Senior living operators must get creative and bring new menus to the table as they refresh culinary programs to meet the demand for older adults.
Older adults are coming to communities with broadened tastes while desiring new flavors. But there’s a distinct balance that operators must find in providing the “staples” and “comfort foods” residents know and love with blending new flavors for new dishes in order to please residents from multiple generations.
“We feed a range of ages, from 65 to 90 and up, and the biggest difference that we see in some of our ‘super agers’ and new residents is seasonal food,” said The Springs Living Director of Food and Beverage Strategy Jake Johnson during the 2025 DISHED conference in Atlanta. “We’re trying to balance those two segments with comfort food and trendy lifestyle options—that’s our biggest challenge.”
Today and tomorrow’s senior living dining menus are becoming more personalized and flexible by blending international dishes with familiar favorites.
These changes have allowed operators to use their dining programs to connect more closely with residents through open-kitchens and more nimble menus that can change daily, weekly and change with the seasons throughout the year.
McMinnville, Oregon-based The Springs Living and Dallas, Texas-based The Sage Oak are two operators that are making shifts to how they develop menus for the next generation of senior living customers.
Customers of tomorrow ‘want to thrive, not just survive’
Central to leveraging a senior living dining program to its greatest potential is personalization and flexibility in menu design, allowing for rotating menus based on seasonal produce availability.
This flexibility is all in the name of helping residents improve their quality of life once they move into a community, demanding a new restaurant-style experience, according to Sage Oak Executive Chef Larry Atwater.
“Customers of tomorrow want to thrive, not just survive,” Atwater said during the 2025 DISHED conference in Atlanta. “They want interactive dining with that chef’s kiss and they want restaurant-quality food with a home-like feel, along with flexibility and personalization.”
By creating balance between classic dishes and new fare, Atwater said Sage Oak chefs look to take classic dishes and “elevate them” in order to pair familiarity with something new.
With Sage Oak’s small-home model with in-home kitchens, Sage Oak chefs prepare meals for residents while they look on, giving “immediate feedback.” This intimate setting allows Sage Oak to personalize menus, adhering to resident tastes or dietary restrictions.
Across communities for The Springs Living, chefs create their own menus working from a playbook to choose daily and weekly specials, along with the ability to make monthly changes based on seasonal availability for produce, emphasizing local ingredients when able, according to Johnson.
“We’re a chef-driven company and we don’t push down corporate menus,” Johnson said.
Both Atwater and Johnson said operators must consider making menus revolving around healthy, plant-forward options to improve quality of life for residents. Sage Oak communities rely on leafy greens, fresh vegetables and incorporating aspects of the Mediterranean diet for menu inspiration.
But another key element of menu development must be the design and vocabulary used in menus so residents get clear explanations of ingredients that will end up on their plates, Johnson stressed.
This push aims to reframe healthy eating as new options, able to offer meals ranging from grain bowls with a low-fat protein to a smashburger. Thus, they are able to offer meals that are either recognizable or a new experience.
Creating “wow moments” through dining, like hosting special dinner events or exclusive, small-ticket, multi-course meals can generate revenue and expand offerings for residents and their families, Johnson said.
“It gives you the opportunity to open the door to share different flavors that aren’t just meat and potatoes to the people who are eating that and vice versa,” Johnson said. “It’s a place to share and have community together and it helps bring that balance.”
For example, a community has a talented sushi chef, so leaders organized a pop-up sushi bar as a weekly event to bring new flavors to residents, Johnson said.
Challenges in hiring ‘right’ culinary teams, balancing costs
Senior living operators have spent recent years attempting to solve staffing challenges on retention, turnover and recruitment. While hiring is easier today, finding qualified candidates that fit a community’s mission and culture is still a challenge.
Senior living operators must allow culinary leaders to have flexibility in their spending, putting “quality first,” while remaining fiscally responsible, Atwater stressed.
Successful culinary teams in the coming years will build culinary systems that can be efficient in menu development, execution in front-of-house service and meal preparation without requiring additional staff, Johnson said.
“Identify what needs to change daily, weekly, monthly, and even quarterly, and really focus on the themes for each week or month,” Johnson said. “That focus helps guide operators and chefs and makes writing menus much more efficient.”
In the last two years, The Springs Living has opened two new properties, the most recent being a luxury waterfront property along the Vancouver River in Vancouver, Washington that has attracted a younger resident base between ages 68 to 72 to-date, Johnson said. In order to “level up” its dining program, the Springs Living hired two consultants to assist in branding and development of processes that could ensure future culinary success.
“If we hire right, we let the operating team manage the deliverables within the community and blend some innovation into that,” Johnson said.
Staff training is crucial when bringing longtime restaurant staff into a senior living environment to emphasize hospitality, both leaders said. Another important element in hiring is finding candidates that have personalities able to interact seamlessly with residents is important because culinary staff must get to know residents on a personal level, Atwater said.
“They need to have a personality where they’re interacting with residents and family members every day,” Atwater said. “Hands-on training is key to establishing the level of service that we offer.”
Looking ahead, Atwater said he thinks menus will be “completely personalized” with elevated comfort foods and international dishes by private chefs in an open kitchen format.
“It’s going to be about turning all those meals into memorable moments,” Atwater said.
In the future, Johnson sees operators building allergen-based menus, like gluten free menus or wheat-free menus and write menus that are “inclusive for everybody.”
The post Tastemakers: Why Senior Living Operators Must Evolve Menus appeared first on Senior Housing News.
