The Gideon
I applied for the job on a whim. My previous job was food courier for the delivery company Instacart. This was from 2020–2024 but I believed it was time to move on and stop wasting money putting more and more maintenance on my car. So I got a call from The Gideon which would be my 1st interview in December 2024 and then a 2nd interview in January 2025. A week later another phone call arrived and I got the job, working in the kitchen, cleaning dishes, utensils, and glass. Not what I expected but a more humbling experience than my usual customer service experiences from previous employment. It’s still a job though.
The Gideon would be my new job site. I can’t disclose the original name or location due to privacy for the residents and staff. The workplace is at a senior apartment complex for the elderly body that are physically and mentally unable to care for their well-being. You could sum it up into 4 different categories.
Independent living. The option for seniors of distinctive floor plans and apartments offered for comfortable living options gives seniors to decide what services they’ll need, worry-free.
Assisted living. Extra assistance for medication, and day-to-day activities. Working with families to create customized care plans for support of unique needs and live life on their terms.
Respite care. The short-term solution for senior living. Uninterrupted care for a loved one, either a family caregiver that steps away or an individual needs assistance transitioning from hospital care to their home. The diverse range of daily care needs adjust to each person’s routine to match their current level of care.
Memory care. Care service for seniors with various related memory conditions like dementia, Alzheimer’s, or any other memory-related issues. Developed personalized care plans collaborating with families so that each individual’s needs are met. Such as daily activities, promote engagement, well-being, and fulfillment.
That’s what The Gideon provides, except I work in the kitchen, prepping the dishes. Hopefully, I’ll get into management down the road to apply my customer service experience. Cleaning dishes is a simple job. Prep the utensils for rinsing and washing, and set them up for the seniors during lunchtime and dinner. By the end of the night, I get slammed with everything to clean. Then when all servers go home, I and a few other kitchen staff clean our stations sweep, and mop, and then it’s lights out until the next day. Most servers appreciate that I work at a fast pace.
The simple job on the daily grind, however, there’s one issue I find troubling. As much as I clean and wash it bothers me to notice pounds and pounds of food and beverage thrown out. Wasted by the end of the day week. I can see the staff and chef’s subtle disgust on their faces. If there was The Gideon in other countries no food would go uneaten.
Reasons for pounds of food going uneaten is due to most senior’s health. The resident body cannot eat an entire meal. Even one example, an uneaten meal was thrown out due to the chicken being too spicy. Other instances of age-related changes that factor into the lack of food consumption, dehydration, food aversion, sensitivity to smell, or lack of routine. Other times their digestive systems contribute to a decline in most senior appetites to the inevitable of them passing away.
Most of the kitchen staff understand the reasons most seniors consume very small portions of their meals. As I talked with my co-workers I explained to them that even if you serve seniors small portions they’ll complain about where’s the rest, wanting more. Say you give them a regular meal, most a chance they’ll eat some portions and be done with what’s left on the plate the server will soon dispose of. It’s sad to see and not much I can do about it.
I clean my station by closing time scrubbing away I see cheesecakes untouched and about to be thrown away. I stopped for a moment as the server hands over the small plates. She knows how I feel about all that food. I just got back to work collecting the small plates. Then I stop. I asked the server to give me one of the cheesecakes before she threw them all out.
My station is cleaned, swept, and mopped. My usual time I finished 30 minutes early before my shift is over. Lights out as I head towards the break room. Downtime at play I wish I could tell management some way to donate all the food but my words would fall on deaf ears. Mostly just thoughts to myself. I eat the cheesecake with the taste of lemon. A good little dessert I finished in 10 minutes that was too good. I clock out and am ready for more food dumped again for tomorrow’s lunch and dinner on a whim.
