RESIDENTS and staff at Carinya Lodge in Korumburra celebrated the year-long completion of the Maggie Beer Program last Thursday, with a Wizard of Oz-themed menu.
The journey on a plate started at breakfast and finished with afternoon tea and included fish soup for liquid courage for the lion, a heart shaped parmesan waffle with a tomato ratatouille for the tin man, a cheddar biscuit with mousse in the shape of a witch’s hat, chicken patties and munchkin sandwiches with an Emerald City pistachio based dessert.
The Carinya kitchen team participated in a five-day intensive at the beginning of the 12 months and were guided to explore new ways to enhance meals and nutrition, including enhancing protein, flavour and texture modified foods, using different culinary techniques.
The team were also visited periodically by people from the program over the year who continued to guide them and help them develop their skills.
“I think we were doing pretty good before, but the things that have changed are that we’re fortifying more food to help with extra protein. Protein is one of the big things in aged care that we have to try and enhance, because it helps with falls and overall health,” explained Nadine James, kitchen supervisor for Carinya.
“People with dementia don’t seem to be able to hold their weight on. So, we make smoothies and fortify everything, so that they’re getting that extra nutrition and we’ve noticed big drops in our weight losses and things as well. It’s been very successful.”
Last week’s celebration was an opportunity to showcase all the great things the kitchen team have learnt.
To help celebrate the theme, the Lifestyle Team at Carinya jumped on board and dressed up as the characters from The Wizard of Oz and with each meal throughout the day, the residents were entertained by these characters from the movie.
The aim of the Maggie Beer program is to improve the food experiences of older Australians, and to give cooks and chefs working in residential aged care the opportunity to develop their culinary skills and improve food, nutrition and the dining experience for older people.
