What if a coffee shop, local bistro, or food truck could do more than provide a meal? In this clip, Gaurie Rodman explores how senior living communities can use outside partnerships to create social connection, improve staff quality of life, and make buildings feel more connected to the surrounding community. You can watch the full episode here.
Transcript:
Think about this from the resident’s perspective.
What if the coffee shop is actually a local bistro set inside the building in a way that the larger community can come in and residents can go there, too? Now we are socially engineering connection within the building without even thinking about it.
We have moved beyond the idea of, “I have a 100-unit building, and I am doing everything for myself.” We are now seeing buildings where people are talking about courtyards designed so a food truck can come in, plug in, and serve one of the meals.
We talked about this on the food service side. What if I can tell my food service staff, “One day a week, you are going to get off because we are going to rely on partnerships with a local restaurant or a food truck to provide that service”?
For somebody in the food industry, having a regular Sunday or Monday off is a big deal. Think about the value and quality of life we have just created for that staff member.
