By Jack Cumming
After 19 years living in a CCRC, I’ve seen many changes in the quality and experience of dining. Of course, I’ve also aged, and that, too, affects my dining experience. It’s easy for residents to become jaded. Moreover, the prevailing industry concepts for CCRC dining have evolved. We expect senior dining to continue evolving, and you are part of that continuous evolution.
One thing seems clear. If you want to satisfy residents where they live and eat, then they should be the driving force at every step of defining what food service is. Food preferences are, by their nature, local.
The alternative is home dining, and at home, family preferences vary widely. In most homes, family members know they belong. Similarly, local CCRC dining preferences will vary. When residents prefer to stay home with a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, something is awry. Making sure that residents have that same sense of belonging as they have at home is paramount.
This article explores how CCRC dining differs from dining-out expectations and how starting with residents, instead of corporate, can be the key to successful community living. You don’t need a reservation to dine at home.
Funny Misapprehension
A short story may give you a laugh. Recently, the corporation that exercises ownership over the CCRC where I live hired an accomplished chef from Princess Cruises to enhance the dining experience. His French name, Pierre-Marie Leprince, connoted food of cruise ship quality. Even more recently, the Royal Princess cruise ship was recognized for having the best cuisine. The Royal Princess is part of the Princess Cruise Lines brand. With Messr. Leprince, our expectations were high.
Here’s where it gets funny. The stock symbol for Princess Cruise Lines’ parent, Carnival, is CCL. I know. My investment in CCL has rewarded me richly, which contrasts with my investment in BKD, a senior living stock. Not long after Pierre-Marie was hired, we were told that our central office had retained CCL to “improve” our dining. The inference seemed clear. We would have “world’s best culinary” dining.
That misapprehension was short-lived. CCL was not the cruise enterprise but a food service business, CCL Hospitality Group, which you may know for its Morrison brand. The corporate office wanted uniformity across its portfolio of communities. Residents, though, live in their home community, not in corporate. It’s been a few months now, and it takes a long time for CCL’s top-down impact to reveal its working. Still, it’s been enough that during the Boston LeadingAge conference, I was very interested in cuisine purveyors.
You may have experienced CCL senior food yourself. On Tuesday of the Boston conference, CCL provided a salad lunch to showcase its prowess. Lunch was lettuce with couscous and a spoonful of chicken bits for the carnivores. Were you there? Do you remember that lunch?
To the best of my knowledge, where I live, residents were not involved in the choice of a food service oversight firm. Who knows? If residents had been involved from the start, the choice might still have been CCL, but which CCL will always be in doubt. One truth is evident. It’s not the fancy written description that makes food satisfying. It’s the pleasure of the meal itself that matters.
My Favorite Session
That brings me to the conference session that I found the most meaningful of all the 150+ sessions offered. It was Session 80-G, “It’s Time to Reset Your Approach to Culinary Success.” Managers from Rockwood Retirement Communities, a standalone CCRC in Spokane, WA, described their efforts to create welcoming dining experiences for residents. They wanted residents to feel (1) that they are seen, (2) that they belong, and (3) that they are important. I confess that I was jealous.
The link above gives you access to the PowerPoints from the Rockwood presentation. The presenters were Andrew Gorton, Vice President of Operations, and Michelle Duke, Executive Director of Resident Services, but that doesn’t tell their stories. Andrew and Michelle bring valuable experience to their current positions.
Practical Experience
Andrew came from country club dining. He still has contacts with many of his associates in the restaurant and food services industry in the Rockwood market area. That’s very valuable in helping to keep wage rates competitive despite senior living’s no-tipping/no-add-on-gratuity policies. He can call his friends to learn what prevailing compensation practices are. Letting cooks and waiters get home to their families at a decent hour helps to offset lower income potential.
Michelle came to senior living from the food service department of a hospital. She understands the challenge of meeting healthcare food needs that range from independent living residents all the way through those in skilled nursing. Both Michelle and Andrew were very impressive in the leadership qualities that they displayed and described.
What was particularly striking was their bottom-up approach to their responsibilities. You can get a picture of that if you delve down into the PowerPoints, though it would have been better to have been there in person to be able to listen to their candid sharing. Neither read their talk. It was refreshing to hear people speaking extemporaneously.
Wisdom vs. Convention
One obvious change was that Rockwood moved from an archaic mass-food hall toward more intimate venues. They also introduced a catering option that supported resident-initiated activities and events. They added flexible meal plans to better align with resident preferences. They went to priced meal plans with residents able to buy $115 in meal credits for a discounted price of $100.
It seemed more creative than what I’ve seen with other CCRCs. Of course, that may reflect their freedom as a standalone. They don’t have to get approvals from a regional vice president, corporate office, or other less-engaged intermediaries.
Another insight struck me as simple commonsense. Andrew noted that, when they had problems – as they had in spades after Covid struck in March 2020 – they started by taking their challenges candidly to the residents in open forums.
Such an empowering approach can contribute mightily to residents feeling they’re respected and belong. That can be the difference between a welcoming home and a facility. Starting with residents may mean that 90% of the advice is impractical because residents may not know local health department and other requirements. 5%, though, may be worth considering, and a fraction of that 5% can transform senior living from merely okay to world-class.
Residents Are the Reason
The takeaway is that residents should not be seen as a burden you have to care for, though some frail residents may fit that paradigm. Many residents are thinkers just like you, and if given the chance, they want you to succeed. If providers create better lives for residents, the word will spread, and residents’ enthusiasm will be contagious.
You may think you already do that, and maybe you already do, and maybe some residents will think you do, but never become complacent, because many residents may be just too polite to tell you what you need to hear.
