Volume 1, Issue 2 - March 13, 2018
Membership Goal For 2018
The SDA currently has
278 registered members.

Our goal for 2018 is
1000 Members!

722 More To Go..


If you're a subscriber and not a member, make today the day!
Outside The Kitchen
Do we have a BINGO?
Marc Bailey
Divisional Culinary Ops Specialist
Atria Retirement, Eastern Canada

I was working the supper shift and the activity coordinator walked in the kitchen and mentioned they had nobody to call bingo this evening, so I just volunteered.

It gives me an opportunity to interact with residents aside from food related stuff. It's always fun to be able to spend time with residents apart from only cooking for them.
Marc is our first international member!
Benefit to SDA Members
The Senior Dining Association has partnered with Argentum to provide attendees at the Argentum 2018 Senior Living Executive Conference a forum to discuss and solve business challenges faced by dining professionals. Join us for a collaborative experience, May 14-16 in San Diego, to ask questions and share your own insights about training and retention of your dining staff, and best practices in menu consistency, etc.

Use promo code “ SRDININGASSN” by March 30 th for $250 off your All-Access Pass! Learn more and register.
ENJOY 25% OFF
MasterCook 15 Pro Software
Original Price 54.99 
Discounted Price 41.24 
Total Savings of 13.75
Enter Code: MCFORSENIORS
Webinars, Trainings & Chats
Stop in to develop additional skills, learn new practices or understand core industry values
Webinar

Join us for a live webinar on:

CONSISTENCY

March 21st
1:30 p.m. EST

Members-$39
Non-Members-$59


Classroom Training

Training is like going to the gym. To achieve optimal results, you must continually workout.

Check out our list of classroom trainings, which includes our 2 day
boot camp.


SDA Chats

SDA chats are moderated small group discussions for members to brainstorm, get advice and share ideas.

Here is the best part...
They are FREE for members!
Topic: Open Forum
April 12th at 1:30 p.m. EST

Industry Trends
I'll have what she is having...
Our last trend is quite simple, it only requires a glass or two or maybe even three. If you’re thinking alcohol you’re a winner. Alcohol has made it into senior housing for one simple reason, everyone enjoys being fancied with a fine beverage.
Residents are enjoying the eloquence of their favorite cocktail in the comfort of beautifully deigned bars. Some communities even provide personal lockers and provide glasses, ice & mixers for residents to make their own drink. 
While not all communities support the consumption of alcohol, the ones that do need to provide a variety of varietals to please sophisticated palettes.

Member Introductions
Alex Feldman

Community: Wellmore
Location: Tega Cay, SC
Career Length in Senior Living: 11 years
Education: Culinary Institute of America
Alex Feldman, Director of Dining Services & Executive Chef
What drew you to senior living?   Quality of life & connection with the members.

What is your biggest challenge within your current operation? Staffing! Restaurant chefs often overlook the possibility of a career in senior dining. Once they get involved in it and work in it, they see the benefits of working in Senior Living.

What is your proudest accomplishment in your career? Helping to build a quality program from the ground up. Implementing a new program and seeing the benefit of our hard work with positive comments from the members & their families. 

Advice for new chef's starting in the senior dining industry?   You need to have tough skin when talking with members, regarding food criticism and separating food preferences vs. quality. 

How would you describe your dining program? Resident driven with a focus on fresh preparations and cross utilization of product with minimal waste. 

What are some trends you see in Senior Dining? Clean labels, cook to order, prepared food closer to time of service, higher quality menu items that have labor saving opportunities. Example: Tyson's reverse pulled chicken, that can make several entrées out of 1 based protein.

Chef Alex's Zucchini Fritters Recipe
Brainstorming
Team Building Activity
Card Tower (15 minutes)

Distribute a pack of playing cards to each team of 2- 4 people. Make sure you involve all dining staff! Instruct them to build the tallest card tower using ONLY their non-dominate hand.
This will stimulate creativity and bonding, as the they figure out how to build the tower using team work. You can also, break it up into a weekly competition and have several different rounds.

Be creative and have fun!
What's Happening in the Culinary World
12 Chef Trends in 2018
Here are 12 current and upcoming trends that are actively pushing towards a wider, more mainstream adoption in 2018:

Technology
Augmented vs Virtual Reality
SDA's Contest
Getting Staff to Stick

If you have great ideas for employee retention, we want to hear from you!

One of the leading struggles in our industry is staff turnover. Everyone in the community suffers when there is excessive loss in staff: training dollars down the drain, inconsistencies in food and service, stretching existing staff to fill the gaps, unhappy residents.


Do you have great best practice for retention?

Share your proven retention strategies for a chance to win a $250 Amazon gift card.

Start Date: 3/13/18     
All entries are due by midnight on :4/31/18
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Call for Subject Matter Experts
Senior dining subject matter experts are wanted and needed for upcoming newsletters. We want to hear from industry leaders have to say on the following topics:

  1. Community Garden - Does your operation have a garden? If so, we want to hear about it.
  2. Multiple Dining Options - We want to hear about your program and what makes it shine.
  3. Memory Care Dining - How does your dining program standout from the rest?

To be featured as a subject matter expert or industry leader in a specific topic click on the button below.

Help Us Evolve...
Just a quick question for you.
What's the # 1 challenge you & your team need to overcome this year?
Staff Retention
Food Consistancy
Personal & Staff Development
Food Cost
N/A - I'm not in operations
Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to record the kick-off webinar. Please accept our apologies...
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says “I’m possible”!"

Audrey Hepburn
Senior Dining Association | 980-434-1114 | INFO@seniordining.org | www.seniordining.org