The Sustainable Senior Care Dining Experience

Sustainability is a growing conversation in the senior care industry, with concerns about climate change prompting senior care communities to integrate sustainable elements in their design. In our previous article on integrating sustainability into senior care facility design, we explored environmentally friendly principles like using renewable construction materials and landscaping with appropriate and native plants.

Sustainability also impacts senior care dining operations, including everything from ingredient selection to menus, themselves. Read on to learn how sustainable dining practices can benefit senior care communities and best practices to create an eco-friendly dining experience.

The Benefits of Sustainable Dining for Senior Care

Chef Ryan Forte, Carolina Farm Trust

Embracing sustainability helps make a senior care community’s operations more eco-friendly. But there are other advantages, too. Chef Ryan Forte of Carolina Farm Trust plays an integral role in the organization’s mission to champion shared local food systems, build equitable access to food, and improve the collective health of our bodies and the environment. “Leading with sustainability leads to savings, efficiency, waste management, healthier living, and improving the community,” he explains.

Additionally, embracing sustainability can become a key pillar of a community’s culture. Implementing sustainable practices in dining and other operations can make a compelling addition to a community’s marketing materials. Communities may attract residents who value sustainability, themselves, and who seek a community that supports those values.

Sustainable Dining Practices in Senior Care

Implementing sustainable practices in senior care dining can take many forms, from sourcing local ingredients to reducing food waste. Sustainable dining approaches can be tailored to each facility’s unique needs and capabilities. Both small steps and major initiatives can contribute to more sustainable dining outcomes.

Digital Menus

Senior care communities can reduce paper waste and streamline dining operations by adopting digital menu planning and meal ordering systems. “Digital solutions can be transformative for both the environment and the dining experience of residents,” says Gabrielle Yap of Carnivore Style. Yap, who earned a Culinary Entrepreneurship degree with a summa cum laude distinction from the University of Santo Tomas, notes that dining operations can pose paper use challenges for senior care communities. “The need to constantly update menus due to dietary restrictions has historically led to a lot of paper waste,” she says. She notes that digital menus are a practical solution. “They allow for instant updates, easy access to allergen information, and can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in paper costs over time.

Gabrielle Yap, Carnivore Style

“Digital kitchens take sustainability to the next level,” she explains. “Imagine being able to tweak recipes and portion sizes in real-time, based on what residents are most drawn to, what reduces food waste, and ensures everyone gets the appropriate portion sizes. This approach not only minimizes waste but also cuts down on the environmental impact, which is a significant win for both our community and the planet.”

Digital menus are also more convenient for residents. They can be equipped with larger fonts and even photos of dishes, making them more user-friendly for residents with vision limitations. Digital menus can be translated into different languages, ideal for diverse communities, and they can also be interactive, allowing residents to learn more about the ingredients and nutritional value in each dish.

Ingredient and Dish Selection

In addition to upgrading the physical menus, communities can also make sustainable choices with the dishes they include on their menus. “You can’t go wrong when you purchase vegetables and produce from local farmers and farmers markets,” says Forte. “Supporting local food systems is good for the people, planet, and prosperity.”

Eco-Friendly Cooking Methods

Using eco-friendly cooking methods, which have a smaller carbon footprint, helps make senior care dining practices more eco-friendly. “A good way to approach eco-friendly cooking is to know your meal count, having future projections of the meals you will need to prepare and cook, and having an understanding when the senior care community you serve enjoys eating so you only cook when it’s needed,” explains Forte. This approach means that the stove, oven, and other equipment don’t have to constantly run. “Having projections and knowing what you will prepare ahead of time will allow you to pull items early and thaw from a cooler instead of placing the frozen food under running water or thaw cabinet,” adds Forte.

Certain cooking methods are more environmentally friendly than others. Yap notes that while traditional large-batch cooking can result in food waste, sous vide cooking, where food is cooked in a precisely controlled water bath, is an alternative. “This method ensures consistently perfect meals every time, minimizing the risk of overcooked or bland dishes that are often discarded,” she says. Sous vide can also help retain nutrients, supporting resident health.

Yap also supports the use of convection ovens. “These ovens circulate hot air more efficiently, leading to faster cooking times and lower energy consumption,” she says. “They’re ideal for preparing batch-cooked, healthy dishes like roasted vegetables or lean proteins, all while helping to keep utility bills low.”

Steps Toward Sustainability

Sustainable dining practices can be implemented gradually, ensuring a smooth transition that doesn’t overwhelm staff or residents. An initial step could be selecting eco-friendly to-go containers and disposables, which can have a noticeable impact on reducing waste. Additionally, focusing on food choices is a fundamental aspect of sustainability. “Shop local, utilize your buying power and eating power to help local communities,” says Forte. “[Use] less frozen and premade food.”

By choosing fresh, locally sourced produce over frozen or premade options, communities can not only reduce their carbon footprint but also provide healthier and more nutritious meals for residents. Embracing sustainable dining practices can ultimately create a more environmentally conscious and health-oriented dining experience that benefits the whole community.

Paige Cerulli

Paige Cerulli is a contributing writer to i Advance Senior Care.