Strategic Dining Services is the newest Senior Housing Forum Partner and we are excited to be able to tell their stories.

We are pleased to announce that Strategic Dining Services is our newest Senior Housing Forum Partner.  Every single senior community/company has to make that critical decision about how to handle dining services.

Do it yourself or contract with an outside vendor?

I was young and foolish when I was in the development and operations side of senior living. It seemed like a no brainer doing it myself. It had to be better and cheaper than paying for outside help . . . I don’t know exactly how to say this, except that I was just dumb. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure there are some of you who are going it alone and doing just fine, but even if that is true, I have some questions for you:

  • How do you know you are really getting the best prices on food and supplies?
  • How are you making sure you are staying up on trends about how to do the very best job of creating menus, preparing special meals, presenting meals, creating menus . . . the list goes on and on.
  • What do you do if that perfect director of food service gets sick or quits?

Looking back at my operational and development life I had some good food service people. That means that they created dining experiences that residents liked  . . . . though, in fairness, it is hard to know if it could have been better. I have no idea if the costs were reasonable and I was hugely at risk if any of them quit.

Why you should pay attention to Strategic Dining Services

  • They see dining services as a part of a consolidated operational model designed to create the very best experience for each resident, prospect and team member.  This means not just being there to make sure your dining services do a great job of feeding your residents, but that they are an integral part of the marketing and activities program.
  • They work to develop your team, not replace them with their own.
  • They will save you money.
  • They will work within your budget requirements.
  • They are never content with things being good enough.  Strategic Dining Services are always looking for ways to make your dining program better.
  • SDS focuses on healthy, made-from-scratch seasonal menus that draw heavily on  local and regional tastes and preferences.

We are looking forward to telling you stories about some of the things Strategic Dining Services are doing to create amazing dining experiences that benefit residents first, but also support marketing and activities.  These will be stories you can learn from even if you never higher Strategic, but if you are struggling  . . . if your dining services need some help… you can contact them through the Strategic Dining Services Website. Steve Moran

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