Sevenoaks care home residents team up with school children to bring back favourite recipes

A care home in Sevenoaks has teamed up with local school and joined a nationwide campaign to save traditional recipes from being forgotten.  

A poll of 2,000 adults carried out by Care UK, which operates Weald Heights on Bourchier Close, found almost two-thirds (65%) of the nation no longer use family recipes that have been handed down through the generations, however, 43% of people surveyed are keen to save them. 

In a bid to prevent family recipes passed down through the generations from being lost forever, Care UK has launched a free downloadable recipe book – Recipes to remember, which features recipes shared by care home residents across the UK. From food enjoyed during World War Two to quirky desserts from the 1970s, the book includes residents’ favourite foods, alongside recipes tailored to support older people by Care UK’s award-winning chefs. 

Keen to keep their recipes bubbling away in Sevenoaks for many years to come, residents from Weald Heights have rolled up their sleeves and donned their aprons, to team up with pupils from Sevenoaks School to show just how tasty their food favourites from the past are.  

On the day, the children joined residents in the home’s kitchen to enjoy a masterclass with the home’s Head Chef. Tasked with baking a traditional bread and butter pudding from resident, Elizabeth Holland’s cookbook, the residents each teamed up with the children to see which team could create the tastiest treat. 

Keen for others to sample her bread-and-butter pudding, Elizabeth’s recipe features in Care UK’s resident-led recipe book, which can be downloaded here. 

Maria Covington, Home Manager at Weald Heights, said: “We’ve certainly been whipping up some treats here at Weald Heights as we headed to the kitchen to revisit residents’ food favourites from decades gone by.

“Regardless of age, food plays an important part in all of our lives, and there’s something special about the way the senses have the ability to evoke happy memories and emotions – which is why keeping old family recipes bubbling away and sharing them with younger generations is so important.

“It was fantastic to welcome pupils from Sevenoaks School to Weald Heights for an afternoon spent cooking! Everyone had a great time talking about their favourite foods – and seeing the pupils get into a pickle with weird and wonderful names of foods from the pasts was certainly the cherry on the cake!” 

To find out more about Care UK’s Recipes to remember initiative or to download your copy of the recipe book, please visit: careuk.com/recipes-to-remember

Weald Heights is a purpose-built care home designed to deliver luxury hotel-style comfort for residents, complete with a café, hair and beauty salon, cinema and beautiful gardens. The home is divided into separate residential, nursing and dementia care suites, encouraging close-knit communities where residents can get to know each other, and where people with similar needs can be cared for together.