Omar Humes CDM CFPP and advisory board member at Hormel Health Labs reflects on his work in food service and the power of “we.”
“I’m a troubleshooter; I look from the outside in and my wheels start turning.” That’s the general mindset of certified dietary manager and certified food protection professional Omar Humes. But the CDM CFPP label only covers part of Omar’s extensive resume. He’s also the past immediate chairman of the board for the Association of Nutrition and Foodservice Professionals (or ANFP), the president at Genesis Training & Consulting, and the director of dining services at Carol Woods Retirement Community in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Woods is a fairly new endeavor for Omar. He’s been there for just over 6 months, and has already worked with his “A team” to improve the dining experience of its residents. Despite his busy schedule, he says there is no hard part of this job—as he sees it, every day is filled with opportunities rather than challenges. Of course, that’s not to say he doesn’t have his work cut out for him; ; he just doesn’t see no as an option. “I tell my team we don’t say, ‘we can’t;’ we have to say, ‘how can we’.” We spoke with Omar to learn more about his work in dining services and how it influences him as an advisory board member at Hormel Health Labs.
Elevated Dining
Omar serves Carol Woods Retirement Community daily. His duties—in addition to “making sure every day is better than the last”—consist of uniting his “A team” of registered dietitians and kitchen staff to coordinate meal prep that ensures all residents (the 450 of them who live on campus) have an elegant, nutritious dining experience. Offering that sophisticated dining, Omar says, is one of his favorite parts of the job. “Our menu doesn’t vary for those in independent living versus those in healthcare settings; there is something for everyone and everyone gets to choose.”
When people think of dining services at facilities like Carol Woods, the kind of passionate menu creation Omar prides his team on doesn’t typically come to mind. More often than not, the “better-safe-than-sorry” approach wins out in long-term care facilities; if you know that someone with swallowing issues can safely consume oatmeal and mashed potatoes, why take the risk of trying to prepare anything else? Omar’s A team at Carol Woods gives residents dignity in their dining by recreating a traditional restaurant-style experience three days a week: residents are able to peruse a health-conscious and flavor-prioritized menu and can make their own decisions about what they would like to order. His team also offers monthly pop-up stations, chef’s specials, and daily buffets. Lucky for residents, the restaurant-inspired “special meal” will soon be offered six days a week, an accomplishment with which Omar is particularly happy. These are the kinds of ideas that he brings to fruition, always trying to deliver on “What can I give to someone else?”
Even Greater Service
Widening his scope of service, Omar joined the advisory board at Hormel Health Labs in 2023. He says it’s been a great experience since day one. “Being in a meeting with so many industry experts, leaders in their communities… it’s like fertilizer being sprayed,” he says, “the minds, experience, and passion just flows.” Everyone in the room has something to offer, he emphasizes. From nutrition experts to food scientists, each meeting includes multifaceted perspectives of and approaches to a challenge. The board meets those challenges with a unified goal: put the patient first, whether they’re at home or in a long-term care facility. Through his work at Carol Woods, Omar flexes this muscle every day. “Food is the key to the soul, and if people don’t eat, they can’t go to therapy and get better.” Omar is certain that this approach to nutritional fulfillment not only helps the people Hormel Health Labs serves, but everyone on the advisory board itself; when board members share their expertise, fellow board members absorb it and fuse it with their own skillset.
Omar is incredibly proud of this work, as well as his work at Carol Woods, both of which he believes shed light on the greater good folks in any kind of dining service offer. “Don’t just stay in the shadows,” he says. “People who do this work aren’t in it for the money; they’re in it for the servant leadership and helping others.”