Proof senior care foodservice is ready for AI innovation 

Dining operations in senior care are among the most complex in any care environment. From clinical compliance to menu planning to procurement, foodservice teams navigate numerous challenges requiring smarter, faster solutions. 

AI is already addressing key issues such as: 

• Manual and reactive menu planning 
• Unpredictable inventory management 
• Staffing gaps and inconsistent quality 

To scale effectively and deliver personalized experiences, AI-driven tools are becoming essential in senior care foodservice. 

In addition to software intelligence, foodservice robotics can play a critical role in managing labor-intensive routines like food running, bussing, and tray passing. These tasks, often repetitive and injury-prone, are ideal candidates for automation. When paired with AI-driven planning, robotic solutions multiply efficiencies and relieve pressure on frontline teams. 

Communities are already seeing measurable impact. One dining manager at the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing reported, “Our overtime went from $13,800 down to $7,145 from June to July. We are seeing a declining trend in our OT [because of the robots].”

Where AI is making an impact, and what’s next 

While still in the early stages, AI applications in foodservice are rapidly gaining traction. Here’s where momentum is building and how these solutions might evolve:

1. Adaptive menu creation

Today: AI-powered platforms use real-time product pricing and availability to help communities create cost-effective, resident-centered menus. 

Tomorrow: Menus may adapt daily based on real-time feedback, seasonal ingredients, and biometric data from wearable devices.

2. Predictive inventory and procurement

Today: Tools like Direct Supply® DSSI™ deliver real-time ingredient pricing and availability, helping you source from preferred vendors at the best value. When an item is unavailable, DSSI recommends contract-compliant, cost-effective alternatives, ensuring uninterrupted service and optimized spend. 

Tomorrow: AI could merge supplier inventory, pricing trends, and community events to predict needs proactively.

3. Intelligent staffing and workflow support

Today: AI helps align staff schedules with peak demand. 

Tomorrow: AI might recommend task shifts, identify training needs, and anticipate prep time spikes to improve team performance.

4. Robotics in meal delivery and bussing

Today: Autonomous food delivery and robotic bussing, like Servi Plus, can help reduce physical strain and speed up service in dining areas. 

Tomorrow: Foodservice robotics may coordinate directly with AI systems to anticipate traffic flow, prioritize delivery routes, and adjust timing based on dining room capacity. 

Physical automation: Foodservice robotics in senior care

As AI enhances planning and forecasting, foodservice robotics tackles operational challenges at the point of service. These technologies take on repetitive, labor-intensive tasks that often strain dining teams, especially during peak hours. By integrating automation into dining workflows, care environments can boost efficiency, ease physical demands, and deliver more consistent mealtime experiences. 

Key applications include: 

• Autonomous meal delivery: Transports plated meals from kitchen to dining areas, freeing staff to focus on higher-value care. 
• Automated bussing systems: Streamline cleanup and dish room workflows, reducing post-meal bottlenecks. 
• Robotic tray service: Delivers drinks, snacks, and hors d’oeuvres on preprogrammed routes to enhance social dining occasions. 

Real results from AI-driven procurement 

AI is already delivering measurable results, and the proof is right here. Communities using Direct Supply Procurement Services see significant savings and efficiency improvements through the application of the OGM.ai™ order guide management tool. OGM.ai streamlines procurement by centralizing order guides, helping teams identify preferred products down to the invoice level, ensure consistency across facilities, and even resolve discontinued items automatically. When supply runs short, OGM.ai recommends equal or lower-cost alternatives, reducing canceled orders by nearly 50% and saving staff valuable time. 

What’s ahead: expanding benefits of AI in senior dining 

As AI moves beyond procurement, its potential to transform operations continues to grow: 

For residents: 

• Tailored menus meeting individual needs 
• Nutritional precision supporting chronic conditions 
• Higher satisfaction through tailored, well-executed dining experiences

“65.4% of residents believed that the robots improved their overall dining experience” 

– Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing 

For staff: 

• Automated compliance monitoring 
• Easier inventory management and ordering 
• More time for creativity and resident engagement 
• Robotics that automate repetitive, physical tasks like food running and bussing. 
• Fewer physical injuries and more time to focus on personalized service 

For providers: 

• Accurate forecasting and tighter budget control 
• Actionable insights into menu performance 
• Streamlined reporting for compliance and quality initiatives 

How to prepare for AI in foodservice 

2. Focus on high-impact areas 

Tackle high-cost challenges like food waste and pricing volatility first. AI tools can help reduce wasteful spend by identifying off-contract ingredient purchases and recommending compliant alternatives aligned with your order guide.  

4. Empower your team 

Involve your culinary team early and provide hands-on support. Show how AI frees up time and improves outcomes without replacing jobs. 

Looking ahead 

AI is no longer optional in senior care foodservice, it’s becoming central to strategic planning. At the intersection of AI, automation, and clinical nutrition, new technologies help providers work smarter, improve satisfaction, and achieve better outcomes. 

At Direct Supply, we’re developing the next generation of AI tools to automate foodservice workflows, enhance resident satisfaction, and strengthen operational outcomes. 

Whether it’s AI for procurement and menu planning, or robotics for food delivery, now is the time to begin integrating AI and automation into your foodservice operations.   

Dishmachines

• See the Steamers & Combi-Ovens section for guidance on determining the need to descale booster heaters and interior of units
• Follow manufacturer-specific guidelines or request service from an authorized provider
• Calibrate flow switches and maintain sensors to ensure proper performance
• Clean or replace filters

Recommended product: To address mineral and lime scale buildup in booster heaters and dishmachine interiors, use Cleveland 109811 Descaler (Clv Dissolve Dynamix). Always follow the equipment manufacturer’s cleaning instructions and verify that the cleaner is compatible with internal surfaces.

Ice machines

• Your ice machine should be cleaned and sanitized regularly to avoid problems. Cleaning will help remove the buildup of lime scale and other deposits from impure water; sanitizing is designed to eliminate organisms like algae, slime and bacteria
• Refer to your owner’s manual for manufacturer-specific guidelines
• Check filters and clean your condenser coils
• Some filters are disposable and some can be cleaned with soap and water
• See the refrigerators & freezers section for instructions on condenser coil cleaning

Recommended product: For safe and effective sanitation, use Manitowoc ice machine sanitizer, 16 oz to eliminate algae, slime and bacteria. Pair with Manitowoc nickel-safe cleaner, 16 oz to remove lime scale and mineral deposits.

Legionella and water management

As part of CMS guidelines, it’s important to include any equipment requiring the use of water in your water management plan and to continually test for the presence of Legionella bacterium.

Commercial floor care

Floor care and maintenance is another part of your commercial kitchen cleaning checklist. In today’s tough regulatory and reimbursement climate, floor maintenance and operations professionals are pressed to find savings amidst tight budgets. Discover how to extract savings with commercial floor care and equipment.

Top Senior Living Furniture in 2024

By The Yard Potting Table

Enhance gardening experiences in Senior Living communities with an innovative, portable, and wheelchair-accessible potting table. Thoughtfully designed for ease and convenience, it features handy holders on the top shelf and hooks along the side, keeping essential tools within easy reach. The large, removable bin for potting soil allows for simple cleaning, while the sliding tray above provides a comfortable space for potting plants. This versatile table also doubles as an entertainment station—just add a second bin for ice, and it becomes a great spot for beverages and salads during community gatherings. 

Keeping Nursing Home Food Warm and Maintaining Food Safety

Tip: Consider Travel Distance and Time the Process

The first thing to consider is how far the food is traveling. The clock starts ticking the moment the first meal is plated and doesn’t stop until the last plate is delivered. Most people underestimate how long it takes for food to reach residents, failing to take into account that the caregiver delivering food may stop to talk with a co-worker or provide assistance to a resident.

To get a sense of your current delivery times, start timing when the first meal is plated and then put that same timer on the last tray that will be delivered. Let your staff know that over the course of a week, you will be timing the tray delivery process to help ensure your residents are getting hot food. Be sure to reassure them that the point of this exercise is to assess the process so you can properly gauge which system is needed for your unique situation.

If longer than 30 minutes is required, many communities use a traditional wax pellet system, which has holding times anywhere from 60 to 90 minutes, depending on the product brand. These systems use a plate heater, a pellet heater, a base lifter, an underliner, and an insulated dome. there are also chilled pellets that can be used to keep cold food cold.

• For those needing a longer hold time, there is an option that offers a holding time of up to 90 minutes; this unit has a charging cycle of 10-15 seconds depending on the base used

So, you have your hot food covered. Now how do you get it to the resident?

Selecting and Utilizing Meal Carts for Safe and Efficient Tray Delivery Service

Tip: Take into account your unique needs and select the meal cart that matches them

Incorporating Disposable and Reusable Takeout Containers

Tip: Save time and help reduce the risk of cross-contamination with the use of disposable containers

Disposable Containers

Single-use foodservice packaging provides a sanitary way to serve fresh food. It can also play a key part in promoting safety, reducing foodborne illness, and saving staff valuable time during the cleanup process. For those looking for sustainable options, there are containers made of sugarcane & bamboo available.

Reusable Containers

For an environmentally friendly option, G.E.T. Eco-Takeout solutions offer reusability and quality in a reliable to-go container.

Agility in Procurement

When I think about procurement agility, what comes to mind is typically buzzword-sounding methodology. But agile food service procurement, with its roots in project management theories, is a transformative approach that enhances efficiency, responsiveness and adaptability within the procurement process. This approach ensures that procurement processes are not only streamlined but also flexible to sudden market shifts and emerging trends. When it comes to guiding your procurement teams to become more agile in an ever-changing healthcare landscape, taking a strategic and forward-thinking approach to your procurement is key.

In food service procurement, speed, flexibility and responsiveness are critical components for ensuring optimization and effective operations – here’s why:

• Speed is essential for timely sourcing and delivery of fresh ingredients, which is vital for maintaining the quality and safety of food. 
• Flexibility allows procurement teams to adapt quickly to changing market conditions, such as fluctuations in supply and demand or disruptions in the supply chain. 
• Responsiveness ensures that procurement teams can swiftly address and resolve any issues that arise, such as sudden shortages or quality concerns, minimizing downtime and customer dissatisfaction. 

Together, these attributes enable food service procurement to meet ongoing challenges, sustain operations and deliver consistent value to customers – which is all in a day’s work for the Direct Supply® DSSI™ team.

Key Elements of an Agile Procurement Strategy

Risk Management and Mitigation

At the core of agile procurement is effective risk management. Identifying potential risks early in the supply chain allows for the development of proactive strategies to mitigate these risks. For instance, consider a scenario where a key ingredient’s supply is disrupted due to unforeseen weather conditions. An agile approach would have already identified this risk, with strategies in place to pivot swiftly to alternative suppliers, thereby minimizing operational disruptions.

Adaptive Supplier Relationships

Creating flexible relationships with suppliers is crucial. This might involve scalable contracts that can be adjusted based on demand fluctuations, or collaborative problem-solving approaches that foster mutual trust. These adaptive relationships enable organizations to respond quickly to new challenges without delay.

Technology as an Enabler of Agility

Technology plays a pivotal role in enhancing procurement agility. For example, AI can be used for predictive analytics to foresee supply chain disruptions before they occur. IBM’s AI technology, Watson, leverages AI and machine learning to analyze vast amounts of data from various sources, including weather reports, social media, news feeds and historical data. This enables it to predict potential disruptions in the supply chain before they occur. 

Blockchain technology offers unparalleled transparency, making it easier to trace product origins and manage contracts. If a large-scale grocery retailer was utilizing a combination of blockchain and AI, every point in the supply chain process—from the farm to the processing unit, to the retailer and ultimately to the consumer—could record data on a secure, immutable ledger. This transparency would allow the retailer to trace any food item back to its source in a matter of seconds, enhancing consumer trust and reducing the scope of food recalls.

Implementing Agile Practices in Foodservice Procurement

Cost Savings through Process Streamlining and Efficiency

Lean procurement processes that eliminate redundancies are key to achieving significant cost savings. These streamlined operations reduce unnecessary expenditures, facilitating quicker decision-making and improving response times, which are critical in high-stakes market environments. By implementing AI tools, such as the DSSI platform, customers can complete procurement tasks more efficiently without needing to contact a support agent. This not only saves time and energy but also reduces labor costs and operational expenses. The increased efficiency allows resources to be allocated more effectively, driving overall cost reductions in the procurement process.

Building a Responsive Team Structure

In agile procurement, the dynamism of the marketplace demands a team that is not only skilled but also highly adaptable. Teams must be able to respond swiftly to changes, whether they are related to supply chain disruptions, technological advancements, or shifts in consumer demand. The ability of a team to pivot quickly without losing momentum is crucial for maintaining continuous operations and competitive advantage.

Training and Development for Flexibility

To cultivate a team capable of responding to these challenges, targeted training and development are essential. Training should focus on:

Enhancing Flexibility & Developing Cross-Functional Skills:

• • Scenario-based Training: Implement training sessions that simulate different supply chain disruptions or market changes to help team members practice their response strategies and decision-making skills in a controlled, risk-free environment.
  • Flexible Role Assignments: Encourage team members to take on various roles within the procurement process. This exposure helps them understand different facets of the operation and prepares them to fill in or adapt when needed.
  • Interdepartmental Rotations: Offer opportunities for team members to work in different departments. This not only deepens their understanding of how each part of the organization interacts with the others but also enhances collaboration skills.

Challenges and Solutions in Agile Procurement

Overcoming Resistance to Change

One of the significant hurdles in adopting an agile procurement strategy is the inherent resistance to change. This resistance can stem from within the organization and be complicated by challenges in managing change or integrating new technologies. 

To manage these challenges effectively, organizations should implement a multi-faceted approach:

• Leaders should clearly articulate the benefits of agile procurement through effective communication. Building better supplier relationships and enhancing responsiveness to market changes is key to building out a strategic plan.
• Providing training and education can also alleviate fears and build the necessary skills for agile practices. 
• Engaging stakeholders early and often can foster buy-in and reduce resistance. Involving team members in the decision-making process and addressing their concerns can create a sense of ownership and commitment to the new model. 
• Organizations should adopt a phased implementation approach. Starting with pilot projects can help demonstrate quick wins and provide valuable lessons that can be applied to broader rollouts. 
• Moreover, addressing technology integration issues requires a robust IT strategy. This includes selecting flexible, user-friendly procurement software that can easily integrate with existing systems and providing ongoing technical support. 
• Lastly, cultivating a culture of continuous improvement is essential. Encouraging feedback and iteratively refining processes based on real-world experiences can help sustain the transition and embed agile principles into the organizational DNA. 

By employing these strategies, organizations can effectively navigate the complexities of shifting to an agile procurement model.

Future Trends and Predictions

Preparing for the Unknown

As nice as it would be, I cannot predict the future – but future-proofing procurement processes is crucial for any procurement partnership, DSSI included. Our procurement team stays informed about global trends, investing in ongoing training and maintaining flexible contractual arrangements. This readiness allows our clients to pivot rapidly and efficiently, no matter what the future holds.

By embracing agile procurement, food service companies can enhance their competitiveness and resilience, ensuring they remain at the forefront of industry developments – both now and whatever AI brings us in the future.

What is Food Procurement?

Food procurement is the process of how food is purchased and used within an organization.  The food procurement services are not the largest or most complex area of spend within a hospital system, but often are the place where hospital systems end up overspending.

The best way to address this overspending is with spend management software that can offer efficient procurement solutions. In turn, this lowers the price of hospital food for both the healthcare facility and increases real time visibility of spending. Strong supplier relationships and disciplined supply chain operations are also crucial to patient outcomes and improving efficiency.

How to Conduct a Food Procurement Spend Analysis

You know the cost of every bed and bandage… but what about every banana? While there are many tools on the market that give some indication of where your spend is going, it is essential to know specifics in order to make any meaningful change to your healthcare procurement process.

This is where DSSI Analyze comes in. It’s the only tool on the market that can tell you by high-level categorization where your spend is at, then drill into the next level of detail to tell you what to do next, and the next level below that to get down to cost of raw goods. DSSI’s procurement selection tackles spend analysis beginning with your group purchasing organization (GPO) and your supplier performance down to your managed order guides and local distribution availability.

The DSSI Analyze tool can help you move up and down the specificity spectrum to see where the spend is not optimized, and how to fix it. Ultimately, optimized healthcare food procurement can lead to overall hospital performance improvement. A cost effective healthcare organization is one making data driven decisions, without time consuming workflows.

Integrating Food Spend with Healthcare Procurement Software

Working with data from your AP and ERP systems, combined with our proprietary modeling, categorization and visualization tools, DSSI Analyze helps you get a handle on what you’re spending where, and how to get the most out of every dollar. DSSI’s procurement software can help optimize spend for your entire hospital system.

Whether you’re spending too much on pancakes or the people making the pancakes, you can look at your macro spend by site, by category, or go down to the details on those scratch pancakes versus pancake mix versus pre-prepared heat & serve pancakes. Which are on contract, which have a rebate, which are frequently out of stock and have more expensive substitutions…the list goes on and on. And that’s just pancakes. DSSI can help visualize your supply chain value analysis and empower you to make strategic food service procurement decisions.

Other Process Improvement Opportunities in a Healthcare Supply Chain

Translate this approach out to juice, proteins, modified diets, kitchen equipment, food delivery systems, medical devices, you name it, and DSSI and DSSI Analyze can help you track it and optimize it, at every site and across your entire system. Plus, our DSSI eProcurement system can help you deploy the savings and deliver compliance now and in the future, taking your savings from hypothetical to actual in just a few clicks, and making sure your teams can sustain them year after year, order after order. The consistency we deliver is not only saving time, but ensures the highest level of patient safety.

Your optimized process improvement can also serve as a risk management tool in your healthcare setting. An optimized and long-term sustainable supply chain management program can help ensure compliance, prevent wasteful spending and avoid stockouts. 

The best way to see what you can save is with a demo and analysis – contact us today by filling out the form below to put the power of DSSI Analyze to work for your hospital or healthcare system.

Trending in Senior Living Dining: Embracing Technology for Dining Services

Amidst staffing shortages, turnover, and call-outs, communities are embracing innovative technology solutions to revolutionize Senior Living dining. With a focus on more personalized and engaging experiences, the role of technology continues to grow. Incorporating technology into daily workflows can offer win-win-win solutions for resident and staff engagement, operational efficiency, and cost savings.

Enhancing Resident Engagement with Technology in Senior Dining

Resident engagement is key in senior dining. Traditional Senior Living dining services might fall short in providing the interactive and engaging experience residents expect when a limited number of servers are running between the kitchen and dining room.

Servi Plus addresses this by automating repetitive tasks – like food serving, bussing, and tray passing – freeing up staff to interact more meaningfully with residents. The robot’s eye-catching LED display can deliver personalized messages, adding a touch of novelty to mealtimes and making dining more enjoyable for residents.

Leveraging Technology to Boost Operational Efficiency in Senior Living Food Service

Operational efficiency is critical in managing Senior Living dining services. With staffing being a significant challenge, Servi Plus fills the gap by taking over routine tasks and reducing the need for additional staff. This ensures consistent and reliable service and translates to an estimated $40,000 in labor cost savings*.

*Labor cost savings vary depending on your staffing needs, labor rates, and length of lease. Assumes existing wi-fi connection.  Shipping and deployment costs not included in calculation. Contact us to calculate potential savings for your unique community.

What is sustainable food purchasing?

Sustainable food purchasing is defined as food procurement that promotes quality and safety. It focuses on eliminating the additives and contaminants in menu offerings. By crafting a well-rounded and sustainable food system, quality and satisfaction is raised. When a hospital system incorporates a sustainable food procurement solution, their supply chain and usage behaviors can promote long-term efficiencies and process improvements.

The benefits of food sustainability go far beyond the financial aspects. Animal welfare is usually improved at sustainable farms, generally meaning that food safety also increases. Additionally, the preservation of natural resources by these food suppliers are a dramatic force for improving environmental sustainability.

Sustainable procurement also fosters resilience. By diversifying food sources and supporting sustainable farming practices, healthcare providers can mitigate risks associated with food supply disruptions. This ensures a more stable and reliable food supply, crucial for maintaining consistent patient care.

Why is food sustainability important in hospital procurement?

If the healthcare industry were to implement a more sustainable system of food procurement, it would bring immediate and comprehensive benefits to all health systems. Improving efficiency, reducing costs and making informed decisions would be easier with a more consistent and controlled supply chain.

In healthcare supply chain management, your hospital system looks to choose products that increase the quality of care for patients. The goal is to improve the operational components of your facility. When crafting your procurement strategy, it is vital to include sustainable food product choices.

The Benefits

Hospital supply chains can reap the many advantages of sustainable food purchasing including:

• More nutrient-rich and diet-friendly food for patients. Sustainable food offerings can provide greater nutrients and food value to patients. When feeding patients with modified diets or dietary restrictions, having a breadth of sustainable offerings can add variety and increase the quality of nutrition in your hospital food service’s meals. Read more about sourcing better diets for your patients here.
• Better supplier relationships. In a hospital supply chain, you have many supplier relationships to manage. Sustainable food purchasing can help by catering to group purchasing organizations and broadline vendors. These sources have the availability your healthcare setting needs.
• Reduce waste. You can reduce waste in your hospital’s supply chain by creating a sustainable purchasing plan. Tracking where purchases are being made, whether or not the products are being used, and what is being paid are all crucial steps to reducing unnecessary costs. This has an added benefit of reducing your organization’s environmental impact.
• Increase efficiency and productivity levels. Healthcare food procurement can take a lot of time and often limit active patient care. A sustainable food system and supply chain can elevate process improvement in your healthcare setting. This allows providers to focus on providing the best care. 
• A more adaptable supply chain. Recent events like the COVID-19 pandemic have made a large impact on food security in the United States. The supplier relationships created by a sustainable supply chain are key to improving your chances of being cost-effective in a rapidly changing market. They also protect food security for your patients.

How can Direct Supply DSSI support sustainable food procurement?

Evaluating the importance of sustainable food procurement can bring widespread benefits. Process improvement and cost savings potential will come to your hospital’s supply chain. DSSI can help you achieve the benefits of sustainable food purchasing with:

• Group purchasing organizations (GPOs) and broadline vendors. DSSI  works with group purchasing organizations down to broadline vendors. We help ensure that healthcare procurement is positioned to include optimized food choice and sustainability. Our procurement software helps you find the best price for the best products.
• Food procurement spend analysis. DSSI can help you conduct a food procurement spend analysis so you can drill down on specific product costs. Our procure-to-pay system allows you the ability to digitally see how you can deploy your food savings.

DSSI is committed to forming strong partnerships that promote sustainability in procurement for our customers.

Key Benefits of Adopting Foodservice Robotics

The use of foodservice robots in Senior Living dining brings several advantages:

• Places people where they give the most value, with patients or residents
• Provides a reliable, consistent dining experience 
• Reduces or eliminates human time spent lifting and carrying, running back and forth with food, supplies, or dishes.
• Reduces the need to train new staff members
• Reduces cost of overtime pay when short-staffed
• Leads to hiring and labor cost savings

Benefits for Residents:

• Fresher food: the kitchen sends food as soon as it is ready, not after it’s been waiting under a heat lamp
• Receive better service: wait staff stays in the dining area, ready to help residents

Will Robots Replace Humans in Senior Living Foodservice?

Integrating robots in Senior Living isn’t about replacing human jobs. Instead, they are designed to enhance service delivery and address challenges with labor shortages, missed shifts, and frequent turnover. Robots work alongside the server team to deliver a reliable, consistent dining experience.

How Can Senior Care Robots Improve Resident Engagement?

Foodservice robots, like Servi Plus, have transformed routine activities into sources of joy and resident engagement. From naming contests to delivering custom messages, like “Happy Birthday,” these robots create memorable moments for residents. Such engagement initiatives personalize this technology and foster a stronger community spirit, elevating the dining experience. By taking over routine tasks, robots enable staff to dedicate more time to meaningful interactions with residents.

Hiring a Foodservice Robot: Servi to Improve Senior Living Dining 

Direct Supply’s Innovation and Technology Center (ITC) is focused on finding innovative Senior Care solutions that will help our customers. Our team selected Servi Plus from Bear Robotics not only for the strength of its technology with many benefits but also for its ease of implementation and level of service and support.  Bear Robotics provides free onsite startup support, plus ongoing technical support 24/7 to keep robots running. Direct Supply® is committed to applying technology to solve Senior Living’s biggest challenges and providing outrageous customer service to our customers.

*Labor cost savings vary depending on your staffing needs, labor rates, and length of lease. Assumes existing wi-fi connection.  Shipping and deployment costs not included in calculation. Contact us to calculate potential savings for your unique community.

Four Steps You Can Take to Enhance Your Residents’ Dining Experiences

We all know mealtimes in Senior Living communities are an opportunity to boost resident satisfaction and quality of life, but, for memory care residents, there are often additional concerns to address. It’s important for residents to stay focused and free from agitation long enough for residents to receive adequate nutrition while ensuring a positive dining experience.

We’ve identified four broad categories and some commonsense solutions to help improve the overall dining experience for residents with dementia.

1. Atmosphere: Soothe Anxiety

Create a dementia-friendly environment by using memory aids to remind residents about mealtimes. Try a clock with large numbers, an easy-to-read appointment calendar with large letters and numbers, or even a daily schedule or menu board.

Once inside the dining room, be consistent with furniture placement so memory care residents know what to expect. Then, throw on some classical or soothing music for a calming effect. It is equally important for memory care residents to avoid overstimulation caused by television, excessive noise or too many people.

A separate service time for memory care residents gives them a calmer, dementia-friendly dining room. When blended dining rooms are in operation, seat memory care residents facing away from other diners to help prevent distractions.

Browse thousands of our Senior Living foodservice products designed for seniors’ unique needs by visiting us online – we’re sure to have exactly what you’re looking for. For additional solutions for memory care residents, contact us today.

Sources:

1. https://www.sath.nhs.uk/news/blue-crockery-introduced-for-patients-living-with-dementia/#

2. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3676207/Yellow-plates-help-dementia-patients-eat.html 

3. https://www.bu.edu/cas/magazine/spring10/golomb/