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Apart from being essential for health and wellbeing, enjoying nutritious meals that are delicious and visually appealing is a key part of our residents’ daily life. But while food is important, the quality of your dining experience is affected by other factors – the cleanliness, décor and comfort of our dining rooms, whether you can eat in peace and be supported by staff or relatives if you need it. We often use white or brightly coloured table linen, and our tables usually feature flowers or a decoration. So we work hard to ensure that our residents’ dining experience is the best it possibly can be.
All our meals are home cooked by our chef and catering team using fresh and, where available, locally sourced ingredients. Our recipes include plenty of fruit, vegetables, fish and lean meat, dietary fibre and other nutrients that are essential for older people, such as calcium, iron and vitamin D. We work hard to provide not only a balanced diet but also one that caters for our residents’ individual dietary needs and personal preferences. Fulfilling all these requirements forms a major part of our drive to offer the best possible person-centred care. We also provide all our meals in different formats to cater for people with chewing or swallowing difficulties.
Find out moreWe take food safety and hygiene extremely seriously. Our high standards are rigorously observed in our kitchen, dining rooms, lounges, residents’ rooms and all places where food is served and eaten, including the garden! Our home has the highest rating – Level 5 – from the Food Standards Agency’s Hygiene Rating Scheme and all our care staff are trained to at least Level 2 Food Safety & Hygiene. They also undergo separate training on nutrition and hydration.
Employed by Caterplus, a specialist in providing catering services within the care and retirement sector, our kitchen staff complete all legislative training in relation to food preparation and service, including Level 2 Food Safety, Health & Safety, Allergen, COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations) and PPDS (Pre-Packed for Direct Sale). Furthermore, the teams are trained in nutrition and hydration as well as in preparing textured modified foods.
It’s important for us that our residents, families and other visitors can eat comfortably and in total confidence. We always ensure there are adequate staff to supervise at mealtimes in case any of our residents choke or have other food-related accidents.
At our home we try our best to ensure that mealtimes are enjoyable, unhurried and relaxing. In fact, much like many hospitals have ‘protected mealtimes’ we deliberately minimise calls and appointments by health professionals and other visitors between midday and 2pm to give residents the opportunity to eat as much as they wish in their own time.
Sharing a meal is an important part of family life at our home. We encourage residents (who can) to eat in the dining room with other residents or members of your family if they are visiting. But if you prefer, you can eat at a table on your own or have meals brought to you in your room. Whether this is breakfast in bed or a late-night snack is entirely up to you.
Our carers are sensitive to people’s needs at mealtimes and always keen to preserve their independence and dignity. Each resident is encouraged or helped to wash his or her hands and are then helped to sit at a table and made comfortable before the meal.
We provide assistance, such as pouring someone a drink, cutting up their food or opening packets, only where this is definitely required or asked for. Residents who need it are offered adaptive cutlery and coloured plates. Some people may have a weakness on one side and so we place their plates and cutlery near to the stronger side of the body to help them.
Sometimes residents just don’t feel like eating much. We observe them closely, talking to them about the meal and trying to gauge why they may not be particularly hungry on that day. A fluctuating appetite is perfectly normal and can be related to many things – medication side effects, problems with dentures, the weather or just not feeling themselves that day. But it’s important to us to understand what you are feeling and why.
Most people like to eat and drink. As well as satisfying a basic hunger and thirst, we try to make our mealtimes a pleasurable sensory experience as well as a sociable one, and we also use food a lot in our activities. We organise culinary travel-themed days, BBQs, tastings or baking where residents help with mixing and decorating. Residents frequently enjoy sowing, potting and watering herb, tomato or flower seeds and checking on their progress.
Smell and taste are powerful aides to memory and residents have fun remembering and comparing favourite foods from their childhood as well as their experiences of shopping and preparing food in their younger days. Some residents also like to lay tables or fold newly laundered table linen. Such tasks promote independence and daily living skills as well as being a great source of reminiscence.
We regularly survey residents and their families about life at the home, including the quality and variety of meals on offer. Our chef also frequently talks to residents on a one-to-one basis while food and menus are a favourite topic at resident and family meetings. Residents often have an input into the menus and we take all feedback very seriously and act on it wherever possible.
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