How One Senior Care Community Restructured its Approach to Dining

Dining is becoming a defining differentiator in senior care, pushing communities to rethink how food service fits into the overall resident experience. At Agemark Senior Living, a shift toward a hospitality-driven dining model transformed more than daily meals. It reshaped organizational culture, elevated resident satisfaction, and sparked the creation of a national culinary conference that continues to influence the company’s dining philosophy. The evolution offers a clear example of what can happen when a senior care provider takes a thoughtful, long-term approach to reimagining dining.

Read on to learn how a hospitality-driven mindset, strategic staffing, and a culture of innovation helped Agemark transform dining into a competitive advantage—and what other senior care communities can take from this approach.

Reexamining Dining Through a Hospitality Lens

Daniel Spicer, vice president of culinary services at Agemark Senior Living

Today’s senior living residents bring higher expectations to the table. They have traveled more, dined out more frequently, and developed stronger opinions about food quality, sustainability, and wellness. “These folks are much more traveled,” explains Daniel Spicer, vice president of culinary services at Agemark Senior Living. “They’ve spent 20 years with the Food Network, and they care about sustainability and farm-to-table. They care more about their health.”

As resident preferences shifted, Agemark leadership recognized the need to get ahead of the curve. Rather than reacting to dissatisfaction, the organization began reevaluating its traditionally structured dining program. When Spicer joined Agemark in 2022, that work accelerated, with a focus on moving away from an institutional model and toward one rooted in hospitality.

For years, dining in senior living had largely been treated as an unavoidable expense. “[Dining] has always been looked at like it was a cost center,” says Spicer. While necessary, it wasn’t always viewed as a strategic asset. Agemark’s ownership team, however, saw the potential return on investment and was willing to look beyond the upfront costs required to make meaningful change. “What we’re doing now will become the norm in senior living,” he says. “We’re being proactive.”

Technology and Staffing Changes Support the Shift

Technology has played a key role in supporting Agemark’s hospitality-focused dining experience. The organization uses digital tools to manage menus, recipes, and inventory, streamlining operations behind the scenes. In several communities, servers take orders on tablets, with kitchen teams relying on digital display screens to coordinate service. Residents who prefer to dine in their apartments can place room service orders through an app.

In one Omaha community, innovation even extends to a robot server. “It gives servers more time to spend in the dining room with residents, and they don’t have to haul away dirty dishes.,” says Spicer. The result is a more engaging, resident-centered dining experience.

The shift to hospitality-focused dining has also led to a shift in staffing approach. Prior experience in senior living is no longer a primary hiring criterion. “If they have, it’s not a deterrent, but if that’s the only background you have, you probably aren’t the right candidate,” says Spicer. Culinary skill and hospitality mindset take priority, with training focused on adapting those strengths to the senior living environment.

“We’re looking for people from the mainstream hospitality industry, or people who have worked in senior living organizations that have a high level of culinary offering,” says Spicer.

To attract those candidates, Agemark highlights benefits that are often hard to find in traditional hospitality roles. Competitive benefits and a healthier work-life balance are central to the pitch. “Everything that we love about the culinary and hospitality industries are there for us in senior living–we get to practice the craft we love–but the negative things like bad benefits and work-life balance? We leave that all out of the picture,” says Spicer. Structuring job postings to include these benefits can help attract quality candidates.

Building Culture Through the Agemark National Culinary Conference

Agemark’s commitment to dining excellence extends beyond daily operations. In 2022, the organization launched its first national culinary conference to align teams around a shared vision. “We started the conference to get everybody in together and to begin the process of sharing this broader vision of where the organization was going from a dining standpoint,” Spicer explains.

The conference has grown to become a key part of the organization’s culture. The annual event now blends training, collaboration, and friendly competition. Sessions focus on leadership development and fiscal responsibility, while culinary competitions challenge creativity and teamwork.

With 32 chefs across the organization, teams are intentionally composed to balance skill levels. During competitions, collaboration is key, with judges, including Spicer, circulating to ask participants about their concepts and techniques. The marketing team captures the energy of the event through photos and video, reinforcing its importance companywide.

While earlier conferences were held at Agemark’s corporate office, the most recent three-day event took place in Dallas, Texas. Staff were flown in to a venue with a large, fully equipped kitchen designed to support hands-on activities.

Cost remains the biggest challenge in running the conference. “It’s not cheap to fly 32 people around the country,” he says. The team manages the cost through disciplined budgeting and planning. “We have some strong partnerships with our vendors, and they’ll often sponsor some good portions of the conference,” he says. One distributor donated all of the food for the culinary competition, while another paid for hotel accomodations.

Planning for the conference begins years in advance. Preparation for the October 2026 conference is already underway, and staff have the dates blocked on their calendars.

Advice for Senior Care Communities Rethinking Dining

For senior care communities considering similar changes, clarity and leadership alignment are essential. “It has to be done from an organizational perspective,” he says. “It has to start from the very top of the organization.”

Resistance is inevitable, particularly early on. Consistent messaging from leadership helps ease the transition and reinforces long-term goals. Systems and staffing models should be addressed before details like menu changes. “Then you build the system to support it,” says Spicer. “Focus on those things first, then worry about things like the menu and food–that’s easy and secondary. It starts at the top.”

Paige Cerulli

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