The key to success for any gathering is food. The most interesting people in the world might show up to your party, but if you don’t have decent food, people are going to get cranky. On the flip side, a silent party will at least be bearable if the victuals are tasty. “The crowd was a little stiff,” one might say, “but at least the food hit the spot.”
In a similar manner, Homeplace hosts a gathering every day, and knowing that a key to its success is food, we don’t skimp on cuisine. We offer plenty of choice and listen to what the taste buds of our residents tell us.
We basically divide our menu into two categories—breakfast is one; lunch and supper is the other. For breakfast, we offer an a la carte menu which includes pancakes, omelets, sausage and bacon, fruit, cold and hot cereal, biscuits, gravy, some sweet items, such as pastries and, every now and then, donuts. (Everybody loves donuts.) On some days, our chef comes out of the kitchen to interact with residents as different food items are prepared.
With both lunch and supper, we offer standard entrees—steak, spaghetti, hamburgers—with sides that our residents our used to. We’re not going to reinvent the wheel here. We want to give our residents the food they’ve always loved and improve on it any way we can.
But we do aim to please. We’ll make sure our residents have a choice, so less traditional options can be added, if residents want that. With lunch and suppers, our normal procedure involves our residents coming to the big dining area or the small dining area within their home. Once there, they sit and order off a menu as they would in a restaurant.
Residents can also choose to eat in their own room, and if that is desired, we’ll allow them to choose their meals a day in advance.
Additionally, they can always alert us to something they’d like to be put on the menu, or any other suggestions about the food. We want to know residents’ feelings about the food choices, its flavor, and dietary concerns, such as less salt and sugar. We’ll listen and make adjustments.
We feel the feedback we get about the food is key. The best taste-testers are those who live with us, and our residents’ suggestions lead us to what we need to improve. Good food is so important to the well-being and happiness of our residents.
To contact the Homeplace of Henderson, email Jessica Beaven at jessica.beaven@homeplaceofhenderson.com, call at (270) 577-0534, or write to 3104 Green River Road in Henderson, KY.