Noel De Castro Claveria is the Catering Manager at Eccleshare Court Care & Nursing Home and Swanholme Court Care Home and has been working at Country Court for 7 years. We interviewed Noel to find out what Nutrition & Hydration Week is all about, and how Country Court are raising awareness of it.
In our care homes we use Nutrition and Hydration week to focus on the importance of giving residents a balanced diet and the right nutrition to keep them healthy. It’s important to track what residents are eating every day to ensure they stay healthy. Especially during the summer months, it’s important to make sure people stay well hydrated.
This week, we brought in lots of fruits for the residents to try and made some layered rainbow smoothies which everyone loved. We had a great afternoon demonstrating how to prepare fruit, we made melon boats, fruit swans and much more. I used to work on cruise ships, so it was great to demonstrate some of my skills! Getting people engaged in preparing food and making it look exciting means that are much more likely to want to try something new.
We make sure that residents always have fresh fruits and vegetables to snack on and we have a tea trolley that goes around every morning, afternoon and teatime. Residents can choose tea, coffee, squash, juice or water. We also have snack baskets available for people to help themselves to. They have three meals a day with lots of choice and variation. We work closely with the care team to make sure that we are aware of any special dietary requirements.
Their biggest risk is losing weight and becoming dehydrated. This can negatively affect their health as their organs and body need to be well hydrated to function properly.
We have a new system called Nourish that helps us track residents’ weight and identifies any fluctuations that may need to be addressed. This ensures that residents are staying at a healthy weight.
We give residents a lot of options at mealtimes. At breakfast time we have the option of cooked breakfast, cereals, and anything else the residents want, they can just ask the kitchen and we’ll provide it. We just started our summer menu today, which incorporates more ideas from the residents on what they want to eat. Its great to get feedback from them, so we can provide them with meals that they want and will enjoy.
Thank you to Noel for giving us an insight into Nutrition & Hydration Week. For more stories on Country Court’s food in care homes, please click here.
To find out more about life at Swanholme Court Care Home or Eccleshare Court Care & Nursing Home, contact Home Manager Susannah Barker-Milan on 01522 695 458 or email ecclesharecourt@countrycourtcare.com. To find out more about becoming a Chef in a care home visit www.countrycourtcare.co/careers/.
