Care Staff treated to healthy homemade takeaway during Coronavirus Lockdown
A coronavirus outbreak has meant that one of our children’s homes has had to close its doors with two staff and children self-isolating. In this latest lockdown, two staff kindly volunteered to go into the home to isolate with the children for 15 days. It also meant that a planned cultural food day had to be cancelled. In response to this, they moved the festival online and ran a virtual cooking session to cook a healthy ‘fakeaway’.
The takeaway, which was one of many care packages sent into the home during the lockdown, was prepared at a nearby home and delivered by Five Rivers’ Head of Residential Services, Sarah Stefano; with support from professional chef, Warren Hoile (“Ollie”), as part of the Five Rivers cultural food festival. The virtual cooking session was part of a wider ‘Food for Thought’ project that Five Rivers is running to encourage children to learn more about where food comes from, and what they’re eating, to help provide healthy alternatives to some of the children’s favourite takeaway foods.
Food on the menu included burgers, chicken fajitas and a selection of salads, all made from scratch with fresh, healthy ingredients. The piece de resistance was their take on an Eton Mess.
Sarah Stefano, Head of Residential Services, said “This is just one example of how we are doing everything we can to reach out to adults and children who are isolating and to recognise the dedication from our staff. Our residential teams have been incredible throughout this pandemic, so many of them have made personal sacrifices to ensure that local children have a safe place to call home. Despite all of the pandemic related pressures on them, our staff have continued to do the best job. It was really nice to be able to run the cooking event during the period of isolation and to give them all a boost by delivering the takeaway – it’s one of many small gestures.”
One of the Senior Residential Child Care Workers at the home, Nicola Ord, (who is currently isolating in the home), said “All of the children were really excited to see the food being delivered to our front door. We regularly encourage the children we look after to try new foods, and although they didn’t like all of the options, they all tried what was on offer.”
“The girls were huge fans of the brioche burger buns and have requested that we have these in the home more regularly. We’ve requested the recipes for the burgers so that we can make these in the home as the girls enjoyed them so much! Supporting the children to make healthy choices is a key part of the Avon House ethos, and the children are very excited to be working with Ollie on some healthier breakfast alternatives.”