Senior living FSDs face impossible competition: residents’ memories of meals from their lives before. Who could contend with mom’s meatloaf, or with recollections of the whole family gathered around the dinner table on Sunday nights?
MorningStar Senior Living understands there is no comparison, explains VP of Culinary Operations Michael DeGiovanni. Instead, it embraces food as memory of a life well lived—and staffers work hard to create meals worthy of new memories that engender a sense of community.
“They have a whole new selection of friends now, a whole new life, and that can take some getting used to,” DeGiovanni says. “We aim to be a place where their families want to come be a part of this, to help us create new memories. I always say we’re not in the senior living business—we’re in the hospitality business.”
That’s why MorningStar, which is based in Denver with facilities across the country, focuses on good old scratch cooking. Plus, each community develops its own menu according to classic local flavors. A chicken dish in Albuquerque, N.M., might feature green chilies, while the same entree in Billings, Mont., might be served with Buffalo sauce “to play into those memories the folks there have of meals growing up,” DeGiovanni says.
The idea of food as memory is particularly important for the 20% of all MorningStar residents living in Memory Care units, receiving special care due to Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. Twice monthly, MorningStar pushes dining room tables together to create a communal space and invites families of Memory Care residents to join a family-style meal.
“Something about those platters going around the table just encourages that happy conversation,” DeGiovanni says.
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