Blog
Do you remember that the service you give has the power to build community?
Sometimes in the rush to get our work responsibilities completed in a timely manner, we overlook what is the most important part of our job in a senior care community. It is the residents who have changed their lives completely, often selling the family homestead,...
Do your food servers practice courtesy skills in their everyday communication?
A friend recently told me about a note she received from a friend who had just moved into an assisted living community several states away from where they lived. Their friendship covered many years. It held the following message. “My move into the assisted living...
Does your food serving team care about your residents?
A friend of mine who lives alone and enjoys her own company often dines out on her own. She says, shamelessly, that she eavesdrops on other conversations going on around her. People carelessly reveal quite a bit over a lunch or dinner table. Recently she heard a...
Are your food servers successful?
Remember the time when you were out for a special occasion dinner in a charming restaurant where the food was all it was promised to be? And then the entire mealtime was ruined because the waiter was in a bad mood and you left the restaurant feeling that you wasted...
Does your food serving team carry positive attitudes full of holiday cheer?
“Well, have you worn your thinking cap this past month?” Colleen asked. “I’m anxious to hear what suggestions you’ve come up with for the holiday preparation meeting.” Colleen and Kelly were having their monthly lunch together enjoying waitpersons attending to them as...
Does your food serving team wear red?
The holiday season is an emotional time that can be changed from having the blues and missing particular loved ones, to the idea of forming new traditions, adding new friends to your Christmas list. Very often it is a matter of suggestion and that is where your food...
Are you building teams that work together?
What can you do when the entire industry has been affected by the pandemic? It is vital to help residents understand why you may not fulfill every request they have at the present time. Residents really have no idea about the inner workings of your foodservice team....
Is your community full of volunteers yearning to help?
Colleen and Kelly kept their usual lunch date to discuss the upcoming employee meeting in their senior living community. So many changes have taken place over the last two years that they like to stay aware of them. They also enjoy contributing new ideas to help their...
Investing in training young food servers results in years of returns to the company.
Labor shortage couldn’t come at a worse time for Long Term Care and Retirement Living communities! The largest number of people is reaching retirement age than ever before and they are living longer! This is no time to be short of food serving staff. Yet with the...
Does your company invest in your employees?
“I’m concerned that my company may be in trouble,” Matthew commented. “We’ve lost too many of our staff for various reasons and it isn’t easy to replace them. We’re trying different ways to encourage them to stay, including increases in pay. It should work if that is...
Were you uncivil today?
”Well, I could hardly wait to call you to tell you that my daughter Kate had a class at school in Civility this week. It referred to last August being National Win with Civility Month.” Dolores was talking with her brother Robert. She often discussed problems that...
Is civility common in your retirement community?
Commonly, being civil is not something everyone is consciously aware of in their daily behavior. Someone, or group, believes we need more civility in our lives because August was appointed “Win with Civility” month. Organizations, companies, and even government...
Does your food serving team retain enthusiasm through the challenges they meet?
You may ask how your food serving team can be expected to retain their enthusiasm on the job when times, such as this past year have brought challenges they were not prepared for. Now that Long Term Care, Assisted Living, and Independent Retirement Communities have...
Does the success of your Community come from the kitchen?
John and Paul have been challenging each other to a game of chess since they both had a full head of hair, a wife, and young children. When John was widowed after nearly 50 years of marriage he moved into a Retirement Living Community. A few years later Paul followed...
Are your residents and staff happy with each other?
Colleen was explaining to a relative newcomer to the Senior Living community Kelly, how she came to work here several years ago. “Gram moved in about a year after Grandpa passed away. She no longer wanted to maintain the big, old country house anymore or to wander...
Do all your employees make choices to improve every work day?
Making choices in Senior Living and Long Term Care communities is not just about the residents. Staff face making choices every day. After scheduled meetings and training sessions they have choices to make their work easier and better from tips and new ways learned in...
Does your staff respond to helping residents overcome reluctance to reenter the dining areas?
Senior and Long Term Living newsletters inform us that dining is back! It is returning slowly but safely and steadily by small groups in dining rooms, cafes, sunrooms, and other small areas. Open spaces with scattered seating have been popular for picnics and festive...
Does your food service team lead the way?
Tom paused the old footfall game on the TV. “It’s good to be getting back to normal after this last year and a half of Pandemic–caused changes. It feels like little by little we are opening up to life again.” “I agree with you on that,” said Mike. They both worked in...
Culture change helps you to Love what you do!
Mary was talking on her cell phone lamenting to her mother about turning 30 and facing new challenges and changes. “Hah!” Her mother laughed and wished her a Happy Birthday. They lived on opposite coastlines of the country and couldn’t be together to celebrate. “You...
Does your food serving team help to build trust and heal lost relationships?
Your employees may not realize it but the attitude they carry as their work responsibilities are being completed sends a message out to everyone who comes anywhere near them. As they go about conducting their duties, residents are exposed to their presence. Think...
Do your food servers let ‘getting their work done’ interfere with being kind?
It isn’t only a resident that can be a bully! Sometimes a member of the food serving team is a bully and creates difficult problems to overcome. Other members of the team may not want to ‘tattle’ on the person thinking it may reflect badly on them. They may fear...
Does your food serving staff support harmony, communication, and team building?
Chad was talking to Sherry during their lunch break after a morning training session. “I like this new routine of discussion meetings every week and the training refresher course we’re taking. To be honest with you, I didn’t think I needed it. After all, I waited...
Do you know what management skills to look for when hiring someone new?
Helene talked on the phone with her friend Roseanne bringing her up to date on a particular position she applied for in a retirement community in her nearby town. Roseanne had alerted her to the opening. “I went for my second interview, which was held over lunch in...
When interviewing candidates for managers, do they have genuine attitudes of hospitality?
Rumor has it that Henry Ford would read a candidate over lunch to determine if they were suitable for the job. If the person salted their food before tasting it, he would discount them immediately. He believed the habit divulged the individual to be a weak decision...
Does your food serving team’s pay envelope show how much you value them?
April was having a conversation via a computer Messenger with a friend who called her for advice about how to choose a senior living community. She now lived in a different state so she couldn’t move to April’s community. “Do you remember when I was in the hospital...
How much time is devoted to training a food serving team in your community?
Recent polls reveal that most senior living communities spend less than two weeks training new employees. A food serving team gains its confidence when they know what their responsibilities are and that they are doing their job with peak performance. To expect...
Do you tell a food server you admire their style when you see them providing wonderful service?
Martha sat on a bench in the park sharing an impromptu picnic lunch on Sunday afternoon with her friend Kathryn. She was bubbling over with excitement stumbling to find the right words after she told Kathryn that she had important news to share when she just let them...
Do your food servers and staff know how much they are appreciated?
Appreciation Day in Assisted Living and Long Term Care communities is a way of saying thank you for the personal attention your food servers and all employees extend to the residents they serve. It is a way of saying that we, the company, care about you, too. This...
Are your food servers your goodwill ambassadors?
Meal and snack times are still the most important hours of the day for Senior Living communities. That fact makes it most important to have the cream of food servers. They are the window of customer service on the job multiple times per day. The food servers are the...
Is your food serving team aware of other ways to serve your residents?
A table of six artists gathered together at their local cafe after having their COVID 19 vaccinations. They had stayed virtually in touch for more than a year and now rejoiced at finally seeing each other in person. At first, everyone spoke at once wanting to relieve...
Do your part time food servers understand the impact they have on older residents?
Sandra and Chloe met early before the Book Club meeting to share some herbal tea and catch up on the latest news. Sandra recently retired from being a senior living administrator. “Remember Lucy who used to babysit for my daughter? She’s wrapping up her first year in...
Are your secrets to success hidden in your food servers?
Many changes have taken place over the last year due to the pandemic. Even without the major chaos, we have lived through, it’s forward-thinking for the company to invest in bringing everyone in staff up to date with the changes and additions to the foodservice...
Does your food serving team have a secret to success?
Helen started working summers and school holiday vacation times in a senior living community while she was in high school. She realized that she not only enjoyed working with older adults but had a natural vocation for this type of work. After graduating high school,...
Do your food servers know how to embrace emotional nutrition?
These pandemic times have, more than ever, taught us that it takes extended skill in a good food server to give the body the nutrition it needs and craves to create a whole, healthy person. The server’s job encompasses bringing a meal to a person along with a smile,...
Do your food servers know about emotional nutrition?
Read, read, reading everything that comes into view that demands my attention, and that was how I discovered the term emotional nutrition in the New York Times column of David Brooks. Ah, I am overly delighted that someone else knows what I have been teaching and...
Is now a time to implement a remote training program for your food serving staff?
Even through today’s mealtimes that are so different from our usual expected normal mealtimes pre-pandemic, your food servers can still provide memorable experiences for the older adults they serve. Food servers will be remembered with gratefulness when they have...
What are your memories of Sunday dinners?
Leah was sitting in a memoir writing class when the instructor said to think back to a moment when you met a turning point in your life. Instantly she thought of the last time her family enjoyed Sunday afternoon dinner together. She was 16 years old, the youngest...
How does the leadership perform in your company?
Major changes have taken place in all our lives this past pandemic year. Retirement and Long Term Care communities have been hit hard. They needed to make important decisions, extensive changes, and fast. Gathering together at the table with family and friends at...
Do your food servers create a good butterfly effect?
Alice’s eyes fell on her daughter’s open book that showed a lovely picture of a butterfly with the caption commenting about the butterfly effect. It stated the theory that a butterfly gently flapping his wings can cause a typhoon halfway around the world. Hmm. She...
Have your food servers met and overcome the challenges this past year?
This past year the coronavirus took over, changed our lives and the way food servers perform their daily work. These food servers became heroes overnight along with many others in service positions. Knowing the importance of their presence in the community they didn’t...
What was your last random act of kindness?
"It’s true that when I witness a random act of kindness, I smile, no matter how upset or sorrowful I happen to be at the time. It is so much more than it appears to be. It’s like there is a place deep inside where we hold this sack of kindness and when it is needed,...
What keeps your food servers on the job?
Mary was new to this senior long-term living community. Susan recognized that and struck up a conversation with her as they filled lunch carts to deliver to residents. Susan asked how she came to work here as a food server. “I worked at a different facility for five...
Since 1994, the organization has supported its clients by enhancing the dining experience and ensuring the nutritional care of residents.
Learn more at www.DiningRD.com