Congregate Extreme Make Over

Enhancing the Social Component of the Meal

Joseph M. Carlin, MS,RDAoA Regional Nutritionist

Boston, MA

4th State Units on Aging Nutritionists & Administrators Conference – August 2006

– More than a meal– modernizing the program– bringing meal program into the 21st-

century– updating facilities– extreme make-over

Pleasure

Sensory/Physical

Social EmotionalIntellectual/Discovery

Sensory/Physical

Staff and volunteers

Environment

Atmosphere

The goal is to create a meal site that is distinctive, memorable and perceived as something of value.

Example

The complex interaction between staff, the physical environment and the meal site’s sensory atmosphere must meet the expectations of all participants if they are going to:

• Have a pleasurable experience

• Come back

Social

Pleasure derived from one’s interactions with others.

“Social relationships, or the relative lack thereof, constitute a major risk factor for health.” -- Science

Social Pleasure outranks all other pleasures

• Any extreme makeover of meal sites must include an investment of time and energy to develop best practices that emphasize the social pleasure to be derived from the meal experience.

Emotional

• Pleasure borne of feelings, ideas, or mental images

Intellectual

Pleasure derived from appreciating the complexity and subtleties of things.

– Communication with staff, volunteers and participants

– Mentally engaged by bulletin boards, signs, printed menus, newsletters, etc.

– Intellectually challenged by speakers, entertainment and education events.

• How many sites make it a routine practice to greet participants by name when they arrive?

• It isn’t only the participant that has a stake in deriving pleasure from the meal site experience.

• Staff and volunteers also want to derive pleasure from their activities.

Where to begin?

• Interview staff and volunteers about what elements (atmosphere/environment) that can be modified or enhanced to improve the pleasure of working at the meal site.

• Interview participants

• Visit sites that have been identified as models.

• Le Bel, Jordan, From Customer Value to Engineering Pleasurable Experiences. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Adm. Quarterly, Oct-Dec, 2003.

• Le Bel, J. Beyond the Friendly Skies. Managing Service Quality. Vol. 15(5): 2005.

• Dube, Laurette & J. L. Le Bel. Affect Asymmetry and Comfort Food Consumption. Physiology & Behavior. 86(2005).

Enjoy the conference