By the end of 2022, Jilin Province will include the construction of community canteens for the elderly in the provincial government, and by the end of the year, 136 community canteens for the elderly will be built in the province, 549 community canteens for the elderly in the province will be built in 2023, and 1,300 restaurants and meals will be built and renovated in the province in 2024...... Since 2022, all parts of the province have actively explored and promoted the construction of community canteens to improve the problem of "difficulty in eating" for the elderly.
"There are many kinds of dishes here, delicious, clean and hygienic, and the environment is very good, I come here every day to eat!" At 11 a.m. on April 26, many elderly people began to eat in the Guangming Community Restaurant for the Elderly. There are a variety of rich dishes in the buffet area, and an aunt introduces them to the aunt next to her while putting vegetables on the plate. The cashier, who was busy, told reporters that from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., the daily traffic of the restaurant was about 200 people, of which 60% were elderly and 40% were young.
Since its establishment in early August 2022, Guangming Community Restaurant for the Elderly has been known for its popularity and good reputation. Talking about the operation of the restaurant, manager Liu Yang bluntly said that the operation is relatively stable, but the profit is meager and the benefits are not optimistic.
As a community canteen for the elderly, the passenger flow of 200 people is not small, why the profit is meager? Liu Yang calculated an account for the reporter: the restaurant charges by age ladder: 11 yuan for the elderly aged 60-69, 10 yuan for the elderly aged 70-89, free for the elderly over 90 years old, and 13 yuan for each person under the age of 60. Aside from the community to provide venues and water and electricity bills, the operating costs of the restaurant include labor, dish expenses, one-time consumables, etc., on average, the cost of each meal is at least 10 yuan, that is to say, the 10 yuan meal for the elderly over 70 years old is the cost price of the meal, and there is no profit margin. The proportion of elderly passengers is 60%, which means that it is difficult to support the operation with the profit income of only 40% of young passengers.
In 2022, Changchun City will build a number of community canteens for the elderly on a large scale, but some canteens have "died" one after another, and it is not easy to achieve sustainable operation for community canteens. So, how do you solve this dilemma?
"First of all, we need policy subsidies and support. In Liu Yang's understanding, restaurants for the elderly need to take into account public welfare and sustainability, and one of the underlying supports for their operation is policy.
When the reporter flipped through the relevant information, he learned that taking Beijing as an example, in March 2023, Beijing issued the "Implementation Opinions on Improving the Management Level of Elderly Care and Meal Assistance Services in Beijing", one of the highlights is to clearly refine the subsidy scheme at both ends of supply and demand: for the basic home-based elderly care service recipients who get lunch or dinner at the meal assistance point, a meal subsidy of 5 yuan per person per day will be given; The implementation of this policy provides a strong guarantee for the operation and development of local restaurants for the elderly.
"Restaurants for the elderly should carry out socialized operation under the attributes of public welfare, and the dilemma of limited profits can be alleviated to a certain extent in refined operation and management. Liu Yang believes that policy support plays an important role in the operation of restaurants for the elderly, but it is still a bottom line, and the specific operational benefits depend on their actual operation.
"We are facing several problems in the process of operation, first of all, the restaurant is located on the negative second floor of the community party and mass service center building, although it is located in the Chongqing business district, the location has a slight advantage, but because it is not a façade, so it directly affects the flow of customers; secondly, it is also because of the disadvantages of the negative second floor, we can only cook a meal from half past ten to two o'clock in the afternoon, before we explored to add breakfast and dinner, but found that the customer flow is too small, not enough to support the cost; third, in winter, the elderly group basically does not come out to eat, so the winter has been in a state of loss, last year the monthly loss of 20,000 yuan。 ”
There are many difficulties, but if you want to continue to operate, you have to find a solution: "As a restaurant, our first element is to do a good job, other restaurants for the elderly are generally 8-10 dishes, and we have nearly 40 kinds of meals every day, only the staple food has fried dumplings, dumplings, buns, steamed pumpkin, boiled sweet potatoes and other fourteen or fifteen kinds, every day there are sauce bones, pot wrapped meat, boiled meat and other dishes, and our ingredients are not semi-finished products, Prefabricated dishes, kitchen meat are fresh pork loin, at present, my family is the most abundant dishes in Changchun City's restaurant for the elderly; secondly, we have set up meals with 4 units in the jurisdiction, so that there is a fixed flow of customers; secondly, we promote online through community groups and launch activities from time to time, offline card charging discount promotions, and our service is also very meticulous and warm-hearted......" Liu Yang said that through a series of business activities, more and more people come to the restaurant to eat, and many employees of nearby shops are also coming to the restaurant, especially in the summer, when there are many customers, they can make up for the losses in the winter.
There are many dishes, good service, excellent environment, and the recognition of the people is the result of good management. Aunt Wang, a resident of the district, told reporters that she and her wife come here to eat every day, and the meals here are not only rich in style, but also clean, reassuring, and delicious, saving a lot of cooking troubles. And the elderly people who dine here have the same idea.
"The recognition of the residents is the most important thing for our community. The operation of the community restaurant for the elderly is relatively stable, which makes Liu Huayu, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangming Community, deeply gratified. Talking about the experience, she introduced that the community set up a restaurant for the elderly first after a large number of visits and research and judgment of the residents in the jurisdiction; in terms of business model, it is positioned as a public and private enterprise, and through the introduction of a third party, let professionals do professional things; although the community does not participate in the operation, it has been supervised and controlled, and a series of management mechanisms have been studied and formulated......
"The restaurant itself is a small profit, and if it is only open to the elderly, it will be very stressful for the operator. Liu Huayu said that for restaurants for the elderly, it is very important to increase diversified customer flow to improve operational efficiency. And how to increase the diversified passenger flow, we also need to win the consumer group with word of mouth.
For policy support, Liu Huayu has his own ideas: whether the elderly bus card can be used to swipe the card to eat in the listed restaurant for the elderly, whether the elderly service project purchased by the government can increase the dining service, whether it can provide meal subsidies to some elderly groups, etc., in her opinion, the more detailed the policy subsidy, the more promising the sustainable development of the restaurant for the elderly!
Produced by Jilin Daily
Author: Jilin Daily all-media reporter Wu Ming
Curator: Han Xuejie
Executive Editor-in-Chief: Yu Yue
Editor: Wu Ming