Senior Living Operators Meet Evolving Resident Culinary Preferences With New Tech Investments

Learn the latest dining trends during the Senior Housing News DISHED Sept. 3-4 in Atlanta, Georgia. DISHED brings together operators, owners, culinary staff and directors to discuss their strategies and challenges and brainstorm solutions to innovate their operations. To register for this event, visit the link here.

In the last few years, senior living operators have built sophisticated tech suites in an effort to appeal to a new generation and become more efficient. Now, they are serving up those innovations in dining. 

Operators are slowly investing in new technologies for kitchens and dining operations in order to further streamline operations and enhance consistency for kitchen workers.

Some companies, such as Vero Beach, Florida-based Harbor Retirement Associates are using a combination of newly upgraded point-of-sales systems and food management systems. Others, such as New Holland, Pennsylvania-based Garden Spot Communities, are investing in new equipment to help staff of any skill level produce higher quality and more consistent meals.

“The idea is that you zero in and have a highly skilled shelf chef that’s developing recipes and protocols, and then those get fed into some of the equipment that the staff cooks will be using, and it makes it a little bit more foolproof,” Steve Lindsey, CEO of Garden Spot, told Senior Housing News. “They’re able to get some of those high quality results, even if they aren’t quite as skilled a chef as the person who originated the recipe.”

Des Moines, Iowa-based Life Care Services is another operator bringing new tech to bear in its dining programs. The company is this year rolling out programmable combination ovens, which can be programmed to cook recipes to certain specifications with less effort from kitchen staff. The company is in the process of bringing these pieces of equipment to its owned and managed communities, according to John Pietrangelo, vice president of food and beverage for LCS.

And operators such as HRA are beginning to look into ways AI programming can further streamline dining operations, according to Anthony Polito, vice president of hospitality.

“Ultimately, the goal is to create a seamless and enjoyable dining experience that caters to the specific needs of our residents while improving operational excellence,” Polito told Senior Housing News.

Increasing investments in dining tech

Operators are taking varying strategies with which to invest in the technology they are using. St. Louis Park, Minnesota-based Lifespark is among those looking to “really step up” its investments in new tech in 2025 and beyond, according to Joshua Ordorff, culinary operations manager. 

Lifespark is seeking to enhance its menu ordering software and is encouraging servers to use connected tablets that can take resident orders and wirelessly relay them to the kitchen. The simple act of not having to run a paper ticket back to the kitchen also allows staff to spend more time with the residents they are serving.

“It’s seamless,” Ordorff said. “The servers are not rushed, and they’re able to spend more time with the residents taking a thorough order.”

HRA is changing to its software programs and kitchen management systems without significantly increasing its dining service. To help keep costs down, Polito said the company works with vendor partners that expand its technology offerings.

Other operators are also investing in tech to aid with staffing. LCS uses online ordering and serving robots that run food from the kitchen to a resident’s table. The operator also is using digital temperature control systems that can record internal temperatures and upload that information to the cloud for later use.

“We’re taking away the redundancy of work that really doesn’t have an impact on the resident experience and allow our people to actually be more active with time and with residents,” Pietrangelo said. 

Garden Spot has revamped its online ordering software in a similar manner. The organization also is planning out the next two years of its tech investments.

New uses for AI and robots in dining

The future of senior living tech is user-friendly, customizable and rich with real-time data. And as is the case in other areas of senior living operations, AI is a growing part of operators’ tech stacks.

HRA and Polito believe the future lies in interfaces that are easier to use, personalized resident meal options based on nutritional tracking and order management automation.

As data analytics programs become more prevalent, he believes that will allow operators to make more informed decisions based on resident preferences and dietary needs. And dining already is a major draw for senior living prospects, meaning it should be an area of focus in future investments.

“This includes the use of AI for meal personalization, automized ordering table side by using personal smart devices, touch-screen walk-up kiosk ordering opportunities, robotic assistance for service efficiencies, virtual reality for dining environment simulations and programming and smart kitchen technologies that promote operational efficiency,” Polito said.

Pietrangelo’s vision of the senior living tech future is full of ghost kitchens with robotic chefs that offer 24-hours-a-day service to staff and residents. LCS is looking to test the concept in at least one of its communities in the near future as well. 

The challenge for operators is that residents are bringing with them the things they enjoyed in their lives before moving into senior housing. That’s why Garden Spot and Lindsey see things like simple-to-use kiosks that automatically bill resident accounts and ghost kitchens as the wave of the future.

“They want to have a variety of different ethnic foods and different experiences at different price points,” Lindsey said. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see ghost kitchens pop up on our campuses where we can produce a wide variety of food in a reasonable time frame and at a cost effective price point, but hitting different target markets on our campuses.”

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