Speaker 1
Good Saturday morning to everybody. Welcome to your next chapter of production of Avery Heights Senior Living Community. Avery Heights is a 43 acre senior living community with a full costume of care, including independent and assisted living, memory care, and a whole lot more. Now this show provides helpful tips and resources for older adults that will empower and encourage you in your living communities in a whole, along with Siobhan Mattingly.

Speaker 1
I’m Gary Byers. Siobhan, nice to see you.

Speaker 2
Nice to see you.

Speaker 1
You look very nice.

Speaker 2
Thank you.

Speaker 1
How has, I was going to ask you how your last week has been, but I want to ask you how your summer is going so far as well.

Speaker 2
Really good. Really good. Yeah. I’m having fun going to the beach.

Speaker 1
Are you a beach person?

Speaker 2
I’m a beach person. I love the beach.

Speaker 1
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 2
Beach is my piece.

Speaker 1
I can go to the beach year-round, though.

Speaker 2
Me, too.

Speaker 1
I love the beach.

Speaker 2
Oh, yeah. We go on Mother’s Day every year and walk around.

Speaker 1
Wait, but that’s in May.

Speaker 2
But still, it can be cold. It can be cold.

Speaker 1
How about, do you ever go in, like, January?

Speaker 2
I’ve never gone in January.

Speaker 1
Just to take a ride down. First of all, there’s nobody.

Speaker 2
There’s nobody driving around there. I’ve gone in December.

Speaker 1
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2
Because my husband proposed to me. Yeah. He knew. He knew what to do.

Speaker 1
There is just something real serene about just listening to the waves crash. It’s amazing. And really inhaling the salt air. It really is soothing for me.

Speaker 2
Yeah, the best was when I went to Jamaica. I mean, the water was just perfect.

Speaker 1
Yeah.

Speaker 2
I know, right?

Speaker 1
Take me away.

Speaker 2
That’s our show. We’re off to the beach.

Speaker 1
We got to get a travel agent to do a show. Boy, I got to try the product a little bit before I do the show. So you’re enjoying the beach.

Speaker 1
You’re enjoying your summer. Tell me, how’s your last week been? What have you been up to?

Speaker 1
Anything? What have you been up to?

Speaker 2
Getting prepared. My son is actually getting married on Sunday. But it’s a wedding celebration.

Speaker 2
So he’s already married. I already have a grandson. So it’s a wedding celebration.

Speaker 2
Up in Mass, right? Or is it? Yes.

Speaker 2
I remember that. Newburyport. By the beach.

Speaker 2
By the beach. Got to do it. Like mom?

Speaker 2
Yeah. So that’s a lot. It’s a lot.

Speaker 2
Because this is the big wedding. They did the small wedding in the backyard. Now this is the big wedding.

Speaker 2
So it’s exciting. Very nice. So I’m trying to fit into my dress.

Speaker 2
Sure. Yeah.

Speaker 1
I don’t think there’ll be problems. Come on.

Speaker 2
You never know. I try to eat healthy. I’ve been eating healthy all week.

Speaker 1
Speaking of eating.

Speaker 2
I know.

Speaker 1
You guys at Avery Heights are known for your cuisine.

Speaker 2
Yeah, the food is very good.

Speaker 1
I’ve had some. Now, granted, it’s been many years. But I’ve eaten.

Speaker 1
I’ve had some cuisine from Avery Heights probably 15 years ago. This goes a little bit back. But I know.

Speaker 1
You’ve talked about it. We’ve been doing this show maybe a couple of months now.

Speaker 2
you brought up the food on probably half those shows so i think we’re we’re we’re really i am all about the food people look at me and go do you eat i love the food i’m all about the food all

Speaker 1
right so when somebody comes in and they have an initial consultation how often does food or menu yeah or diet how often does that come up a lot a lot and i always try to offer lunch or dinner

Speaker 2
and the guys are great about doing that. The dining staff is amazing. I actually, yesterday, myself and a couple of staff members ate in the dining room.

Speaker 2
I had the Kentucky bourbon chicken. It was amazing. They had the sirloin tips and we got weighted on.

Speaker 2
It was all fancy and it was really, it was, they do a nice job. It’s definitely an amazing dining experience. You want to introduce our guest?

Speaker 2
Yes, that’s why I’m saying all these nice things. So I’m very proud to introduce the wonderful Tim. He is our dining director.

Speaker 2
he’s amazing hopefully i got your title right he’s amazing he does a great job um he runs an incredible crew um and i’m just so proud to have him here today thank you you’re welcome you’re welcome you can pay me later pleasure no actually your reputation precedes you really because i i’m

Speaker 1
not even embellishing this one iota uh of the eight show i don’t know six seven eight shows that we’ve done half of them food has come up what’s the let’s start off with something pretty simple The atmosphere.

Speaker 3
Sure.

Speaker 1
And in the Avery Heights dining room. What is that like?

Speaker 3
Well, the atmosphere, it’s a restaurant-style setting that’s comfortable. Upscale restaurant-style setting that’s comfortable. Being comfortable is probably the most important thing for the residents because it’s their home.

Speaker 1
Sure. Yeah. How important, though, would you say menu planning is? Is there a thought that goes into it? Because I would imagine.

Speaker 3
Menu planning is really important.

Speaker 1
Yeah, the more people you get involved in this, you know, the more, well, I can’t have this and I can’t have that. It’s one of the reasons why sometimes food at venues are bland because you have to make it bland and then have everybody individually doctor it up because everybody’s got their own either allergies or whatever they don’t like. So how do you navigate around that?

Speaker 3
Well, variety is probably the most important thing when planning for a menu. Some people just like fish or several residents that only want to eat fish. So we like to have two fish options usually on the menu.

Speaker 3
We always have salmon on the menu. Salmon’s always on the menu. That’s one of our things.

Speaker 3
There’s always three specials that change. We have a rotating six-week menu. So three new specials every day along with a soup of the day and a low-sodium soup.

Speaker 3
That changes every day. Always a choice of two salads. Tenderloin is always on the menu.

Speaker 3
So if you want to come in and eat tenderloin.

Speaker 1
Always? Really? Probably not healthy to eat tenderloin every day. Probably not your healthiest choice.

Speaker 3
But we want residents to be comfortable. They should have the choice.

Speaker 2
And the salmon is good too. I usually eat the salmon a couple times a week. And they make it perfect.

Speaker 2
Like it’s not dry. Yeah. And that’s a tough one to cook.

Speaker 2
And it’s never dry. It’s never bad.

Speaker 1
This is upscale here.

Speaker 3
It’s definitely upscale dining way up here.

Speaker 1
What if somebody comes in and just says, that’s all fine and dandy, two, three nights a week. You know what I just want tonight?

Speaker 3
A burger, juicy, or a pizza.

Speaker 1
I want a couple of pieces of pizza.

Speaker 3
Absolutely. Having a burger is an option on the menu every day. If they just want a sandwich, they can come in and have a sandwich.

Speaker 3
Whether it’s a tuna sandwich, egg salad sandwich, turkey, ham. If they want to come in and have breakfast for dinner, that’s their choice. They can come have breakfast for dinner.

Speaker 3
That’s on the menu every day, too.

Speaker 1
How about a healthy? I would imagine health and nutrition is a part of the thought process that goes into coming up with these menus. Yep.

Speaker 3
Health is definitely important to a point. It’s important to definitely have low sodium options on the menu for residents, which is important.

Speaker 2
Low sugar.

Speaker 3
That tastes good.

Speaker 1
True. Yeah, but how do you accomplish that?

Speaker 3
It’s all about the marinade. Skipping the salt, and all about the marinade. Whether it’s a wine marinade, that really keeps food from being bland.

Speaker 3
Yes. So we’re all about to marinate. Almost everything’s marinated at every height.

Speaker 3
For flavor, to enhance flavor. We have a nice low-sodium grilled piece of chicken that’s marinated in red wine vinegar, along with oregano, a little bit of garlic. And it’s very popular.

Speaker 3
Low-sodium. And it sells. People love it.

Speaker 3
It’s healthy, too.

Speaker 1
Well, I mean, it’s got to be healthy. You know, especially just all the different… I don’t know.

Speaker 1
I guess diets that people have. You talk about low sodium. You talk about low sugar.

Speaker 2
But also medication, too, because there’s some people that can’t have a lot of greens.

Speaker 3
We do have some challenges with various diets.

Speaker 2
Have to cut it up, different things like that. Oh, I didn’t even think about that.

Speaker 3
Absolutely. Yeah. They call it mechanically cut food, but it’s basically just chopped up food in small pieces.

Speaker 1
So you’re responsible for that, too. The client isn’t responsible for cutting their own food.

Speaker 3
We do that for our residents, too.

Speaker 2
And the wait staff knows that, too. So it is upscale and it’s really fancy, but the wait staff is aware of Mrs. Jones’s need to have her food cut up.

Speaker 3
The chef cuts up the food or sometimes their servers will actually just cut it right at the table if they ask.

Speaker 1
I’m going to ask a silly question here. If somebody just said, I want a beer.

Speaker 3
OK.

Speaker 1
You know, can they have a beer?

Speaker 3
Well, we have happy hour every Friday. So on Fridays, residents are allowed to drink. If they like to bring in their own beer, they can bring in their own beer whenever they want.

Speaker 3
Friday is the beer day. If you want beer, you want wine, you want a mixed drink, come in, enjoy a happy hour. It’s a great social time for the residents.

Speaker 2
Really good appetizers.

Speaker 3
They have a great time. That’s a great way for new residents to meet people.

Speaker 1
Sounds like we’re at a pub here.

Speaker 3
Yeah, it’s nice. It’s packed. We pass around nice appetizers. Sometimes we have bacon wrapped scallops or, you know, maybe I’ll make a… What’s the flaky one?

Speaker 2
The flake… We did a… Spin a…

Speaker 3
A brie and feel the dough.

Speaker 2
Yes, yes. I know. I was passing the hors d’oeuvres one day and I was like, what is this? And I had to keep on trying to remember what it is. I know.

Speaker 1
It’s funny that your producer, Ryan, just chimed in saying, can I move there? I’m like, I’m sitting here going, these people have it made. Oh, my goodness. Where do you find… Every day.

Speaker 3
Yeah. We do encourage guests to come. So, I mean, it’s a low price for all this food that we offer. It’s $18.90, $18.95. To encourage residents to bring guests.

Speaker 2
And we have the private dining room as well.

Speaker 3
So, you know, it’s not a bad deal. I also don’t charge them to rent out the private diner.

Speaker 1
How often does that get rented?

Speaker 2
A lot. Yeah, they’ll say pretty often. It’s just the meal per person.

Speaker 2
And they make it look really nice, too. They decorate it according to whatever’s going on. Birthday, anniversary, it’s nice.

Speaker 1
I’m sorry. I’m a little beside myself right now. No, I mean it because it sounds appealing to me.

Speaker 1
I’m not even qualified to be a resident there, but it sounds really good. So you’re obviously, I mean, with all these individual special diets, I mean, that’s got to pose a challenge. You’ve got to have to have a staff that, although after a while, I would imagine, oh, yes, Rosemary has this diet.

Speaker 1
So you already, just by memory, you must know.

Speaker 3
You really get to learn to know your residents. It’s when new people come in that we really have to be on our game.

Speaker 2
And they have the pictures up in the back room in the dining area where their prep room. They have like the picture of the person and their diet. So for new people, they’re able to figure that out. So they’re not left to chance.

Speaker 1
No kidding. Is it true that as we age, we have less taste buds and it’s more difficult to detect bitterness, for example? You know, like spices like salt. How do you address this for your residents? First of all, is there any truth to that?

Speaker 3
there’s a little bit of truth to that um but at the but at the same time the marinade really helps when we pre-marinate food and we cook with a lot of wine so i mean i think i think skip the salt maybe a little wine marinade lemon juice wine marinated garlic it really intensifies the flavor we haven’t had many complaints on that it’s more temperature they want stuff really hot like when it’s soup they want it you know 195 degrees where it’s burning your mouth i mean and It’s more temperature. They want it super hot. And we do that for our residents.

Speaker 1
What would you say is your most popular item on the menu?

Speaker 3
We sell a lot of salmon. I got to say, we sell a lot of salmon. We probably go through about 120 pounds a week with salmon.

Speaker 2
And people rave about it. When I have guests come in, they say, oh, I ordered the salmon, and they just rave about it.

Speaker 3
It’s really healthy. I mean, it’s supposed to actually enhance brain function. with omega-3 fatty acid that’s in salmon. From what I was reading, at least, it’s supposed to really help their brain function and memory.

Speaker 2
I’m living proof, right? I’m very smart.

Speaker 3
Are you kidding me?

Speaker 2
You’re the most intelligent. It’s all the salmon. It’s the salmon. All right, I’m sold on it.

Speaker 1
I’m sold. When I come, I’m having the salmon.

Speaker 3
You also do the little fancy things like that with quinoa salad. Oh, quinoa.

Speaker 2
Yeah.

Speaker 3
Yeah, that they really love.

Speaker 2
The fish. Yeah. Yeah, the sides change too, and they’re good.

Speaker 2
They have like all sorts of vegetables. What was the thing you had the other day? I’m trying to think of what it was.

Speaker 2
We couldn’t pronounce it. No, we couldn’t pronounce it. It was a side.

Speaker 2
Farrow and eggplant. Something. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2
We couldn’t pronounce it. It’s one of the ancient grains. It’s different.

Speaker 2
It’s unique. The menu’s not your typical, just basic stuff. It’s not like chicken and potatoes.

Speaker 2
It’s, yeah. Tim, tell me a little bit about your background.

Speaker 3
Sure. Originally a culinary graduate. I went to Connecticut Culinary Institute about 25 years ago. I’ve been in the business for years. Several four-star restaurants I’ve worked in.

Speaker 2
I call them a master chef, like on Food Network. Oh, yeah. Remember that?

Speaker 1
I used to watch that show, yeah.

Speaker 3
Is that still on anymore?

Speaker 2
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3
I love cooking. I’ve been doing it most of my life. I’ve been involved in the restaurant industry for years.

Speaker 1
What would you say your signature dishes? Okay, let’s go back to master chef. If you had one opportunity, you have to make one dish to be judged on, what would that be?

Speaker 3
That’s a good question. There’s so many.

Speaker 1
I know. Kind of an unfair question.

Speaker 3
But we all have our one. Come on. That’s a tough question.

Speaker 1
Ryan, you know what mine would be? The Gary Burger.

Speaker 3
We can’t tell anyone about that.

Speaker 1
No, it’s a secret recipe.

Speaker 3
That’s right. If I put you on the spot I make some really nice veal dishes Like a veal salt and bokeh I make it really nice Which is good We’ve had on the menu Because we’ve had international day here And we kind of travel around the world Let’s go there

Speaker 1
Alright, so when you have international day Is it one day a week? This Thursday is Mexican day The following Thursday is Chinese day Or Italian day I’m just trying to go through all the different types of I mean, there’s no end. Polish food, German food, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 3
Well, unfortunately, due to the pandemic and COVID, we’ve had to put it on hold for a little while. But our plan is to get that going again. We’ve gone partway around the world already, you know, with International Day.

Speaker 3
But because of COVID, we’ve slowed it down. We have a live band in. So if it’s Italian, we’ll have an Italian band in.

Speaker 3
We’ve had a barachi band.

Speaker 1
Oh, Marriachi Bain for Mexican, sure.

Speaker 3
Absolutely.

Speaker 1
Where do you get your inspiration for your dishes that, you know, you talk about salmons, you talk about the steaks that you have and the marinades with wines and so on and so forth, because you’ve got challenges that, let’s say, the average restaurant may not have as much. Where do you draw upon, and with your creativity, by saying, I want to introduce something new to the menu.

Speaker 3
Yep.

Speaker 1
And do you, like, let me just give you an example. Sure. And you tell me if this even makes sense to you.

Speaker 1
You’re on vacation. You’re with your family. You go to some off-the-beaten path where the natives go, not where the tourists go.

Speaker 1
That’s where you go. You don’t go to the tourist traps. You go, where do the natives go?

Speaker 1
That’s where we’re going tonight. I learned that in Louisiana. Best food I’ve ever had.

Speaker 1
It was in New Orleans. But it was not in the French Quarter. It’s off of where all the townies are.

Speaker 1
Okay, so going back to this question I posed to you, do you sit there and go, Oh my goodness. This was incredible. I don’t know if it’s even appropriate.

Speaker 1
Do you talk to the chef or do you just make mental notes or do you take out your notebook and write a couple things down and then play around with it when you get back home?

Speaker 3
After tasting, I can really tell most of the ingredients that are in there. And then whether I tweak off of the recipe and add things and be like, you know what would be better if I had a little bit of this or that? I remember when I traveled to Laos.

Speaker 3
My wife’s from Laos. And we got married there. Wow.

Speaker 3
Several years, 10 years ago. And I remember learning some really nice family recipes that I’ve introduced to Avery Heights from Laos.

Speaker 1
Interesting.

Speaker 3
I know.

Speaker 1
I’ve heard food from Laos. I don’t know.

Speaker 3
It’s right next to Thailand. So it’s.

Speaker 1
What kind of foods are popular there?

Speaker 3
Geez. You know, there’s a really nice. Some of this.

Speaker 3
Well, one of the marinades that I introduced to soups really popular. soup soup’s a popular dish over there but it’s all about the marinade and some of the street food that i tried over there it’s phenomenal um they marinate their steak or chicken or pork with lemongrass ginger garlic and hoisin sauce right maybe a little bit of oyster sauce it’s phenomenal so and that was kind of like a family recipe that i learned in laos And we’ve introduced that to Avery Heights. Fascinating.

Speaker 3
My wife also makes killer spring rolls. I’ve actually introduced them here at Avery Heights before.

Speaker 1
How long have you been with Avery Heights, by the way?

Speaker 3
I’ve been there 10 years. Diner and director a little over a year now.

Speaker 1
Hmm. Made any changes since you’ve taken the helm?

Speaker 3
Several changes on the menu. You know, I’m constantly changing the six-week rotating menu. That’s good. A lot of that’s, whenever something comes to me, I mean, if I notice something’s not selling, I’ll change it.

Speaker 2
Okay.

Speaker 3
If I hear feedback, if I hear positive feedback, I’ll definitely keep it on the menu. We also have a resident food committee where residents’ voices really matter. So they tell me what they like. They tell me every once in a while, I guess, they tell me what they don’t like. It doesn’t happen that often, but, you know.

Speaker 1
Do you think, do you believe certain foods enhance, let’s say, brain function, for example, and maybe increases mental functions? And are there specific foods that actually do this?

Speaker 3
There are a few. There’s, you know, I can tell you a couple off of the top ten that enhance brain function. Actually, one of them that we have on our menu all the time is salmon.

Speaker 3
It’s supposed to be the number one food to increase brain function, from my understanding. Because it contains omega-3 fatty acid that’s supposed to be great. I mean, it’s great for you, great for your brain, great for your memory.

Speaker 3
There’s others. I mean, broccoli is actually supposed to be really good for your memory. I love broccoli.

Speaker 3
So do I. Which is, you know, speaking about vegetables.

Speaker 1
Probably one of my favorite vegetables. Asparagus.

Speaker 2
I love asparagus.

Speaker 1
Peas. And broccoli is probably my favorite, though.

Speaker 2
Asparagus is tough to cook, too. Because you can overcook that.

Speaker 1
I grill it. Like when I fire up the grill and I have asparagus. In fact, I usually have asparagus with salmon, come to think of it. Yeah, sure.

Speaker 2
Yeah. I use the oven roasted, too. Yeah.

Speaker 1
Oh, my goodness. And add a few spices. Yeah.

Speaker 1
Maybe squeeze some lemons on that or something. I don’t know. Just, oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1
This is a tough show to do because I’m I know, right? You didn’t hear my stomach growling, did you? I’m blaming it.

Speaker 1
It’s thunder. It’s thunder, folks. Gary, there’s not a cloud in the sky.

Speaker 1
It’s thunder, I said. Folks, you’re listening to Your Next Chapter, a production of Avery Heights Senior Living, along with Siobhan Mattingly. I’m with Tim, Tim Barber, Director of Dining Services over at Avery Heights.

Speaker 1
I’m Gary Byron. No, this is, you know, next time you come here, though, you’re supposed to be bringing samples.

Speaker 2
I know, I was thinking about that.

Speaker 1
That’s the rule here. If we’re going to do a cooking show or a food show.

Speaker 2
Yeah, he makes good cookies, though, too. Chocolate chip cookies. And scones, and scones. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3
Scones, too.

Speaker 2
Yeah. They smelled amazing yesterday. We had a little social yesterday.

Speaker 2
And I think they were cranberry and blueberry. And they smelled so good. Yeah.

Speaker 2
Fresh. Like, really. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1
Blueberry scone, chocolate chip cookie, a cup of coffee. I don’t think it gets much better than that. How does meal planning differ for memory care and assisted living?

Speaker 3
Yeah. Well, it’s really the same food that we’re giving. We have a health.

Speaker 3
We have a healthy menu and people, residents of memory care, you know, they also want comfort food too. Sure. It’s really just the way we prepare the food, whether it’s chopped up a little bit more.

Speaker 3
There’s a couple of residents in memory care where we need to puree the food. So the puree food, it’s regular food on the menu. It’s probably one of our specials that we have, like whether it’s, you know, maybe it’s a comfort food like shepherd’s pie or chicken marcella.

Speaker 3
I mean, that’s what we’re going to puree for that resident. So it’s not like we’re giving them high-quality pureed food. Most of the time it’s just food that’s chopped.

Speaker 3
We just really have to skip the bones. So we skip the bones or the bones are taken out.

Speaker 2
And they bring it up like at the very last minute so that once it gets to memory care, it’s hot. And then they have a nice warming station at memory care too. So it’s not like they’re going to get, you know, it’s not sitting around.

Speaker 2
It’s not crusting over. It’s fresh. Yeah.

Speaker 1
You talk about this board, right? or is it committee?

Speaker 2
The resident, yeah.

Speaker 1
Board committee. What do you get out of that? What do they try to communicate to you?

Speaker 3
It can really be anything. Like some residents are adamant about, like, let’s have more veggies, which we always have two choices of veggies on the menu where they’re like, hey, let’s try broccoli rada or something. Let’s put that on the menu.

Speaker 3
Or they might say, I want to see more beets. Let’s do more roasted beets that we have on the menu quite often. They’re really just speaking their mind, letting us know what they would like to see more of what they would like us to try.

Speaker 3
Or one resident might say, hey, you make chocolate chip cookies all the time. Let’s do some more oatmeal raisins. So they’ll say, all right, no problem.

Speaker 3
We’ll put that on the menu next week or tomorrow. You know, it’s just, and we spend a good amount of time. It’s usually supposed to be about a half hour session.

Speaker 3
It usually draws out to a little over an hour. And, you know, it’s great. And I really think it’s important, and their voices count.

Speaker 1
Siobhan, I love hearing the fact that the residents have such a great input.

Speaker 2
Yeah, and really in everything at the community. We have a resident council for, like, everything, the activities for, you know, everything that happens, improvements. We have welcoming committees.

Speaker 2
The residents are so highly involved, and I think that’s what, you know, gives them purpose and makes them feel like it’s a family. It’s not just, oh, I live here in a community. It’s important.

Speaker 2
So, yeah, they have a voice in everything, and they listen. That’s what I like about Tim. He actually sits there with his notepad.

Speaker 2
I’ve seen him with his notepad in the meeting, you know, really listening to.

Speaker 1
Well, I’m sure it’s all constructive. I mean, you’re just trying to make it better.

Speaker 3
Yeah, we take notes and then, you know, we talk about next time we meet, what we fixed, and if there’s anything that we haven’t, I’ll kind of give him a time frame when we are going to fix it.

Speaker 2
And it’s a good dessert menu too. Like yesterday, I remember sitting there and they had like four or five desserts they listed off and ice cream. So it’s not like it’s sometimes you get that, you know, one dessert, sugar-free jello and, you know, sherbet. It’s good.

Speaker 3
The toast ramen cake’s really popular.

Speaker 2
They had lemon meringue yesterday. All right, all right.

Speaker 1
Oh, my goodness. You talked about that community room and around holidays and sometimes. Do you have any, like, are there special functions that Avery Heights does that residents are included? Like, for example.

Speaker 3
Absolutely. We have a special resident birthday where there’s, you know, all the birthdays through the month. They’ve got a separate table set up in the dining room.

Speaker 3
Separate menu than our menu of the day. Big cake. Special menu.

Speaker 3
Really? Big cake and wine, beers offered.

Speaker 2
Everyone sings. It’s in the menu. Tell them about the menu. Stuffed shrimp. What?

Speaker 3
I mean, sometimes we do stuffed shrimp or, I mean, we’ve done lobster tails.

Speaker 2
Steak, lobster tails. Yeah.

Speaker 3
Lobster tail.

Speaker 2
Yeah, for the birthdays.

Speaker 3
And seared scallops.

Speaker 2
By the way, my birthday is on Thursday. Just saying. Mine’s not until March.

Speaker 3
Whatever that means. One of the functions. Birthdays, I mean, the happy hour in the dining room. I mean, all holidays are a special menu.

Speaker 2
They do the barbecue for the cottagers, which they add pulled pork and, yeah, hamburgers.

Speaker 3
That particular function we have tomorrow.

Speaker 2
And it’s huge. It’s packed. And the staff comes, too. Yeah, and the staff is invited as well, and corn on the cob, and all sorts, a huge dessert table.

Speaker 1
This sounds like a social event. It’s not just a meal.

Speaker 2
And it’s nice because the staff is invited, and so everyone gets to kind of mingle and associate together.

Speaker 1
So how do you facilitate this experience? Like what are some of the best practices in place to ensure that, let’s say, all the residents are able to socialize and enjoy each other’s company? Sure. That’s what these kind of functions are good for, right, when you get everybody together?

Speaker 3
Absolutely. It’s all about social. Yeah, because it’s not just the food.

Speaker 3
I mean, the food’s important. I got you. But for the residents, like it’s coming to the dining room or some of these special events.

Speaker 3
It’s it’s like the thing they look forward to. It’s the you know, probably the best part of the day to meet new people, socialize and.

Speaker 1
This is a difficult show for me to do. I don’t know if you could tell this, but it’s so difficult to talk about. We’re not just talking about food.

Speaker 1
I mean, the way you’re articulating all this. Yeah. The descriptions that you have is just.

Speaker 1
It’s just… Butterfingers. Speaking of foods here, right?

Speaker 1
No, Siobhan, we’ve got to wrap the show up, though, Siobhan. I mean, I could understand clearly now why you are always talking about the food. It always comes back to the food.

Speaker 1
Before I do wrap it up, though, when you are initially talking with somebody, how often does food even come up? All the time. I mean, they want to talk about care, especially memory care and medications.

Speaker 1
And I want to make sure mom socializes. She’s not just some hermit. in her own room food is a great way we’re just mentioning this it’s a great way to bring people together but how often does the topic of diet in does that even come up nutrition all the time

Speaker 2
yeah because a lot of times older adults are sitting at home and they’re eating tv dinners or canned soup and that’s a huge thing that’s that’s one of yeah it’s socialization and they’re not

Speaker 3
eating properly all our soups are homemade by the way we make all of them in-house i knew that no i You didn’t have to say that.

Speaker 1
You knew that. Yeah. Well, yeah.

Speaker 1
I mean, it becomes a can. I mean, that’s all sodium in a can. Yeah.

Speaker 1
Yeah. Folks, you’ve been listening to the latest edition of your next chapter, Senior Living with Avery Heist. For more information on today’s topic, the dining experience, please call 866-537-1444.

Speaker 1
Let me repeat that. I’ll slow it down. Write it down.

Speaker 1
It’s 866-537-1444. In fact, the first three callers right now will be invited to an exclusive dining experience happening Sunday. It’s Sunday brunch at Avery Heights.

Speaker 1
Look at that. I hear that that’s actually quite a shindig that you have there. It’s hard to get a seat there.

Speaker 1
But if you’re just one of the first three callers, you’ll get a seat there.

Speaker 2
And you can bring a guest.

Speaker 1
Look at that. A guest, really? I would say call now.

Speaker 1
866-537-1444. Call right now. Siobhan, great show.

Speaker 1
Yeah. It really was. Folks, I’m Gary Byron.

Speaker 1
Until next Saturday morning, thanks so much for listening to your next chapter, Senior Living with Avery Heights. Have a good one, everybody. So long.