Be prepared for the change in aged care dining preferences is here, and expanding faster than you might think. At a number of new and existing sites residents on the independent living side, a major expansion is underway, with plans that reflect the demographic changes to come.
Currently, many seniors there are still part of the pot roast-meatloaf-mashed potatoes era, but the change is coming, and is already evident in foodservice.
“The demographic is shifting and taste and preference are changing dramatically, a lot of the residents have now came from a time when food wasn’t so ethnically diverse. They want more casseroles and things they grew up with.”
But as more and more baby boomers reach retirement age, the meatloaf and pot roast will go out the window to a degree (although still required by many elderly as this is familiar to them from their era).
This is the generation that entered young adulthood in the 1970s, they’re into destination dining and fine wine, and have had the opportunity to try global cuisine like no generation before them.
The whole new dining concept going in there is a well-designed kitchen that can meet those growing expectations, and I believe there is a long way to go in Australia where more work is required on kitchen design, particularly if we continue with providing food at the lowest common denominator (food cost average $6-8.00 per day).
The kitchen build-out and new dining venues are part of the larger expansion that will add more living spaces and more height (currently moving into high rise nursing homes. The expansion and growth in nursing homes looks to build similar to those in the USA run by one of the hotel groups. Bringing cooking to the forefront is a trend in senior dining that can keep residents engaged.
With all the activities in senior living, food and beverage is so closely related to everything that occurs on a daily basis in the community.
The success of organisations will be closely related to quality of food and beverage, the kitchen is the heart and the food becomes the big event of the day.