Weinberg Village overhauls meal services.

A 75-bed assisted living facility housed on the campus of the Tampa (Florida) Jewish Community Center (JCC), the Weinberg Village has improved food quality and service while saving money.

"I found the residents very dissatisfied with the service as well as the quality and temperature of the food we were serving, so I made resident satisfaction my primary focus," Robert L. Brown, food service director and executive chef, told FoodService Director magazine.

The main kitchen is located in the adjoining community center, and when Weinberg was first opened, residents were required to take all meals there. It was quite a walk for the residents to make, and with all the other activities going on there, it just wasn't working out," Brown explains.

In recent years, a dining room was built on the second floor of Weinberg Village, to bring meals closer to where patients live, and a small satellite kitchen added. The food was prepared in bulk in the main kitchen and delivered to Weinberg.

"However, the satellite kitchen was so small that we could fit only one cook in there to plate the food," Brown says. "It took him an hour to get all the meals plated and delivered to the dining room, and by that time, the food temperatures were inconsistent and the quality substandard," It was also difficult to add alternative selections to the menu.