MAND March Board Member Spotlight: Toni Swanson

Briefly tell us about your day-to-day work: I assist with all aspects of nutrition care for all the campuses in Ecumen’s portfolio. I get to help with menu development for all therapeutic and textural diets. I educate and support the dining leaders in all aspects of nutrition, and kitchen safety/sanitation. I also make sure that our dining leaders understand and comply with licensing guidelines at the state and federal level. I do a lot with maintaining our current policies and helps establish new procedures for the organization. I also conduct in-service training for staff regarding nutrition and compliance.

Tell us about things you do that you find particularly interesting or motivating: I get to form relationships with many of the residents I work with. This is definitely motivating and something I love about my work.

What has surprised you about your work? How much I have loved working with older adults. I did not plan to stay in this area of work for my entire career, yet here I am. I truly think that I get to help the wisest people on our earth and it is truly and honor to serve them.

What trends are you seeing in your work? Younger and younger individuals are needing LTC and rehab. It has brought more critical cases to my practice. Also, working with the older adult population has also really shown me the negative effects from the way our country promotes convivence foods and a decrease in active lifestyles. A lot of the problems I see today could have been prevented through diet and exercise.