At the end of a long day, you finally sit down to take a bite of your favorite food and for a split second, your whole day melts away and you just enjoy the moment. Sure, your food tastes great, but your moment of joy probably has deeper roots – like memories of sharing your favorite meal with a friend, years of perfecting your recipe, or remembering the tastes of childhood.
Beyond the simple pleasure of delicious cuisine, Chapel Pointe Food Services has sought to unleash the joy of food. Based on an idea generated by residents during a Food Committee meeting, throughout April, Food Services asked Homestead and Household residents to help plan and prepare some of our residents’ favorite meals for the whole Chapel Pointe family.
The journey couldn’t have been more successful!
Featured Dishes Spanned the Globe
Rita grew up eating her mother’s authentic Italian meatballs and sauce. Throughout her life, no one’s recipe could compare to her mother’s special touch in the kitchen. When asked what dish she wanted to help prepare for Chapel Pointe, her choice was simple.
That’s how Michelle, household coordinator, and Rita’s neighbor, Bessy, ended up spending an afternoon making more than 200 meatballs! Because family recipes often call for cooking by taste, when Food Services finished the sauce, Rita had the final taste. When she decided it needed more water, the cooks obliged.
The Italian dish was a hit throughout the community!
The next week, our Chapel Pointe family journeyed to China for Shirley’s choice meal. “I wanted something different,” she said. Reminiscing, Shirley added that her husband worked at a Giant grocery store for many years, and she loved when he would bring home Chinese food for them to share.
Two employees and four residents prepared orange chicken, and Food Services finished out the menu with sweet and sour shrimp, vegetable Lo Mein, green beans, egg rolls and fortune cookies.
Some residents tried foods they had never eaten before, and the fortunes brought smiles and laughter to the whole dining room.
Chapel Pointe traveled to Ireland for dinner the following week. Residents of Fellowship Place used 20 pounds of ground beef and mixed vegetables, diced tomatoes, and plentiful herbs to make Household Coordinator Candas’s authentic Irish Shepherd’s Pie. Candas’s family has handed down the recipe through generations, and extended the tradition to our Chapel Pointe family.
The world-wide culinary journey ended close to home with Pennsylvania Dutch-style slippery pot pie. The regional comfort food took Homestead residents who shredded the chicken and prepared the noodles back to the comfort of their family kitchens where many of them spent years making similar recipes for their loved ones.
“I bet most of the people who live here have made pot pie before,” said Betty Lou. Her friends around her agreed, except for one who heralds from Greece and has always made Mediterranean cuisine for her family and friends.
Perhaps Chapel Pointe’s next culinary adventure will begin in Greece. No matter where the journey takes us, the Chapel Pointe culinary experience always begins and ends with our residents.
Thank you to our Food Services staff who seek feedback and ideas from our residents and then take action to incorporate those ideas into the lifestyle at Chapel Pointe. Beyond the pleasure of good meals, residents engaged their minds, served one another, practiced lifelong skills, got to experience the fruit of their efforts, and felt their tremendous value to our community.
When a caring Food Services staff commits to A Loving Way of Life, they unleash the joy of food into our residents’ lives!