A conversation with Brandermill Woods in Richmond VA on what changes when a dining team has a stake in the outcome.
Charmaine Preiss has been in the senior living and active adult industry for over 23 years. She’s currently the Executive Director of Brandermill Woods, a senior living community spanning independent living, assisted living, memory care, healthcare and rehab. “Our dining touches every resident every day,” she said. “It is part of their experience here, part of their living here.” Food, she added, is never a nice extra in a community like hers: “it is very important to our residents, especially for their health. Keeping them healthy.”
That is exactly the equation Restaura built its ownership culture around. Senior living communities lose roughly 40% of their dining staff every year, the highest turnover of any role in the industry, and every departure costs a resident the server who knew exactly how they liked their coffee. Restaura’s solution, developed with Ownership Works, gives every associate, from kitchen staff to corporate leadership, a combined stake of more than 30% in the company. Real, lasting equity, not just a spot bonus tied to a good quarter.
“I feel like I get more support. Our dining director we had here previously was more of a ‘this is why we can’t do it.’ Whereas with Restaura I get more of a ‘let’s figure out how we can do it.’”
Charmaine watched that ownership change how her partner showed up. Her previous dining director’s instinct was to explain why something couldn’t be done; working with Restaura brought her a team that wanted to figure out how, and a hospitality director who “has the resources to call and say, okay, this is what she wants, how can we make this happen.” Restaura also retained 97% of Brandermill Woods’ existing staff through the transition, so residents kept the faces they already trusted while gaining a national culinary team behind them.
That backing shows up on the plate. Charmaine once worried what would happen if her single onsite chef was out sick for weeks with no one to call. Today, she has already noticed the difference in taste, quality, and presentation: “the purees are more presentable, more desirable… our residents are eating more because of that, because the food looks better.” Her goal for the partnership was consistency across every level of care, so a resident moving from independent living into assisted living or memory care “doesn’t see a difference” at the table: “It’s hard enough to transition a move like that mentally. We don’t have to add to the stress with the food being terrible.”
“I think the one thing we learned is patience: trust the process and trust the partnership.”
Asked what she would tell another senior living leader considering the same change, Charmaine didn’t hesitate.
Charmaine’s experience shows why Restaura built ownership culture the way it did. Culinary excellence, an engaged and accountable team, and the technology that helps that team act on what residents need all run on the same engine: people who have a real stake in the outcome.
Hospitality, Reimagined