I confess I have always assumed that when a senior housing community used a contract dining service it was because, they were foolish, lazy or incompetent.
It only seemed logical and reasonable that bringing in an outside contractor had to add significant cost and provide minimal benefits.
I think I have it wrong!
Over the last couple of weeks I have had several discussions with executives at Unidine about how and why they believe contract dining services makes sense for a lot of senior communities. Every time we talked, they started by gently pointing out that every major healthcare system in the country uses contract dining services rather than doing it themselves . . . and that every healthcare system in the country utilizes contract services of some sort for efficiency and cost control.
The Quality Factor
This part I could get . . . sort of . . . I could envision how a senior community might, end up with a better dining experience; fresher foods, more variety, better looking and tasting meals. The question that still lingered, was ok . . . maybe so . . . but at what cost?
At What Price
In talking with Chad Bellville, the national director of business development for senior housing, his simple statement is that when they engage with a senior community about partnering with Unidine their goal is to create a cost neutral program that will provide a significantly better dining experience for residents and their families. They achieve cost savings in two primary areas, food costs and staffing efficiencies. In addition with some communities there are also opportunities to improve revenue streams generated by the dining program and employee meal programs
Fresh Food
At the heart of the Unidine program is the concept that fresh foods are better than prepackaged foods. This means pastries and rolls and breads are made fresh. That meats and produce are purchased fresh from local vendors. Prepackaged preprocessed foods are banished from the kitchen. It makes sense that when a community purchases prepackaged, preprocessed foods the dining program pays a price for that convenience. That cost typically includes higher prices for the food itself or lower quality (unfortunately to often this one). This is just a tiny sample of what convenience costs:
- Whole celery is $.46 a pound, diced celery is $1.85 a pound.
- Whole onions are $.50 per pound, diced onions $1.09 per pound.
- Top inside round of beef $2.24 per pound, diced beef $4.20 per pound.
On top of this, the fresh foods approach, allows the dining team to reduce waste. They are able to take cuttings from the whole products and use those cuttings to create stocks for soups and sauces. Finally by taking advantage of fresh herbs they are able to all but eliminate chemical flavor enhancers. Most importantly, the fresh food approach provides more flavor and better nutrition.
Staffing
You may think you are running a lean machine for your food service and maybe you are. For all that in most cases, Unidine can find savings even though they are doing more of their own food preparation. As a serious bonus, they become responsible for the hiring and management of your entire dining staff.
Revenue Enhancement
One of the biggest win win things a senior housing community can do is create a dining experience that is so high quality that people living in the community will treat the dining service as a freestanding restaurant, coming in for lunch, dinner or special events. This approach does not work for every senior community but it can both provide another marketing tool and generate extra income to the community.
While contract dining is not a fit for every community, I am convinced that it should be explored.
You can explore what Unidine does HERE.
Your Feedback How are you doing it now? Have you tried a contract service, what was your experience? Steve Moran
Nice advertisement for Unidine- no beef in the story! Reminds me of the old adage, “…just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it right.”
Hi Marty:
Thanks for working to keep me honest. A few thoughts:
1. Bloggers have to eat too and it is disclosed on the site that Unidine is a blog partner.
2. I would guess maybe 20% of the articles I write could be construed as advertisement for some company or service, even the other article I published about Age of Champions was nothing but an advertisement (albeit, for something that is free).
3. In each article I try to make sure it has enough beef, to be worth reading. The point of this particular article being that if a senior company or community is struggling with their food service program, it might make sense to at least take a look at contract dining as a way to provide better services to seniors.
4. I essentially always leave the comments open and unmoderated (except for SPAM and obscenity). This means someone can come in as say “nice advertisement” and be sure it won’t be removed, or they can come in and say, “Tried contract dining and it was terrible.” or even had a bad experience with the company being featured.
So . . . just trying to do the best I can. Thanks for reading and thanks for commenting.
Steve
True, not everyone drives cars either but those who choose horse transportation are widely seen as less efficient and not keeping up with the times.
As a dietitian, I have worked with both contract companies and self-op. Like self-op, contract companies are only as good as the managers they put in place. The contract FSDs I’ve worked with usually have so much paperwork they seldom get away from the computer. I even had an otherwise good manager tell me he has so many audits to do that he has had to fudge some of them. As a self-op director I feel I have more freedom to think and work out of the box. I can use more than one vendor (could only buy from one vendor for one contractor). We use seasonal, fresh foods and though we use a cycle menu, we change several items each week. As I get closer to being an NHA and will soon have to resign from my beloved FSD position, I have actually considered the possibility of contract food service. However, knowing what I’ve experienced, I would avoid it at all costs.
The bottom line is that outsourcing is not for everyone. As a provider of outsourced dining services, Unidine carefully assesses our opportunities to ensure that both parties are culturally and organizationally aligned. We don’t pursue every opportunity, and there are communities out there that don’t pursue an opportunity with Unidine. But at the end of the day, if you are not investigating every opportunity in the marketplace to secure your competitive advantage, you are doing yourself and your investors or stakeholders a disservice. There are plenty of senior living and long-term care communities that have realized significant benefits through outsourcing. And with the changes being brought about through the ACA and the potential for major disruptions in the marketplace, aligning your organization with a strategic partner that understands these new challenges and can help you to respond to them may give you the competitive advantage to thrive. This doesn’t only apply to dining services but to a wide range of outsourcing opportunities from housekeeping to managed IT services, pharmacy services, labor management, etc.