✨✨General Discussions

At Greenspring (an Erickson community in VA), we get one "Flex Meal" per day. If you have unused meal credits, you can use them for guests. What constitutes a "Flex Meal" depends upon the dining venue and the meal.

For dine-in dinner service, each meal can include seven items: two starters, an entree, two side dishes, a beverage and a desert. Dinner rolls are available, but do not count as one of the seven items. If you only order one starter or one side, there is no credit for the smaller meal. Without an available meal credit, dinners are priced at $25.00 plus tax

For breakfast or lunch, the meal will be between 5 and 7 items, depending upon the venue. At breakfast and lunch, all items have a la carte pricing as well. Based on the pricing, breakfast can total between $17 and $20, while lunch could total around $20 to $32.

Each month's credits expire on the last day of the month, so frequently the dining rooms are crowded for lunch and dinner the last few days as people try to use up credits before they expire.

Sounds like your first step would be to ask a tax accountant who understands the State and Federal rules. Once you have verified the interpretation of the tax code, then the question is one of internal accounting. Food service is a business with fixed and variable costs. The fixed costs must be covered by your monthly fees, and the monthly allowance is a way of limiting the variable costs.

The marginal sales to guests and non-residents increase the variable cost but not the fixed costs. One would expect that management would welcome such added revenue, and likewise be reluctant to have residents spending the quarterly surplus in their allowance on guests since that would increase variable costs without a corresponding increase in revenue.

The system must work to support the community as a whole, so the real issue is doing what makes the food service thrive while being fair to all concerned.

Richmond Shreve

NaCCRA Board Member

Forum Moderator

Our CCRC’s IL meal plan provides an allowance equivalent to $1000 quarterly per person. This can only be used for residents’ meals. The argument is that guest meals must be taxed and therefore the residents’ allowance cannot be used because the allowance is a non-taxable benefit. Some CCRC websites indicate that their meal allowance can be used for guest meals and drinks at Happy Hours or other amenities. Would appreciate any comments regarding your CCRC’s policy.

Best Regards,

Day R