Someplace like home.

The heart of the "Dining Delights" program at the Carol Woods Retirement Community, Chapel Hill, N.C., is its custom-built rolling buffet. A team consisting of housekeepers, nurses, clinical dietitians, nursing assistants, administrators, and dining and activity staff members designed the buffet used to deliver a menu's worth of meal choices to each of the neighborhood dining areas.

Each neighborhood dining area is equipped with a residential-sized refrigerator, a hutch, and tables arranged to allow for the rolling buffet. To further enhance the residential-home feeling, the buffets match the decor of the dining areas. The refrigerators are stocked with sandwiches, …