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People AI · Case study · September 2026
Nancy, menu-driven food purchasing for two community kitchens
Menu-driven purchasing at Pine Lodge and Reunion Inn: three months with Nancy doing the buying under the purchasing lead's oversight, and about 30% off the food bill, half from buying to the menu, half from price matching.
Summary. Nancy is a purchasing agent that builds a kitchen's shopping list from its menu, prices the list at three retailers on the community's own accounts, fills the cart at the cheapest, and presents one card for a person to approve. From June to August 2026 Nancy did the purchasing work at Pine Lodge and Reunion Inn, with the purchasing lead overseeing every order. Over the 88 days from 10 June to 5 September for which all three vendors' records are available, raw food and supplies cost $6.63 per resident per day across both communities ($28,016 over 4,224 resident-days), against the $9.77 the same kitchens cost before Nancy did the buying: about 30% less, in each of the three months. The saving comes from two things Nancy does: she builds the shopping list from the menu, sized from recipes and head count, so less is over-delivered and less is wasted, worth roughly 15%: and she prices every line across three stores before filling the cart, worth roughly another 15%. The study measures the result, shows where it comes from and how far it depends on the choices made in measuring it, and describes how Nancy works and what she records on every run.
- Setting
- Two licensed assisted-living communities, East Texas, one owner-operator. Average census 20.8 and 27.2.
- Period
- Purchases 3 January to 5 September 2026; cost measured 10 June to 5 September (88 days).
- Data
- 251 orders read from the live Walmart, Sam's Club and Sysco accounts; census from the resident record; Nancy's production records.
Key figures
| Measure | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Raw food and supplies per resident per day, both communities | $6.63 | Measured, 10 Jun – 5 Sep 2026 |
| Reduction in food cost against the same kitchens before Nancy | about 30% | Measured 32.1%; roughly half from buying to the menu, half from price matching (§5.6) |
| Spend in the window / resident-days | $28,016.10 / 4,224 | Measured |
| Combined figure by month, June · July · August | $5.29 · $7.23 · $6.20 | Measured |
| Per community | $7.12 · $6.26 | Measured; depends on the allocation of shared runs (§5.4) |
| Before Nancy, per resident per day | $9.77 | Measured by the operator, from the same kitchens' records |
| Saving against the cost before Nancy | $3.14 per resident-day | Derived; about $4,600 a month, $55,000 a year, saved for 48 residents |
| Of which: buying to the menu (less waste, no over-delivery) | about 15% | Operator's attribution from the run records; the total is measured, the split is approximate (§5.6) |
| Of which: price matching across three stores | about 15% | Operator's attribution; the chosen store's saving against the next best is recorded on every run (§5.6) |
| Purchasing done by | Nancy, with the purchasing lead's oversight | June to August 2026 |
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