(Photo courtesy of Experience Senior Living.)
Denver-based Experienced Senior Living’s new brand, the Reserve Collection, is set to launch early next year with plans to offer a menu of certified organic vegetables, proteins and certain beverages, the company said.
Three locations are under development: The Reserve at Lone Tree in Denver; The Reserve at Strathmore Square in Bethesda, MD; and The Reserve at Falls Church in Falls Church, VA. Additional properties are in the pipeline, ESL President Phill Barklow told the McKnight’s Business Daily. The communities will offer independent living, assisted living and memory care.
Many prospective residents have signed up already and have paid a non-refundable community fee because of the nature of the company’s dedication to organic and culinary experience, Barklow said.
“We’re a Colorado-based company, and Colorado is the healthiest state in the nation and has been for quite some time,” he said. “And so we were starting to hear more and more questions around the kind of culinary experience for prospective residents in our communities across the country.”
Specifically, Barklow said, with the new brand coming online, he has been fielding questions about food offerings. “Are you going to have gluten-free options, vegan options, organic options, wild-caught fish and farm-raised, grass-fed, grass-finished beef and eggs and all that?” he said, describing the queries.
The questions come up more frequently, Barklow said, as the senior living industry prepares for the onslaught of baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — who are looking for healthier food options.
“Cleaner foods lead to a cleaner bill of health,” ESL Vice President President of Culinary Experience Chef Greg Sever said in a statement. “We take pride in sourcing the finest ingredients, ensuring that every meal served at our Reserve communities will sustain the overall well-being of our residents.”
Barklow said the plan is to use locally sourced foods as much as possible, noting, however, that some food choices, such as that citrus fruits, are difficult to buy in Colorado without importing them from out of state.
“Denver is no more than 15 to 20 minutes away from some of the greatest farms and ranchers and producers in the state, so it is relatively easy. We’re in discussions right now with several of those folks, so we can literally have a farm to table the same day,” he said.
In Barklow’s experience, the concept of serving all certified organic foods at the senior living communities is unique.
“I’ve traveled around the world in my 30 years of doing this, trying to find the best and the brightest senior living buildings and operators. I’ve never, ever heard of anybody doing this. There’s not one,” he said. “Honestly, the closest I saw was an Australian company that was doing something similar but was not committed to doing it fully organic.”
