A program to bring the delicious food flavours of the world to Sydney aged residents has won a major international innovation award.
Bolton Clarke’s A Taste of Home initiative won the Innovation of the Year – Food and Nutrition at the 9th Asia Pacific Eldercare Innovation Awards, which were held in Singapore on 3 December.
The initiative is bringing the smells and flavours of home to residents from 23 cultural backgrounds at Bolton Clarke’s Cabrini residential aged care community at Westmead, in Western Sydney.
Bolton Clarke Cabrini Residential Manager Priya Joshi said it was exciting to win the award for an initiative that continues to deliver smiles to residents’ faces after a difficult year of COVID-19 restrictions.
Bolton Clarke General Manager Hotel Services Caroline Lucas said the Taste of Home menu was developed with residents and families to meet the needs of residents from cultural backgrounds including Italian, Lebanese, Chinese, Filipino, Egyptian, Iranian, Fijian, Persian, German, Sri Lankan, Indian, Greek, Maltese, French, Macedonian, Malaysian, Sudanese, Hungarian, Irish, English, Spanish and Estonian.
“We had a series of one-on-one meetings with residents and families, who submitted favourite recipes,” she said.
“As well as the daily cooked fresh meals there are now an additional 10 cultural meal choices cooked and snap frozen on site for residents to choose.
“To complement the more diverse regular menu we have recommissioned our courtyard pizza oven and arranged a barista coffee cart.”
A blast chill process has also been Implemented to support safe storage for families who want to bring home cooked meals.
The new menu was presented to residents for feedback with overwhelmingly positive results.
Bolton Clarke was also a finalist the Project of the Year – Ageing in Place and Best Ageing Research categories for its Europa on Alma community at St Kilda and the Weaving Evidence into Action for Residents with Dementia project.
