Residents at Life Care Center of the South Shore Serve Up 'Spoonfuls of Friendship'

Every Monday for the past several months, three lady residents at Life Care Center of the South Shore convene in the kitchen to prepare meals, swap recipes, and tell stories about their lives.

Pasta, paninis, soups, shrimp scampi, Thai food––any kind of dish might find its way to their table, as these three women share a diverse palate and a passion for cooking.

They call their weekly gathering the Spoonfuls of Friendship. It’s a small group, tight-knit and maybe even a little exclusive. Each Monday, one resident proposes a new recipe, and the group prepares it the next.

On the surface, the group is simply friends coming together to cook, connect, and have fun, but Patrice Fitzgerald, Occupational Therapist at Life Care Center of the South Shore, says there is much more to this group than meets the eye.   

“Over the last few years, quality-of-life programs for residents have been my passion,” Patrice shared. “Occupational therapy can play a large part in promoting and maintaining patients’ independence in self-care skills, strength, and cognition, as well as social skills.”      

The ladies of the Spoonfuls group are Jeanine, Pru, and Carol. Pru first came to Life Care after suffering a stroke. She was younger than the average long-term resident and no longer able to walk or use her left hand.

After losing the ability to walk due to pain in her back and knees, Carol and her family decided it was time for her to be admitted to Life Care as a long-term resident. And Jeanine came to the facility to live with her husband after he was admitted for long-term care.

All three ladies came to Life Care with different backgrounds and varying needs, but when Patrice assessed them during their admissions processes, she noticed they all shared one thing in common.

She also noticed the perfect opportunity for a new quality-of-life program. 

“I decided to develop a program to fit their needs. They all loved to cook and expressed how this was the one thing they missed the most. Cooking was the common bond, so cooking would be the focus.”    

Thus, the Spoonfuls of Friendship was born.

Here’s how the group works. Each week, one of the members shares an old favorite recipe or one they found in a magazine and provides a basic list of ingredients.

Patrice procures the ingredients and brings them to the next meeting, where she and the residents go over the new recipe. This sparks conversation, which gives way to memories and stories.

As they work together chopping and mixing ingredients, more ideas and memories arise. They laugh, they smile, and they relish the opportunity to be back in the kitchen cooking again.        

And when the meal of the week is ready, the ladies dine right at the table where they prepared it.

What appears to be simple social fun to the average person is so much more to Patrice and the ladies of the group.

According to Patrice, the weekly activity engages the residents in a familiar and meaningful occupation, which evokes pleasant memories, strengthens social bonds, improves coordination, and promotes cognitive ability, such as planning, initiating, and problem-solving.

Cooking is a particularly effective therapeutic activity because it is “familiar, purposeful, and rich in sensory cues” that evoke memories of family, tradition, and culture. And purpose. The group format of Spoonfuls encourages teamwork, reduces isolation, and builds social bonds.

Or, as Patrice puts it, “The group is designed to promote quality of life.”        

Here are the ladies’ favorite dishes so far:

Crepes & baked Brie (Jeanine is from Paris)

Mahogany Chicken (Pru’s father’s special recipe)

Chicken, apple, and maple Dijon burger (One of Carol’s specialties)

For recent special occasions, the group got the chance to cook meals for their families and loved ones.

For her son’s graduation party, Pru made Spanakopita, a popular savory pie from Greece. Carol made chocolate mocha cupcakes for Thanksgiving dinner at her granddaughter’s house. And Jeanine made Chrusciki, a Polish pastry, for her family at the facility’s Christmas gathering.

This quality-of-life program is relatively new, but Patrice and the ladies don’t plan on letting a Monday go by without a session. There are too many recipes to share, prepare, and taste, and too many flavorful stories to pass around the table.

Next week’s meal is no doubt already in the works, and we can’t wait to see what they cook up! Only, we wish we could be there to taste it.