Sustainable Drinking and Eating Aids for Carers & Patients
Caregivers do a wonderful job, so check you get benefits for you and patients which can open the way to grants for comfortable wheelchairs and home adaptations. Also look up local volunteer groups who offer respite care and sometimes volunteer dog walkers.
- Dog-walking charity The Cinnamon Trust lists pet-friendly care homes.
- Age UK can help with financial grants to handyman jobs. Recare can help to afford disabilitiy equipment.
- Skiggle is an online community to donate surplus or exchange disability equipment, with safety caveats (you must not make profit from NHS items). Examples are catheters, ventilator filters/adaptors and mobility aids.
Sustainable tableware for carers and patients
- Ornamin (Germany) offers sustainable keep-warm plates, ‘dementia-friendly’ crockery in bright colours to stimulate appetite, circular spoons for easy eating, and mugs for people to drink without having to lean their heads back.
- Eat Well offers cups with rubber bases (and trays to clip on aprons, to catch dropped food and prevent clothing stains).
- Easi-Grip knives have stainless steel blades and bright ‘soft feel’ grip. The angled handles prevent wrist discomfort, and knives are less likely to twist.
- Droplet (on NHS) is a mug that monitors fluid levels and records personal messages, to remind patients to drink.
Read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods are unsafe near animal friends). Before recycling tins, rinse/remove lids (or pop ring-pulls over holes) then step on cans to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to stop wildlife getting trapped.
Although it’s good to compost food scraps, unless you have a food waste bin (turned into biogas), just bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallot, chives), citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps and tea/coffee grounds. To avoid too much acid/caffeine affecting compost creatures.
Free textured veggie meal plans
Vegetarian for Life is a charity that serves vegans/vegetarians in care homes, hospitals or independent living facilities. Its means planners include recipes for:
The meal planers include recipes for:
- Baked potato, baked beans, date & orange salad, fresh fruit
- Lentil & spinach quiche, chips, mixed salad, stewed apple & raisins
- Tomato & basil soup, vegan lemon meringue pie
- Veggie roast, potatoes, jam sponge & custard
- Cottage pie, cabbage, yoghurt & mixed berries
- Chickpea croquettes, chips, salad, rice pudding
- Macaroni soup, bread, banana split
- Vegan ham & salad sandwiches, Victoria sponge
- Pasta bolognese, sweetcorn & beetroot salad, ginger cake
- Cauliflower cheeze, baked potato, peas, apricot blueberry crumble
- Vegan cheese & tomato sandwich, cherry cake
You can also download a free catering guide and a guide to textured foods, for vegans and vegetarians who are no longer able to eat solid food. Also find grants to help vegans live independently.
