Foodservice: Serafico Institute Experience

Foodservice has an important role in health care: it is an indispensable tool for the prevention and treatment of diseases related to an impaired state of nutrition. The foodservice must reach an optimal level for nutritional and sensory quality, fundamental aspects for preparations aimed at users with physical and intellectual disabilities. The Serafico Institute in Assisi (SA) is a health care facility that houses disabled users and is concerned with their rehabilitation and with guaranteeing them an optimal quality of life. Our food model of reference is the Mediterranean Diet: widely studied and validated for the prevention of chronic degenerative diseases. Dietary proposals change throughout the year following the alternation of seasons, holidays and religious festivities.

The SA currently houses 82 resident and 27 semi-resident users. Residents range in age from 11 to 52 and are housed in 5 different dwellings, eating all meals internally: breakfast, lunch, dinner and one or two snacks according to personal needs. Semi-residents attend SA only during daytime hours are divided into two groups according to their age: infancy and adult. They do not all attend for the whole week. They only consume lunch internally.

The goal of our foodservice experience is to protect the sensory and nutritional quality of our users to ensure their adequate living and health conditions.Meals provided must first and foremost guarantee the requirements of food safety and food security, adapting the definitions themselves to the context, considering them an irreplaceable complement to the pathways of prevention and treatment. They represent an indispensable tool in the prevention and treatment of many diseases. Malnutrition by default or excess has a high impact on health management of individual users, representing often the "disease within a disease." The repercussion on their quality of life and care costs is known and therefore it is to be managed carefully and by promoting as much as possible the culture of prevention.

Food is nourishment for the soul and the body. Celebrating anniversaries, birthdays, celebrating every single day becomes an opportunity to give dignity to each of our youngsters, recognizing their physiological and emotional needs, the need to share the experience with others. Mealtime is an important time for every real or acquired family; it is a privileged relationship occasion in which we have the opportunity to develop numerous aspects central to the growth of each of us. We strongly believe that the dignity of each and every one of our yongsters also comes from the care we take in their nutrition and the way it is administered.