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Why good food is good marketing
While the clinical programming of a residential treatment facility is the most important factor for success, experts say good food can matter too. It’s one of the top factors potential clients consider when looking for treatment.
The therapeutic value of food is an aspect of treatment that can easily get overlooked, but those facilities that have invested the time and resources into developing high quality nutrition programs say it’s a worthwhile investment that not only models healthy behavior for patients but also benefits the facility itself by improving staff retention and recruitment.
Facilities can make simple changes such as incorporating more local produce or preparing more items from scratch to enhance the quality of the day’s menu. With a little planning, many choices also could result in cost savings along the way.
“There’s really no downside to giving your clients better quality, local produce,” says Constance Scharff, PhD, a senior addiction research fellow and director of addiction research at Cliffside Malibu in California.
Good for the patient
Cliffside Malibu has made a concerted effort to offer its residential clients high-quality, organic food made fresh by a professional chef each day because it’s what many of their high-end clients have come to expect. Also it’s in the best interests of the residents’ health and the facility’s marketability.
In fact, the Cliffside website includes photos of a buffet meal served on white rectangular dishes in a large room with lots of windows and natural light.
A balance of good food not only helps residents recover from what was mostly likely a poor nutritional state when they arrived at treatment, but also allows them to be more alert during the day, according to experts. However, patient preference is also a factor. No one wants to eat kale at every meal, for example, regardless of how healthful it might be.
“We want to convey proactively what healthy eating is, what balanced eating is and what that looks like in a way that doesn’t become stagnant,” says Brian Coon, director of clinical programs for Pavillon, a residential treatment facility located in North Carolina.
Pavillon’s in-house executive chef, Bryan Kilby, develops weekly seasonal menus that focus on flavor and texture variety as well as patient choice. He’s featured on the facility website, pictured in front of a large salad bar full of fresh options.
Scharff says providing an atmosphere that is comfortable for the patient—including offering food that’s well prepared—also gives patients fewer reasons to leave treatment before they’re clinically ready to move on.
Tim Dies, sous chef at Cumberland Heights in Nashville, says having quality food can also be a bright spot in the day for patients when they are doing the hard work necessary to recover.
“It’s something to look forward to,” he says.
Good for the facility
Marketing a specialized menu of offerings matters because the comfort of excellent food can be a differentiator for potential clients and their families. It’s often asked about by concerned family members who want to ensure their loved ones are well cared for. In marketing, good food can be a litmus test for the quality of the facility overall.
“Clinical programs want to talk about the clinical service, but a lot of times family members, referral sources or patients want to hear about food so it’s something that’s important to not overlook as an organization,” Coon says.
Dies says he believes Cumberland Height’s reputation for having good food has helped attract many of its clients. Likewise former patients talk about their culinary experience while in treatment.
Kilby says having a good nutrition program is often particularly important to parents.
“If patients come with their families and do a tour of Pavillon, they always make sure and stop by and talk to me because food is a big concern,” he says.
Providing a well thought nutrition program during treatment can also help set patients up to live a successful, healthy lifestyle once they leave the facility. Scharff says she credits the facility’s high recovery rate in part to the work the center does during treatment to prepare patients to make food choices once they leave treatment. The center claims a 70% recovery rate one year after treatment.
“It’s about creating a lifestyle where patients are going to have those moments of pause and think it through,” she says.
Marketing the food options a facility offers can be done by word of mouth, but treatment center experts say it’s also important to highlight the program on the facility’s website and marketing materials.
“We need to feature that just as strongly as our clinical and other services. While the techniques to do that seem basic, it might be too easy to forget. Even if you just add it in to the other bullet points and feature it as part of what you do, that can make a difference,” Coon says.
Ways to improve a program
Many residential facilities might opt for bulk, prepared food items for convenience and economy, but those that put resources into their food offerings believe adding more fresh, local options could save money in the long run. Consider net cost, including the ability to improve staff retention and patient satisfaction.
Scharff recommends seeking local farmers, butchers and other distributors to increase the amount of fresh food that has spent less time in transport. Farmers markets and cooperatives can be great sources of meat and produce. Even freezing seasonal fruit for use later in the year can be better than prepackaged frozen fruit that might contain added sugar or preservatives.
“Price it out. You are going to find that if you go local and create a seasonal menu and you have built relationships with food distributors and local farmers, you are going to spend less than you do with big-box food choices or prepackaged ‘whatever,’” she says.
Seasonal produce is a featured aspect of Kilby’s program. He assembles a new menu every Friday for the week ahead based on the season and what kinds of produce are readily available.
“If you are experienced enough and really know what you are looking for seasonally, you can still be budget-minded and do it the right way,” he says. “Planning the menu week to week affords me the ability to do that.”
Scharff believes moving away from the use of prepared food items could also increase job satisfaction for those who are part of the kitchen staff. She says facilities don’t necessarily need to hire an award-winning chef but should look for cooks who can handle fresh preparation such as slicing vegetables.
For instance, she says it will cost less for a facility to have the kitchen staff shape ground meat into hamburger patties than it does to buy prepackaged patties. Creating even a simple meal like this from scratch can be less monotonous for the staff when the kitchen is truly a kitchen and not a heat-and-eat cafeteria.
Dies says seeing patients enjoy the food he prepares has led to a high level of job satisfaction for him; he’s been at Cumberland Heights for 31 years. His workstation offers a large window with views outdoors as he cooks.
“I’ve really enjoyed working at Cumberland Heights,” Dies says. “The patients are the reason I am still there. All the positive feedback that I’ve gotten just makes it so much easier to walk through the door for the hard work that has to be done: We have three deadlines a day to prepare meals.”
The whole team
In addition to using local produce and fresh food items, Coon says the development of a nutrition program should also be a multidisciplinary process designed among the staff to make sure all aspects of the program are working in concert with the organization’s goals.
“Have, for example, the medical director, clinical director and executive chef on the same page around the meaning and planning of nutrition,” he says. “Everything else we do is done from a team or multidisciplinary perspective, so if a program is looking to improve around nutrition and meal planning, I think that exploration and decision making process is best done in a multidisciplinary sense.”
Likewise, having a kitchen staff that’s friendly, approachable, addressing the patients by name, can help communicate the holistic care priorities of the facility.
“When patients come in the first day that we meet them, we remember their names from that day forward. The weight that that carries with the patient is pretty incredible,” Kilby says. “It really makes them feel like they are at home and gives them that level of comfort that they are really cared for.”
Jill Sederstrom is a freelance writer based in Kansas.
On the Menu
High quality food rich in variety and flavor can be a useful marketing tool to attract new patients. Here’s what several residential treatment centers are serving up on their menu:
· Cliffside Malibu: This high-end residential facility serves three meals a day in a buffet style. The chef opts for organic items whenever possible and incorporates simple recipes that model healthy cooking habits that clients can use once they leave treatment. Cliffside Malibu also accommodates special dietary restrictions such as kosher, vegetarian or raw options.
· Cumberland Heights: The Tennessee-based residential facility serves three hot meals a day to residents in a buffet style. Breakfast typically includes scrambled eggs, bacon, turkey sausage, oatmeal, cereal and fresh fruit. For lunch, clients can choose from a full salad bar, soup station or hot food line. At dinner, they have several options in the hot food line or the full salad bar. Sous chef Tim Dies says the facility prides itself on offering a variety of choices at every meal--whether it’s multiple types of protein, a fully stocked sandwich bar or 11 different kinds of hot sauce. They also have a smoker onsite and will serve what Dies calls “world class ribs.”
· Pavillon: Executive Chef Bryan Kilby writes out a new menu each week for residents staying at this North Carolina-based center. The seasonal menus use fresh produce and are served in a buffet style. Kilby says he tries not to make the same meal twice during a six-week period so that clients are always getting variety. For lunch and dinner, residents can choose items from the hot food bar or full salad bar. All items are made fresh in house, including the chicken salad, a regular staple at Pavillon.
