Wake Robin

Executive Chef Bill Lliff adding vegetable scraps to the power knot

We are all more aware of food waste these days and the need for composting rather than adding material to our landfills. When food scraps go to a landfill, the decomposition process produces methane which is much more harmful to the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. This in turn contributes to global warming.

The usual practice of composting places food scraps in a container and saving them until you have a batch to put into your own composter or have it picked up by a trash service. While it’s waiting around, food has a nasty habit of decomposing on its own, creating unpleasant odors and attracting unwanted pests. Then, it has to be moved somewhere else to be used in your garden or hauled away.

At the level of a commercial kitchen, disposing of uneaten food is an ongoing challenge. Wake Robin’s daily meal preparation requires hundreds of pounds of food – fruit salad, green salad, soup, animal protein, plant protein, and more. Some food can be re-purposed, such as using bones and vegetable trim to make flavorful stock. In the end, all unusable food waste becomes compost.

The Power Knot screen

 

We started looking for an alternative almost two years ago. After much discussion and research by the Climate Action Committee (a group of dedicated Wake Robin residents) and approval from the Town of Shelburne, we committed to purchase a Power Knot biodigester.

A biodigester is an automatic composting machine that disposes of food continuously. Think of it as a stainless-steel stomach in which microorganisms digest organic material. Water is injected into the machine to maintain the correct balance of microorganisms while they rapidly decompose the food waste and send it out as wastewater. A rotating arm inside the biodigester slowly churns the food waste to constantly mix the food, oxygen, and microorganisms. New food can be added at any time and the process continues. The only byproducts are carbon dioxide and water from a natural process that is carbon neutral.

The Power Knot is such a welcome addition to our main kitchen that we also put one in the Linden Health Center. Together, the biodigesters process 400 pounds of compost each week. Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle…you can even do it in the kitchen!

When you do your household cleaning, you probably don’t have anyone following along behind you, checking your work, gathering information, and filing a report. That sounds extreme but if you need to have cleanliness with accountability, you need to have a plan to do that.

At Wake Robin, our practices are very thorough. We have a group of people who set the standards for our housekeeping staff, and they also monitor those activities to be sure we’re meeting them. If you combine a well-rounded cleaning program with a regular audit, you can ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. We call these Cleanliness Audits, and this is how we do them.

The purpose of a cleaning audit is to maintain a clean and hygienic work environment for
staff, residents, and visitors. It helps to guard against infection and reduce the spread of germs and viruses. At the start, Tammy Latreille, Support Services Manager for Environmental Services, and David Mitchell, Quality Assurance Nurse, assessed where we were with our audit practices and what were the expectations. Then they made a plan for improvement.

The team also includes Dawn St. George and Ava Hasani, Support Services Coordinators for Environmental Services. David says he is the support person for the team, collecting the data, while Tammy, Dawn, and Ava are the deciders who determine our standards.

In 2018, we swapped our old pencil and paper system for the digital world of CompuClean, a software suite developed by the Spartan Chemical Company, our supplier of cleaning products. CompuClean records our data on a tablet crunches the numbers, and generates reports that show what we are doing well and which areas need improvement. The program sends an email detailing action items where follow-up is needed. The program is customized for Wake Robin, creating different audits and different schedules.

CompuClean records our data on a tablet crunches the numbers, and we get reports that show what we are doing well and what areas need improvement. The program sends an email detailing action items where follow-up is needed. The program is customized for Wake Robin, creating different audits and different schedules.

We create a task list specific to each space. For example, we’ll start with a random selection of three residences in the Linden Health Center. Add in the chart room, hallway, living room, and shower room. Now we begin the audit: How do the floors look? Is the area dusty? Are the high-touch areas clean? – telephones, door handles, and faucets. The audit team checks surfaces with ultraviolet light which causes bacteria and other materials to fluoresce – they glow in the dark! The usefulness of the audit is in checking something that has recently been cleaned. Some areas are audited monthly, and others are on a quarterly schedule. Our cleaning experts describe this as a continuous cycle: perform the cleaning tasks, do the audit, gather the data, communicate the results, and circle back later.

Another benefit of doing the audits is that besides the cleanliness checks, they also reveal other areas that need attention. Tammy says, “It makes you slow down and look at all the details.” The cleaning staff generate work orders for general maintenance needs they might notice. It might be a paint touch-up or tightening a handle.

David sums it up: “There’s a lot that’s good here. People should feel comfortable that there’s a lot of effort that goes into keeping this place clean. Overall, we do a really good job.”

We often hear visitors to Wake Robin remark on how clean it is. It’s nice to know our cleaning standards, practices, and audits contribute to a safe, welcoming environment.

Last month we told you about a new tradition at Wake Robin called the Trillium Trail. Named after our logo, the red trillium wildflower, it is a variation on the Honor Walk. When a resident is making the final journey out of Wake Robin, a specially designed quilt drapes the person as they leave the building. An announcement is made that a Trillium Trail is about to take place and anyone who wishes to take part gathers near the doorway of the Linden Health Center and forms a line in the hallway to pay their respects, bearing witness to a life and memories.

The newly designed custom quilt was created and constructed in-house by a number of volunteers, both staff and residents. The idea originated with our nursing staff with Morgan Dexter, R.N., and her mother, both accomplished quilters, leading the way. They were joined by Diane T., another quilter and Wake Robin resident, who became the point person for the project, and Jo H., quilter and resident, who donated materials.

The prep work was done in the Fiber Arts room where the experts first selected a color scheme from existing fabric, and then proceeded to the cutting, sewing, and pressing of the initial blocks. Once they had the process nailed down, Diane wrote up the directions, made kits, and put out a call for volunteers under the announcement “Would you like to make a block?” About 35 people came out to take part, some with no sewing experience, but all with a desire to contribute to this project. The final assembly and quilting were completed by Morgan and her mother on a longarm quilting machine.

A lot of hands and minds were involved with the Trillium Trail quilt. It is a nod to our shared human experience, a piece created out of love and respect. It is one more tradition that shapes community life at Wake Robin.