Grove Menus

n 1994, Diane Fager, Registered Dietitian, along with her husband Vance started working in the assisted living industry. Vance had worked in the acute care industry as a Hospital Administrator and Corporate Vice President of a national Hospital and assisted living management company. Vance became a partner in a company which designed and franchised assisted living businesses nationally. Diane was asked to develop a menu system for assisted living facilities in over 12 states based on extensive research of all dietary regulation in each state. She started her dietary consulting business and in a short period of time had menu systems in over 300 facilities across the Western United States. After several years of learning to juggle and balance all of the elements of a quality menu program, Diane discovered that it was becoming more and more difficult to meet all of the needs of owners, operators, care staff, residents, and other customers with a 500 page hard copy manual that was not changeable. It was a good product she had developed, but it was not good enough. There had to be better options which would allow greater flexibility and choice, and make the job of preparing quality meals easier for the average care staff, and most importantly, meet the dietary preferences and needs of those sitting at the table.

Diane spent several years researching food preferences, food cost trends, and using her knowledge to create simple yet quality recipes and menus. She was determined to find a product that met all of her clients’ needs and would allow everyone to be happy. In 2008, she partnered with Richard Oldham to devise the better solution. The idea was a web based on-line computer system which would be interactive and dynamic. In 2009, Grove Menus was launched as a web based menu planning program.