“Want to eat food that’s fresh, local and cooked from scratch?” According to an article from NPR, you should consider dining in a senior living community.
Bethlehem Woods Retirement Community was recently highlighted for it’s incredible dining experience at it’s independent and assisted living communities. Learn more about fresh and local food in senior living.
Fresh and Local Food in Senior Living
Although senior living communities are often thought to serve bland, pureed and unappetizing foods, there are many communities that are reinventing the senior living dining experience for their residents.
Bethlehem Woods, an independent and assisted living community in LaGrange, Illinois, was featured this month in an article from NPR for the fresh and local food on its menu.
The article says,”In the past year, there’s been a big change. It’s the food and it’s better.” According to resident Dolores Groch:
“Everything is fresh… Soups made from scratch, and they change the menu so often. I mean, if you were at home cooking, you wouldn’t have that many choices.”
The choices that Groch refers to includes: Tilapia with caper butter, baked ham with raisin sauce or a heart-healthy frittata which are all regularly featured on the senior living community’s dinner menu. There’s also a selection of soups, salads and sides available to residents who are dining.
Chef Eric David Corradetti supervises the meals at Bethlehem Woods, and says that they are all apart of a fresh approach employed by Unidine, which serves kitchens in over 120 other communities in the U.S. The company, which has a Fresh Food Pledge that is “posted on a wall and signed by every member of the kitchen staff,” is apart of this new approach to dining in senior living.
According to the article, Unidine founder Richard Schenkel says of the approach to fresh and local food in senior living communities: “No. 1, we thought it would be more cost effective.” No. 2? “He believed it would be healthier and tastier,” the article adds. Finally: “I really liked the residents,” [Schenkel] says. “It was like being around your grandmother all the time.”
Reinventing the Senior Living Dining Experience
The focus on fresh, local food and recipes that attend to residents’ specific dietary needs are apart of this new approach to dining in senior living. The focus also considers recipes that can benefit those residents with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias.
“Unidine’s solution is bite-sized hand food, sort of like having hors d’oeuvres three meals a day,” the article says.
We are looking forward to following along with senior living communities like Bethlehem Woods, who are creating a dining experience that includes fresh, nutritious and tasty food for all residents.
Do you have questions about finding assisted living that features fresh and local dining? Learn more from our resources, or let one of our Senior Living Advisors assist you.
