For more than 30 years, Bateman has provided healthy, nutritious meals for senior meal programs, including many Meals on Wheels organizations. Bateman also serves adult daycare, Head Start and summer lunch programs, prepares food for event catering, therapeutic meals and provides shelf-stable meals and disaster response nutrition across the country. According to Meals on Wheels America, 1 in 6 seniors struggles with hunger in the United States. In New York State alone, over 600,000 seniors are threatened by hunger. That’s why Chef Orton is making sure seniors in his community—Dutchess County, NY—get the nutrition they need and the delicious meals they love.
“It all starts with one,” he says. He teaches his culinary team to put the same care into getting a meal right for one person as they do for serving 50There are many organizations preparing meals for seniors, but what makes Bateman stand out is the quality of each meal and the care that goes into it. “For us,” Chef Orton says, “it’s more than a meal. The bread that I’m including with this meal has a name on it: Mrs. Johnson.”
It’s this sense of community—people serving people—that Chef Orton nurtures in many aspects of his work. He has helped launch a series of cooking demonstrations that teach seniors more nutritious ways to prepare the food they already love. Seniors love asking questions and watching how the food they eat is prepared, and it’s also an opportunity to come out of their rooms and meet each other. Chef Orton offers follow up support by posting his recipes online, and the program has a page where seniors can post questions and receive answers. When he’s not teaching seniors how to cook healthy, Chef Orton is using his kitchen to provide opportunities for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities from the ARC of Dutchess County, three local school districts, and Abilities First. Chef Orton teaches adults with disabilities alongside his Bateman culinary staff who receive the same food safety, kitchen safety, and hospitality training.
