Food for life
Food for life Get Togethers are about intergenerational working to bring people together over good food from growing crops, to cooking and eating good food together. This helps to build links with the community.
Activities that Spa Nursing home Group have developed:
Growing of vegetables all homes and orchard made wheelchair friendly at Spa Nursing Home
Butter making activity Cregagh, Spa, Redburn- delivering of scones and butter from Cregagh to Abbeyfield society
Use of Rhubarb grown to make rhubarb crumble for residents
Burns Day cooking Haggis and tradition costume worn Spa, Redburn and Oakridge- Scottish theme event
Establish links with Cregagh Primary school- given soil , planters and strawberry plants, cress seeds. They are charting process of plants, writing letters to residents on how they are developing.
Growing sunflowers Oakridge- children growing these at home and sending in their pictures for residents to see them growing, whilst residents are also growing these
We developed our orchard at Spa by flattening the ground, planting grass seeds, planting of apple and plum tree. We then got a path through the orchard so that the wheelchairs could be taken down into the orchard. Some of the ladies have been out regularly to the orchard and find it very peaceful and relaxing and are very interested in the development of the produce and discussing their younger days when they played a lot outdoors and really love the outside space that is tranquil broken up by the birds singing. They love going down memory lane as they call it and have suggested we name the orchard Memory Lane. The residents have given suggestions for further development and say they look forward to seeing this area being developed further with old implements from the past. We have noticed this has had a positive effect on their mental health and well being and has lifted their moods as they have been locked up as they call it for too long.
The success of the vaccination programme has allowed the lifting of the nursing home restrictions and we are now more confident in allowing gatherings within our grounds.