Andrew Christman, reporter for Senior Housing News, wrote about the creativity happening in senior living and called upon Lifespark’s Josh Ordorff, Culinary Operations Director, to weigh in. According to Christman, the baby boomers desire toothsome, fresh food. Senior living chefs and dining teams have to constantly innovate to serve them, and it’s not an easy feat from a budgeting perspective.
Many operators, including Pacific Retirement Services and The Springs Living, don’t have a dedicated line item to experimentation or innovation, and instead seek flexibility in their budgets to allow for creativity. As global turmoil related to the Iran War and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz sends oil and therefore food farming and transportation prices higher, senior living operators must be especially careful in what they spend their funds on.
St. Louis, Minnesota-based Lifespark is meeting in late April to come up with between 10 and 15 new dishes to roll out across the company for the year. Rather than focusing strictly on budgeting for new kinds of dishes, Culinary Operations Manager Joshua Ordorff said Lifespark is putting that money toward quality ingredients that its teams can work with.
Instead, culinary teams are relying more on customer satisfaction rather than finances when it comes to innovating the menu.
In some instances, kitchens are trying ways to offset some of the expenses associated with trying new menus. For Lifespark, that takes the form of either bistros or brunches that family members come in and pay to dine at. While it may not generate revenue, many times they nearly break even, which helps with food costs, Ordorff said.
