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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
"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,...
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...
Customer-first policy is a result of solid, forward-thinking leadership that filters down from a confident administrative staff. A manager who serves meals on a holiday shift so a food server can have the day with her family creates a loyal team member. That server...
Mealtimes are still your best marketing. Resident-centered food service is where your community quality shows through the strongest. The focus is still on the residents’ preferences and necessities whether making their meal choices from a menu or special food stations...
Aiden met Robert during a break after a staff meeting at his new position in a senior living community. He was rather new in the field and repeated what he learned in his earlier classes while still in school, that there was always something new to learn in keeping up...
Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. That is what many senior living communities learned in 2020. It was a year when hard decisions had to be made in quick time that would certainly benefit residents as they were the main object of consideration. We...
Leadership is no more about telling people what to do than good training is about being told what to do. Leaders of quality prefer a do–as-i-do rather than a do-as-i-say belief. They attend all meetings that are designed for food server participation so they can hear...
“The late James Beard said, ‘Food is our common ground, our universal experience.’ He was not only a great chef but also an instructor, TV personality, and you’ll find at least 4 of his cookbooks on my kitchen bookshelf,” said a woman socially distanced by eating her...
