Page 17 - Pinnacle Exchange | Vol 9, 2017

Vol. 9, 2017
Exchange
CUTTING EDGE CULINARY

D r y
ive sif

YOUR DINING BY DECENTRALIZING

By Roel Lopez

Are you tired of your old institutional style kitchen service? Are you ready
for a change from the time-consuming and never-ending tray line?

Let us decentralize your kitchen and provide you with a more restaurant-
like service right from your dining room. By decentralizing your kitchen,
it not only provides a different ambiance, look and feel, but it also
promotes teamwork with an all-hands-on-deck mentality. Your
administration, care partners and kitchen staff will all work side by side
to ensure that residents enjoy a pleasant dining experience in their home.

The Decentralized Dining service provides our elders with the chance to
enjoy their meals with friends while watching tv, enjoying music, and
having a good time. This program also enhances their mobility and gives
them time to socialize with their neighbors.

The concept of decentralization is not only to build a satellite kitchenette
in each dining room but to encourage our elders to take their meals in
the dining room and enjoy variety. Satellite Kitchenettes give residents
more meal choices. As well as enjoying the aroma of fresh baked cookies
or pies, they can also have some fresh refreshment from the juice bar, be
able to create their own healthy salads from our garden bar or request
made-to-order panini sandwiches delivered directly to their table. By
decentralizing your kitchen, it promotes a more personal experience
where our elders can enjoy the spirit of caring from our care partner
teams along with Food Services.

The overarching goal is to improve residents quality of life. In general, by
giving residents more choices, it can help them to feel more independent
and involved in their day to day lives, as they would have been when
living at home. We strive to provide the best dining services to our elders
and believe that decentralizing revolutionizes not just meal times in Long
Term Care, taking the dining experience to a whole new level, but also
improves residents physical and mental health. ◘
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