Nutrition Benefits at Senior Living Communities

At UMH communities, meal time is not just a time to eat.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner are major highlights in the day!  These are times when residents gather together to eat and visit with other residents and staff.  Our dining areas are designed to be conducive for conversation and easy to navigate around.  Our menus are planned using input from our residents and staff.  We encourage residents to complete food comment cards and speak with any of our food service staff to share any compliments or concerns they have. 

Food Sampling Activities

Food sampling activities help to guide our culinary staff as they craft a menu that changes throughout the year according to the season.  Each community has a menu that is unique to their residents’ preferences.  There is no corporate dining program imposed upon our residents.  UMH recognizes that each property is made up of individuals who have preferences that may be particular to their heritage or geographic location and respects that fact. 

Registered Dietician

A Registered Dietician reviews all menus to make sure they are nutritionally balanced.  But that doesn’t mean residents are limited to those offerings.  Healthy and nurturing options (aka comfort foods) are always available.  As all meals are prepared in our kitchen, residents have the opportunity to make requests for modifications.  Therapeutic diets are also available.  One rule we have is that if our chefs wouldn’t be willing to eat something on a modified diet, we would never expect our residents to do so.  All food must appeal to our senses of smell, taste, touch and sight.  Meal presentation is important.  The balance must be right before we will serve it to our residents. 

Nutritional Variety

We fully understand that sometimes our residents are just not in the mood for what we are serving.  How often does that happen to you?  You have a craving for something a little different.  We offer a large variety of alternatives including hamburgers and cheeseburgers, baked chicken or fish, spaghetti and meatballs, omelets, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or other regular requests from residents.  We also encourage residents to share their special recipes with us and ask for their requests on important dates such as birthdays and anniversaries.  Be sure to ask about how we create a unique dining experience for our residents when you inquire at one of our communities.

Learn More

If you would like to learn more about what our United Methodist Homes communities offer please contact us or visit our website for more information!