Tips from Trestle: The Senior Living Food and Hospitality Podcast

Host Aaron Fish welcomes Jeff Webb, Senior Manager of Business Development at HealthTrust Performance Group, to explore how senior living operators can maximize GPO (Group Purchasing Organization) and food distributor partnerships to lower food costs and elevate dining programs. Jeff shares a real-world case where a multi-property operator cut food spend by nearly 6% through smarter, quality-first purchasing decisions, while transforming their menu into a restaurant-style experience. The two dispel the "middleman" myth, explain why salary-based GPO reps are incentivized purely to find savings, and dive into how tiered rebate structures work in practice. Listeners also get insight into texture-modified diets, Mediterranean diet menu trends, and dining-with-dementia strategies drawn from Jeff's personal caregiving experience. Perfect for dining directors, executive directors, and administrators evaluating whether a GPO partnership is right for their community — with no long-term contract required.

In this throwback episode, host Aaron Fish reunites with Shawn McGregor — Senior Executive Chef at Healthcare Services Group — to continue the conversation from their standout panel at the Florida Senior Living Association conference. Sean oversees culinary and systems training across more than 2,000 kitchens in 48 states, making him one of the most experienced culinary voices in senior care.
In this conversation, Aaron and Shawn cover: training dining staff with storytelling rather than just technique, the engagement power of showtime/live cooking demonstrations, how to navigate dietary restrictions using clinically-driven menus, why getting your chef out of the kitchen is a tour strategy, and the golden rule of underpromising and overdelivering on prospects. Whether you're an operator, a chef, a marketer, or a sales director — this episode is your dining room roadmap.
🎧 Subscribe on Spotify | Follow @tipsfromtrestle

What does a "yes until it's no" culture actually look like in long-term care? Aaron Fish sits down with Christy Norrish and Eric Anderson from Sherbrooke Community Centre (Saskatoon, SK) — recorded live at the Eden Alternative International Conference — to explore how their team creates unimaginable resident experiences: from water-skiing in a wheelchair to attending a Backstreet Boys concert. They cover the Eden Alternative philosophy, how to fight loneliness, helplessness, and boredom, community partnership strategies for zero-budget programming, resident-led recreation forums, and how to recharge as an activity professional. Perfect for activity directors, recreation therapists, executive directors, and anyone who believes life doesn't end when you move into long-term care.
Sponsors: Wisox AI | LINK Consulting | Dining with Dementia Workshop | The 100% Leader

In this episode of Tips From Trestle, host Aaron Fish welcomes author, educator, and dementia-care advocate Angela Brigance for a deep dive into the language of leadership in senior living. With more than 30 years of experience across home care, skilled nursing, assisted living, and memory care, Angela brings a unique blend of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) expertise and real-world operations know-how.
Angela explains why “don’t” statements fail our teams, how reframing “short-staffed” as “challenged” unlocks problem-solving, and what happens in the brain when we give clear, positive directions instead of vague corrections. She also shares a simple four-step phrase pattern—starting with “you’re right”—that can defuse upset residents and families while preserving trust in your caregivers.
Whether you lead a single community or an entire portfolio, this conversation will help you use intentional language to strengthen culture, improve the resident and family experience, and create more confident frontline leaders. Tune in to learn how changing a few words can completely change your outcomes in senior living food, hospitality, and care.
Tips from Trestle is sponsored by:
WiseOx: https://bit.ly/TFT_WiseOx
AdvantageTrust GPO: https://bit.ly/TFTAdvTrust
Dining With Dementia: https://bit.ly/TFT_DwD
100% Leader: https://bit.ly/TFT_100
#TFT515 #SeniorLiving #SeniorLivingLeadership #ElevateTheExperience #SeniorLivingLeadership #DementiaCare #NeuroLinguisticProgramming #LeadershipCommunication #IntentionalLanguage #SeniorLivingPros #MemoryCareMatters #HospitalityLeadership #CaregiverSupport #CultureOfCare #TeamEngagement #ResidentExperience #SeniorCareInnovation #LanguageOfLeadership #TipsFromTrestle #LongTermCare

What if your dining room was actually your most powerful sales tool? In Part 2 of our "flip the mic" episode, Kelsey gets Aaron to unpack why the industry's biggest missed opportunity isn't in marketing or technology — it's on the plate.
Aaron breaks down:
Why dining rooms should be run like restaurants (not "restaurant style")
How using hospitality can get a mid-sized operator a gain of nearly $2 Million in additonal revenues annually
Why memory care dining is the most neglected — and highest-impact — area in senior living
How standards actually elevate hospitality instead of killing it
The cap rate math that gets an increase of $1M in asset value
Whether you're an operator, investor, ED, or culinary director, this episode will permanently change how you think about the relationship between hospitality, revenue, and resident experience in senior living.
Keywords: senior living dining, memory care hospitality, senior living revenue, assisted living operations, hospitality standards, senior housing investment, dining with dementia, senior living leadership
#TFT515 #SeniorLiving #SeniorLivingLeadership #ElevateTheExperience #HospitalityInSeniorLiving #SeniorLivingOperators #ResidentExperience #AssistedLiving #AssetValuation #RevenueGeneration #SeniorHousing #FoodServiceLeadership #ThreeLeggedStool #DiningExperience #SeniorLivingConsulting #HospitalityLeadership #TipsFromTrestle