And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon

Pathway Senior Living partners with Unidine to deliver sensational dining

As seen in US Business Review, Winter 2010

Building a successful vendor partnership not only leads to the achievement of common goals, it helps to bring about a stronger, long-lasting relationship. Most importantly, if structured correctly, it enhances the customer experience resulting in increased satisfaction, increased profitability, or both. This is exactly what Pathway Senior Living is achieving through its partnership with Unidine Corporation.

Based in the Chicago area, Pathway is a developer, owner and operator of mixed-income assisted living communities. Since the company’s inception a decade ago, Pathway has handled food service in house, appointing one regional food service director to oversee the program. While that structure is an industry norm, Pathway quickly recognized that the structure was not scalable, was not cost effective, and ultimately, was not meeting the needs of residents.

“We were doing a good job, but we were not innovating and certainly would never be able to bring to bear the resources and competitive advantages that a company focused solely on dining services could deliver,” explains Aaron D’Costa, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development.”

A Seat at The Table

The company sought to outsource its food service operations to provide its 1000+ residents with better meal and services options, with the vendor constraint of doing so in a more cost effective manner. In examining a number of vendors, Unidine Corporation, a Massachusetts-based food and dining management services company, was selected based on a number of key factors.

“We felt they had a similar vision, values and entrepreneurial spirit, and their people just got it, said D’Costa. “They took the time to understand our business, they cared deeply for the seniors we serve, they shared our desire for environmentally sustainable practices, and from that, they demonstrated their expertise in ways that went far beyond our expectations.”

Unidine focuses on providing food and dining management services to the health care sector, and had been seeking to enter the Chicago market. “The opportunity to partner with a well-respected senior living operator such as Pathway was an easy decision,” says President and CEO Richard Schenkel, of Unidine. “Their leaders are as passionate about exceeding customer expectations as we are about providing exceptional dining services. We knew we could deliver on the quality they were seeking. But they challenged us to go beyond our business model.”

Where’s The Beef?

Pathway’s Chief People Officer, Maria Oliva, who oversees all operations including food service, was the first to recognize the outsourcing opportunity. She leveraged the partnership to create a better value proposition for residents by challenging Unidine to give up their brand identity in favor of a Pathway-branded program. In collaboration with Unidine, Pathway branded the dining services program senseSations!™, basing it on the criteria of:

Taste – “The ultimate goal was to ensure that residents felt the food tasted better and then they would, in turn, eat better,” Oliva explains.
Smell – The program encourages the use of natural ingredients, herbs and spices for a just-like-home aroma.
Sight – Servers wear aproned uniforms and use table settings that communicate a fine dining experience.
Hearing and Touch – The program included adding a liveliness and elements of interactivity to the dining experience with carving stations, special events and unique touches from customer-centric waitstaff.

“If we can help residents eat better, make healthier food choices and truly enjoy their dining experience, maybe we can start helping them move off of certain medications – perhaps help them live longer,” Oliva said.

Check, Please!

Pathway found that the necessary in-house infrastructure was not something it could cost-effectively manage. However, by thinking outside the box and partnering with a national food service company with proven systems, standards, efficiencies and purchasing power, Pathway could actually enhance its food service program at no additional cost to their operations.