A day in the life in Food & Beverage – since March 12th!

April 13, 2020 - Norine Mulry, Director of Food and Beverage | Staff | Community


There has been a tremendous amount of change to our operations post Covid-19 – and I have been SO impressed at how our community continually rises to the challenge of adapting. I was thinking about the timeline of events, and what has happened since making the decision to close the restaurants to dining-in on Friday, March 13th….

  1. Originally, we intended to offer our full Harvest Grill a la carte menu for delivery service. We quickly realized this could lead to major staffing shortages down the line. We still needed full staffing to fire off the menu and successfully deliver, and we wanted to maintain some staffing reserves should anyone get sick. So…
  2. In the span of a weekend, Chef Marty and crew devised a weekly menu very close to that offered in Madrona Grove. This allowed us some space to reduce staffing down, keep people on paid furlough at home, and have contingency staffing to call in if or when we need it. And residents seem to really be enjoying the menus!
  3. Tricia, our baker, also had to pivot at a moments notice, and adapt from making smaller amounts of lots of desserts, to large volumes of a few desserts. She quickly adapted, and we are fortunate to have cookies, brownies, and a nightly baker’s choice specialty dessert available with every meal. One note about the specialty dessert: if we tell you “it’s a surprise!” – that’s because it is! The selection changes as we run out of one dessert and move on to another – often within the same dinner service!
  4. Grocery stores continue to experience shortages, but we have been fortunate in Food & Beverage to work with reliable vendors that have been able to fulfill most of our orders (other than Salmon – twice….) Because of this, we’ve been able to stock more than 100 items for residents to choose from.

I have never been prouder to be a part of this community. It is really amazing to see how we all come together, residents and staff, to brainstorm and problem solve. Another change already in the pipeline is the requirement to wear masks, as soon as enough are available for all staff. To see how our residents have worked together to create masks for staff and for one another is such a great example of the teamwork we all bring to this community. I’m honored to be part of a team that navigates these changes together.