Culture Change Through Dining

Last week I sat in on a webinar put on by the Eden Alternative, which focused on various dining topics. The moderator recommended that we start by asking residents where they want to start with dining. We can facilitate this process by helping residents to understand what's possible with dining. Asking questions like "what things are important to you when you eat?" and "What experience do you want from dining?" The goal being that resident dining options reflect what RESIDENTS want, not what we think residents want.

Dining programs will vary from one campus to the next depending on the structural layout of the dining area(s) and the number of people living and working within the community. One of the keys to a successful dining program is educating the dining team about culture change, after all we cannot expect culture change to take place if the individuals we're asking to implement it don't know what it is or why we're doing it.

The below are various types of dining programs. Dining programs may also be a hybrid of the two or more of the types of dining service, designed to best fit residents needs and desires.An example of a hybrid dining program is to have a menu that is served every day, plus some menu choices that change daily and breakfast and salad bars.

• Limited Choice Dining:This dining style is what we have now for lunch and dinner tray service.
  
• Table / Menu Service:This type of service would be most like a restaurant, where residents order off a menu and are waited on at a table. Table/menu service also gives us the ability to gauge what dishes/foods residents like by what items are most frequently ordered.
  
• Buffet Dining:This type of dining offers residents a variety of food choices. It also reduces food costs and waste, and is easy to theme. Our continental breakfast could be considered a type of buffet dining in each of the neighborhoods since residents have the ability to select what they want to eat from set options.
  
• Family-Style Dining: This dining style enables residents to choose what they want to eat and their portion sizes. It is also conducive to relationship building as residents are able to sit around a table and converse with each other.
  
• In-Room Dining: This type of dining most closely resembles hotel room service where residents are able to order off a menu and are served in their own rooms. This is one dining option where tray service would be appropriate.
  

Dining options will also depend on the abilities of residents. Residents should be encouraged to help themselves even if it's just for a portion of the meal service, like being able to get their own beverages or serving themselves during family-style dining. Some other ideas for giving residents the opportunity to make choices about what they eat and drink include:

• Having a variety of beverage choices available in the dining room all day. Beverage selections would be based on resident needs.
• Putting Lazy Suzannes with a variety of condiment choices on dining tables.
• Exposing residents to new food industry trends such as the cafe experience and juice bars.