October is Residents’ Rights Month, an annual event designated by Consumer Voice to honor residents living in all long-term care facilities and those receiving care in their home or community. It is an opportunity to focus on and celebrate the dignity and rights of every individual receiving long-term services and supports.
Residents have the right to self-determination and to use their voice to make their own choices. This year’s theme, Join Us at the Table, highlights the central role that food, mealtime, and community play in residents’ daily lives. Food is comfort, culture, identity, and connection – a daily experience that shapes dignity and quality of life.
This theme encourages residents to share their experiences, preferences, and traditions. It also encourages staff, family members, long-term care Ombudsman program representatives, and other advocates to come together to listen to residents’ experiences with food and dining, uplift their voices, and work collectively towards ensuring that every meal reflects dignity, choice, respect, and community.
The Resident’s Voice Challenge
To highlight these stories, Consumer Voice will be creating a recipe book featuring a selection of residents’ recipes, meal traditions, and the memories that surround them. We are seeking residents’ favorite recipes, as well as stories, pictures, videos, artwork, poems, or any other medium residents choose. If there are favorite facility recipes that residents help prepare, we’d love to see those too!
Residents can submit their recipes using our recipe collection form. There is also a fillable PDF format available.
Use these questions to inspire you:
- How does your facility engage and include residents in menus and mealtime?
- What is your favorite recipe? Why is it meaningful to you?
- What makes your meals and dining experience positive?
- What is one food, tradition, or dining experience that matters to you and why?
How to Submit
Read the full Resident’s Voice Challenge Criteria before submitting.
Email submissions to info@theconsumervoice.org by July 10, 2026.
- Include a mailing address with your submission for residents to receive certificates of participation.
- Submissions featuring photo or videos must include completed release forms for each resident.
