Anytime Dining

By Bill Pettit, Merrill Gardens

When Merrill Gardens entered the assisted-living industry eight years ago, our goal was to provide a living environment where residents could continue to choose how they live their lives. In evaluating our effectiveness, we decided that we were doing a good job in areas like choice of activities, housing and locations. We realized, however, we were more regimented with dining hours. We had traditional set meal times, and we were asking our residents to stick to a schedule that might not be consistent with the way they lived before moving in with us.

We tell residents they have the freedom to be who they want to be and live their own lifestyles in our communities. We don't control other parts of their lives, and we wondered why we should we tell them when they could eat.

To answer this concern, we implemented a sweeping change of our dining program last year when we introduced "anytime dining" to our communities. The concept is fairly simple and gives residents the flexibility to choose their meal times.

Anytime dining was a big shift for our communities. It means that our dining room opens at 7:30 am for a hot breakfast, which is available until 9:00 a.m. Then, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., residents can get a continental style breakfast. The dining room is closed for a half hour and at 11:30 a.m. anytime dining begins. Residents can come to the dining room until 6:00 p.m. and choose from a list of menu items that are available throughout the day.

Residents no longer need to schedule their day around meal periods. Instead, they know that the dining room will be open and they can choose when to eat. The purpose of anytime dining is not to get residents to eat at different hours, but rather it's to give them flexibility and choice.

Implementing anytime dining was a fairly radical change that took a great deal of communication. Arnold Nickels, vice president of foodservice, was on the front line. He says that in the beginning his community teams expressed concerned, worrying that keeping the kitchen open continuously would mean more work and more stress.

"The biggest challenge was getting staff to do a 're-think.'" Anytime dining requires a completely different philosophical approach on how we present food to our residents. We needed our staff to understand that active seniors want the freedom to come and go as they please. This sort of freedom is a key part of a healthy, active lifestyle," says Nickels.

To address concerns about the new dining program, we promised team members they would be given everything they needed to make this successful. We asked them to first try to make it work with our current resource level. They were surprised to find that they already had the resources they needed. It also took a slight shift in schedule to have the kitchen manned all day. We are proud of the fact that our team has kept food costs in line since we started the program, and overall it has proven to be no more costly than the traditional approach.

The communities are finding that anytime dining actually eases some of the stress of mealtimes. Though most people still eat at traditional times, now there is less of a herd mentality. Fewer people eating at a given time means less stress on the dining room.

When we implemented anytime dining, we also extended our menus. We increased choices throughout the day and all the hot entrees are now available from 11:30 a.m. on, so residents can have their main meal when they choose. Instead of cooking everything at once, meals are now cooked in batches so the food can be fresh all day.

Our biggest concern was introducing anytime dining to our residents. We felt this was a program that would benefit them, but change is difficult and we knew that residents would be concerned about any variations in their meal plan. We had to make sure they understood that we were not saying they couldn't eat at their same time they always had; they just were no longer required to.

Residents worried about the quality of food, fearing that it would sit on steam tables all day. We set up kitchen tours and explained the concept of batch cooking to calm those fears. While most residents quickly embraced the program, a few did have trouble with the change because the people they usually sat with changed eating times. We made sure that our staff was on the lookout for residents feeling left out and paired them with new dining partners.

Now that the program is in place in almost all of our 59 communities, we are receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback. The stress over the possibility of a missed meal during outings or visits is gone. Anytime dining is attractive to potential new residents too and it has become a good marketing opportunity for us.

Most important, it meets our goal of providing our residents the opportunity to choose how they live their lives. And that's what it's all about.

Bill Pettit is president and COO for R. D. Merrill Co. and Merrill Gardens LLC. Seattle-based Merrill Gardens is the second-largest privately held assisted-living company in the country, operating 59 communities in 15 states.

Pettit joined Merrill Gardens in 1992 after 18 years in the banking industry. He has been instrumental in the rapid growth of the company and developed the policies that speak to Merrill Gardens' commitment to quality. He can be reached at billp@merrillgardens.com.

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