There are many other dietary employees in the department including cooks, dietary aides, cold prep people and a baker.  The dietary department is responsible for putting out three nutritious meals plus nourishments for 129 residents on a daily basis.  They also provide employee meal trays which are purchased for the lunch and supper meals.  Some days as many as 65 employee trays are served.  The dietary department prepares over 17,000 meals a month which means over 205,000 meals a year.

There are two four-week cycle menus, the spring-summer menu cycle and the fall-winter menu cycle.  These menus are broken down into daily spread sheets which include all the therapeutic and mechanically altered diets used in the facility,stating items needed for compliance with each diet.  Substitutions are available for residents who do not like what is on the regular menu each day.  The dietary department also takes care to provide nourishing snacks for those residents whose diets require it or who request it.  There is a full time baker on staff that prepares many home-made desserts, rolls, sweet breads,cookies,etc. to make the menus complete.

Special meals are provided for holidays, ethnic days, special parties and events and picnic days.  During the spring-summer menu cycle, we grill out on a weekly basis in the resident pavilion area.  The facility recently purchased a commercial size grill and residents are welcome to come and watch and enjoy the grilling out.

Making dining fun and enjoyable for the residents is one of our goals along with meeting theraputic and nutritional needs.