Kitchen teams at four residential sites are starting the first round of the Maggie Beer Trainer Mentor Program this month (April).  

The teams at Strathdon and Kingsville Communities in Victoria and Newnham Community, Aldersgate Village and Sorell Community, Ningana in Tasmania are the first to start this program.

Another three sites – Manor Lakes, Preston and Box Hill are part of the second wave that will start the training in July.

This is fantastic news for our inaugural teams who are embarking on the 12 month program.

Janette Anderson, Hotel Services Manager for Victoria, led the pitch to the Maggie Beer Foundation and is delighted that Uniting AgeWell has seven sites selected to be part of the first two waves and is confident more Uniting AgeWell sites will be chosen for other rounds.

The overall project runs nationally at aged care facilities and includes 120 programs at various sites in rounds of 30 programs until 2025.

The Maggie Beer Foundation, funded by the Australian Federal Government’s Department of Health and Aged Care, is delivering education and training to improve the dining, food, and nutritional outcomes for Australian elders in Aged Care.

The program pairs aged care home kitchen teams with a qualified chef trainer who will mentor the team to serve flavourful nutritious food and deliver an enhanced dining experience for residents.  On completion, the site as well as the cooks and chefs, will receive a Maggie Beer Foundation certificate valid for two years.

During the 12-month course, participants will receive five days of intensive training, monthly follow-ups and regular coursework, as well as a menu appraisal by an accredited practising dietitian for three weeks of the menus from the home.

There will also be food satisfaction questionnaires to allow those participating to measure resident, family and staff satisfaction with the new dining program.  This will be followed by a detailed report on the Food Satisfaction questionnaire and menu appraisal outcomes to inform decision making.

There will also be access to the Professional Community, an online information and support forum for participating cooks, chef and other kitchen staff.

“In the meantime, learnings from these four sites will be passed on to other sites,” Janette says, “so this will have a flow-on effect across Uniting AgeWell.”

“Uniting AgeWell is proudly a learning organisation,” says Janette.  “This exciting program affords us hands-on mentoring to achieve the Maggie Beer Foundation standard for aged care menus.”

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