Borough Care, the largest not-for-profit care provider for older people in Stockport, marked Nutrition and Hydration Week (11-17 March 2019) with a programme of special food and drink related activities.
Every day during Nutrition and Hydration week, Borough Care’s catering teams at each of the company’s 11 homes served tasty treats for residents, based around a different theme. Events at the homes included mocktail Monday, using fruits and juices to make non-alcoholic drinks.
Nicci Gregory, head cook at Borough Care’s Bamford Close home, said: “Myself and Joanne Morris, our activity lifestyle facilitator, decided our events needed to be fun and creative so residents would want to engage with each activity.
“For mocktail Monday, we decided on a Hawaiian themed party. I mixed and pureed ingredients to make a choice of mocktails, which we served in sugar-coated glasses with tropical-themed accessories. We put on tropical-themed music and soon our residents were enjoying singing and dancing along.”
Nutrition & Hydration Week highlights and educates people on the value of food and drink in maintaining health and wellbeing in health and social care settings. Preventing malnutrition and dehydration is crucial to good health, especially in older people.
Mark Dale, Catering & Hospitality Manager at Borough Care, says: “We are committed to ensuring all our residents enjoy high-quality food and eat well. Offering healthy, well-balanced meals to suit a person’s specific dietary requirements is an important part of the care we provide.
“Getting older people to eat well can sometimes be difficult. The food we serve not only needs to be nutritious, it has to be presented well and look appetising, to encourage people to eat it. We have recently introduced a nutritional tool that can track a resident’s food consumption.
“This enables us to make sure people are receiving the correct nutrients in their diet. Nutrition & Hydration Week provided the ideal opportunity to highlight the importance of food and drink to good health.”