Brentwood Care Centre in Larchwood Gardens, Brentwood prides itself on being part of their community and is extremely proud of the strong links it has with local businesses and charities.
The Dementia, Residential and Nursing home regularly holds community group sessions for singing, gardening and knitting. It was during their regular ‘Knit and Natter’ that the group’s conversation turned to the current cost of living crisis and how the months after Christmas can be especially tough for everyone.
The residents and the team were inspired to find a way of supporting local families and a perfect opportunity came about after the team discovered that fellow resident, Elsie Turner (101 years old), Granddaughter Lisa Whymark is part of the Leadership Team at the Daily Bread Food Hub based in All Saints, St Peter’s Church in Hutton.
As part of the homes holistic approach in caring, the teams are always motivated to get to know, not only the resident but their loved ones as well. Lifestyle Assistant Emily Clements explained, ‘the residents here at the home often share many stories about their loved ones. We love hearing about what the resident’s families do as professions and hobbies as it helps us to get to know the resident and their family. So, when we found out that Elsie’s Granddaughter was a volunteer at Daily Bread, we contacted her to ask if we could help and of course she said yes please!’
Customer Relations Manager Rhiannon McNeill, who led the organisation of the collection was overwhelmed by the support,
’Everyone has been so generous, we’ve had donations from families, staff and visiting professionals; so many people were happy to get involved! We decided to collect throughout December and January and there were so many donations that we quickly had to find more storage to collect it all in.’
To top off the already overflowing collection, RCH Care Homes and Brentwood Care Centre donated a further £200 worth of donations.
Elsie’s Granddaughter Lisa was happy to be on hand to greet Rhiannon and the donations, ‘All the support from the local community is so welcome and appreciated, we have helped 700 families in December and expect this number to be even higher in January so a very big thank you for the donations from the Brentwood Care Centre.’
Daily Bread’s Food Hub is open Monday- Saturday from 10am-12noon. If you would like to donate, volunteer or would like support more details can be found here on their Facebook Page
