tablecloths. Toulouse Lautrec hung on the walls. His wait staff was welcoming in French apron over black pants and white shirt-style dress, with full knowledge of each day’s menu and dish ingredients. Their attitudes were pleasantly friendly. His advertising budget was small and he would depend more on word-of-mouth than any other way. How was he going to attract people to come in and try his home cooked foods?
The culture of hospitality is the key factor in senior care community and the dining room is the heart of that factor. It’s usually where strangers come to first meet their new lifetime neighbors, to dine, socialize, and generally get to know each other. It‘s also where they will come to see the serving staff three times a day and get to know them as well. When your serving staff has been trained by Kind Dining® they will know how to make this transition easy for the newcomers to your community.
Every industry has its focal point, the most important center that every other part of the production surrounds. In community living that focal point is the dining room.
Arlene – the state surveyor – sat down to interview me, and it changed how I could make a real difference. I had spent the first two weeks on the job organizing the inter-workings and cleaning of the kitchen, reading the notes from the nurses on each resident’s dietary information.
A friend of mine told me that when he wanted to wait tables in a well-known, upscale restaurant, he first dined there, choosing the busiest time of the evening for his visit. He was interested in the quality and presentation of the food for the high price he was paying. Even more than that, he was interested in watching the wait staff to evaluate them before making the big decision to apply as a wait person. He looked for attitude to see if the wait staff loved the work they were doing or was it just a job. He saw a waiter joyfully deliver plates to a table that was not “hers” as the other waiter was busy with another table.
When a friend of mine was widowed all her friends gathered around her to give her comfort. They also agreed among themselves that she would be included in all their functions in the future so she would not feel left out, even though they were couples and she was not anymore. After 6 months of being stuck on the end of the table in a restaurant or being the third person squeezed into the back seat of the car, she began to decline the invitations of her dear friends. She just did not fit anymore. It was better to stay home.
