New Dining Options Unveiled at St. Lukes
The dining hall at St. Luke’s Home is a large, centrally located room where people gather to eat, sing around the piano, watch a movie on the big-screen television or just share a quiet conversation. Decorations in the room change regularly depending on the holiday, and all Elder birthdays are celebrated there with cake and Happy Birthday sung by all.
Walk through the large doors on the east wall and you enter a professionally operated and equipped kitchen with industrial-sized stoves, mixers, and a walk-in pantry, all overseen by Culinary Manager Melissa Hernandez. Melissa has been at St. Luke’s for three years, working her way up from server to prep cook, pantry to line cook. In short, she knows all aspects of feeding people well.
Over these years, she has closely observed what works and doesn’t work, and has surveyed the Elders to get their feedback. She cares deeply and sincerely about everyone in the community. “St. Luke’s is their home,” she said recently, “and I want to make their dining experience the best.”
In November, Melissa oversaw a major change to the kitchen operation that means a lot more choice for Elders.
For years, everyone ate the same food at the same time each day: 7:30 AM, Noon, 5 PM. Day after day, as if an imaginary general were in charge, the schedule ruled: 7:30, 12, 5; 7:30, 12, 5.
The lack of choice went beyond the time. All food was plated, set in front of each Elder arranged identically by food group. Trying to feed everyone at once, Melissa said, meant that too often the plates were served without a “good morning” or “welcome to dinner.”
And no one ever asked what Melissa calls, “the best and most important” question: “What would you like today?”
The uniformity did not match Melissa’s deeply caring and fully engaged style. She knows that food is memory, emotion, comfort and care. Her father was a chef and, during tough times in their family while Melissa was growing up, he encouraged Melissa’s love of the kitchen as a place of solace and hope.
“Food got me through so many tough times as I was growing up,” Melissa shared. “The kitchen saved me. My father pushed me into the kitchen, encouraged me to learn the business, and it saved me.”
Melissa has been in the business for 15 years, all of them spent in independent living facilities. Her father also advised her to add a business degree to her culinary credentials and she listened. “You know how to cook,” he often told her. “Learn the business side too.” She earned a degree in business from Brookline College.
Melissa weighed the input from the Elders, and went to St. Luke’s CEO L’Don Sawyer with the idea of infusing choice in Elders’ dining options. L’Don was fully supportive and made sure that the kitchen staff had the training and equipment necessary to implement the following:
- Expanded dining times with breakfast available anytime between 7-9 AM; lunch 11-1 and dinner 4-6;
- Food choices offered at every meal including “eggs your way,” heartier lunch options, lighter choices at dinner; fresh fruit cups, peanut butter and jelly, and omelets with a wide range of fillings.
- All meals cooked to order;
- Greetings offered at each meal by a service worker, talking directly to Elders, getting to know them and how they like their food prepared.
The changes have pleased the Elders and meant cost-savings for St. Luke’s. Melissa estimates St. Luke’s is saving about $3000 a month because there is no food waste. She added that the new system provides more flexibility that enables them to prepare special meals on special occasions.
In addition, Melissa is cross-training the staff so all the employees have experience inside the kitchen and serving the food. “That is the best way for all of us to connect with the people we are feeding. We get to know them, the way they like their eggs cooked. It all becomes much more personal, not like an assembly line.”
One other Melissa touch: there is always music and laughter in the kitchen.
“I cannot picture working without music,” Melissa shared, noting that the mood in the kitchen can impact how the food tastes. She feels certain that happy people make better tasting food, and thinks, just maybe, the music and laughter seep their way onto the plates of the Elders.