In “normal times,” we strongly discourage allowing members or anyone other than trained staff use the commercial kitchen. We are concerned from a safety standpoint because there are so many opportunities for injury in any kitchen and particularly a commercial kitchen where the equipment can be even more difficult to operate without training. If members are preparing food for other residents, it also can create problems with Workers’ Compensation insurance – it can make it difficult to be able to determine if an injury occurred when the member was working or if it happened during time when she was just a resident.

That’s all of the risk management “stuff.” There isn’t anything specifically in the insurance policies that actually specify this however, so there aren’t any exclusions in the policies that would create coverage problems if you did ultimately decide that it is worth the liability that you might take on to allow members to access the commercial kitchen to prepare foods for themselves. This is an unusual year, and we understand that you will need to get creative in order to make things work. We would recommend that, if possible, you should still have some controls in place for the commercial kitchen – such as removing equipment that they could really do without, such as the commercial stand mixer, deli slicer or other items that wouldn’t be included in a residential kitchen, and locking the kitchen overnight if possible, especially if there is another corner that you could tuck a refrigerator and microwave. You’ll also need to impress upon the residents that it will be up to all of them to maintain safety in the kitchen, just like it will be up to all of them to keep everyone safe from COVID-19.