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I made my own menu cards, by asking the residents what meals/dishes and desserts they would like, discussing their requests with our Cooks, and having been given the okay to then implement their choices (which is as it should be....personalized NOT generic)!!!

I came up with a standard size card (the same size as a Playing card), and set it up on my computer with 4 cards to an A4 page. I then typed the item/dish for the menu card at the top, in bold type, (but easy reading type), and then created a square empty art box underneath where I could "drop" a picture of the food item or main dish from the World Wide Webb into the picture box, below the actual name of the meal item. I then printed and cut the cards out, and then I laminated them so as to preserve them for a while, and then trimmed them again for us to use on our Wall mounted Menu board, which displays the current Day's Menu choices!

The beauty of creating these menu cards as described, is the fact that you can customise each and every one of these cards for your Care Home. We have regular meetings for our residents to discuss and review new items on the menu's and how we can implement more, or re-view & re-vamp some of the dishes. The key point is to involve the residents in making their mealtime choices, which I always include in our Dignity Meeting Minutes, and then involve our amazing Cooks to work with our Residents in developing news dishes!!!

Again ALWAYS remember to "minute" meetings and have a paper trail to show how any changes to the Food menu and drinks etc., came about naturally and was supported by the residents.