Celebrate Passover with Benchmark
Respect and celebration: it’s how we honor our residents’ individual and collective beliefs throughout every Benchmark community, with special regard for the holidays that mean so much. Nowhere is that better represented than within our dining program, where this year’s Passover celebration is a perfect example of our commitment to celebrating the collective cultures, religions and traditions of our diverse group of residents.
Benchmark Senior Living has a large Jewish community that celebrates the Passover holiday, which we commemorate with traditional foods throughout many of our dining rooms. Sharing a meal has always been an opportunity to bring people together, create new friendships, engage in conversations, and encourage personal interactions among our seniors. The traditional Passover Seder reminds our residents of celebrations they’ve shared with loved ones throughout their lives while providing a chance for them to celebrate with new friends they’ve made at Benchmark. On this holiday, like many others, our dining associates incorporate traditional foods around which residents can gather and share their heritage and beliefs.
Our chefs and the programming department come together to create a celebration that includes a traditional meal, as well as activities centered around why the holiday is celebrated and what makes it meaningful to fellow residents who honor that day. This creates a shared understanding and deeper connection among those with the same, as well as different, traditions, cultures and religions.
Menus are created with input from residents, who are asked at resident council which foods have made their holidays special in years past. Passover, for example, has been celebrated for thousands of years in the Jewish culture, and includes sharing foods such as Matzo ball soup, beef brisket, potato latkes, green beans and fish. Traditional platters also include bitter herbs, hard boiled eggs, shank bone, lettuce, parsley and charoset. Partaking of this meal together creates a bond and shows a mutual respect among Jewish residents and residents of other faiths alike.
This special effort and collaboration between Benchmark’s programming and dining associates is replicated across cherished holidays throughout the year, encompassing a wide variety of religious and cultural holidays, including Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras, Mother’s and Father’s Day, and many more. On these days, friends, family and loved ones are invited to participate in the celebration and recollect their own fond memories and traditions. It brings our residents–as well as our Benchmark associates–incredible joy when family members join in celebratory holiday meals together with their loved ones across our many community dining rooms.
Sharing their upbringings and family traditions allows our residents and families to better understand where our seniors have come from and how they’ve become the unique individuals they are today. Strengthening these bonds of friendship and human connection is at the core of our company values and at the forefront of the care we provide every day.
