January 14, 2022 6.30 am This story is over 26 months old

Lincoln Hotel cooks up 10,000 meals for local care provider

A monthly schedule of tasty meals

The Lincoln Hotel is providing 10,000 meals to the residents of 11 care homes across Lincolnshire to help support them through the wave of the Omicron strain of coronavirus.

Family-owned Home from Home Care operates 11 homes across Greater Lincolnshire for adults with learning disabilities, autism and complex physical and mental health. The care provider ordered the meals to help reduce the risk of transmission in its homes and ease team members’ workload.

The Lincoln Hotel, which is located on Eastgate, has been cooking and packaging the meals. The meals include lasagne, chicken curry and chilli con carne, and are delivered to each care home ready to be reheated and served by Home From Home Care staff each evening.

Nicola Houltby, Deputy Manager at The Lincoln Hotel, has been taking charge of the preparation and delivery of the meals. The hotel has been making the meals while also remaining open to dine-in visitors.

She said: “Home From Home Care couldn’t have their Christmas lunch with us as normal due to the need for care homes to be protected during the pandemic, but we then got a call asking whether we would be able to collaborate by providing meals for their homes, and we said yes.

“We’ve been doing it for the last three weeks and we’re now preparing meals until the end of January. We’ve done a monthly schedule so it’s been lasagne, chicken curry, chilli con carne; heartwarming meals provided seven days a week, which are quick and easy to warm through. The feedback has been great and it’d be lovely to continue this and help out as much as we can.”

Meals being dished up ready for the care home residents.

Hugo de Savary, Director of Home From Home Care, said: “Normally, the individuals we support go out shopping and are involved in preparing their own meals, but the realities of home lockdowns and staff isolation requirements have made this more challenging. To turn a potential negative into a big positive, we’ve decided to treat everyone with a series of delicious meals from the team at The Lincoln Hotel.

“Delivered fresh to each of our homes, our team then simply heat up the meals and serve, meaning that even during this current wave of the pandemic, the people we care for can enjoy fine dining with nutritious and delicious meals each day. This is a major undertaking which has had a huge impact on easing the workload for our team while also reducing the risk of Covid transmission.

“I’d like to say thank you to The Lincoln Hotel. It’s absolutely fantastic to have two organisations in the same community that are able to help each other, especially in two sectors that have been heavily impacted by the pandemic. Around 5,000 meals have already been enjoyed by the individuals we support so far and they absolutely love them!”

The Lincoln Hotel.

Meanwhile, Home From Home Care had initially planned their traditional team Christmas lunch at The Lincoln Hotel, but the plans were shelved as cases of the Omicron strain increased. Instead, the company now aims to hold four celebratory ‘thank you’ meals at the hotel for all 400 team members in the spring.