Flinders staff and students are continuing to work with the Maggie Beer Foundation to revolutionise the standing of food services in Aged Care. In June we had the pleasure of meeting 30 ‘early innovators’, chefs and cooks from aged care facilities throughout Victoria who travelled to the Barossa Valley for three days of education, skill development and networking as part of the inaugural Maggie Beer Foundation ‘Creating an Appetite for Life Education Program’.

The inspirational, hands on program hosted by Maggie Beer and held in the kitchen where the Cook and the Chef is filmed included sessions by expert Dr Steve Judd (HammondCare), Peter Morgan-Jones (author of Don’t give me eggs that bounce), Simon Bryant (Celebrity Chef), Ellis Wilkinson (Educator) and chefs from Maggie’s fabulous team.

The Flinders team were responsible for a formal evaluation of the program and included Professor Michelle Miller, Louisa Matwiejczyk, Olivia Farrer (PhD candidate), Rachel Roberts (2014 alumni), Laura Nairn (MND student), Gabrielle O’Dea (BND student) and Georgia Bevan (BND student). Evaluation is continuing this month with collection of impact data three months after the event and three research papers are currently being prepared for publication.

The team also contributed to the promotion of the event, selection of applicants, facilitating a Q&A Nutrition session at the event and providing nutritional data and information for recipe resources used at the event and shared with participants. The feedback from participants has been overwhelmingly positive and the MBF are therefore busy planning a second event in Sydney for early 2016. Flinders staff and students are excited and look forward to once again contributing to this valuable and important program.