Imagine you are one week into the worst food-borne illness outbreak of your career. You work tirelessly in your senior living community as a Foodservice Director to prevent this exact nightmare from happening. And because you have been properly trained in sanitation and food safety you are aware seniors are most at risk. Seventy-five of your residents are sick, quarantined in their rooms, living on several different floors, now being continuously disinfected, requiring room service. Ten staff are sick and quarantined at home. The dining room has been closed temporarily because the salad bar is under suspicion for being the vehicle of the spread. Every available employee and volunteer received a quick refresher course in food safety, sanitation, hand washing, kindness and putting their best self forward to deliver meals to the sick and well residents, helping you and your team overcome this outbreak. You are confident “This too shall pass.”
Although so much is yet unknown about the Coronavirus currently, its management and prevention are like previously recognized viral outbreaks such as Norovirus. You may have heard of it, made famous by ruining cruise ship vacations. Although Coronavirus is transmitted and symptomatic in a few different ways than Norovirus, I am encouraged to report your food service staff and serving teams who have been properly trained in sanitation and food safety can be a calming force of leaders in this situation. Because they have been trained.
As I point out in the video above, our continued focus regarding dining and managing life with Coronavirus, is to not forget our humanity in the moment. We never really know what each other faces in our lives behind the scenes, and what warms our hearts and keeps us encouraged to fight another day are the small moments of courage and kindness as we reach out to one another. We can do that with a warm greeting, a moment of patience, the camaraderie of pulling together to help deliver a tray and not expect anything in return, or replace a forgotten condiment, or deliver a kind word, such as Thank you.
.What have you tried in your community? Let us know and we’ll share what other communities are doing. Just click on the name below to email us with suggestions or questions related to any of what Cindy has shared.
Coach Barbara