19 December 2018

The Catering Team at Shropshire’s two acute hospitals is hoping to bring a little cheer to those who find themselves in hospital this Christmas.

The catering team at RSH with their food bank collection

The team has been working on a project to make Christmas Day lunch special for patients who will unfortunately need to spend the big day at either the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital (RSH) or the Princess Royal Hospital (PRH) in Telford.

For the second year in a row, the team has secured charitable funds through The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH), which runs the two hospitals, meaning that the hospitals can make Christmas lunch that little bit more special with a more exclusive range of Christmas crackers and napkins, along with a slice of Christmas cake and a healthy fruit juice drink for patients this year.

Nick Parkin, Senior Catering Manager, said: “We are committed to patient wellbeing whatever the time of year and we have been working extremely hard to bring this about. We are always trying to find ways to improve the experience of both patients and visitors alike – and this will hopefully enhance the experience for those who are unfortunate enough to find themselves in hospital over the festive period.”

The catering team from PRH collecting for the food bank

Ian Stuart, Catering Manager at RSH, added: “No one wants to spend their Christmas in hospital, so we wanted to do something to try and cheer patients up a little bit while they are here. We thought we would try and make Christmas Day lunch a bit of a treat with a few little extras for our patients.”

The Catering Team will also be serving up free breakfast baps for all Trust staff who are working on Christmas Day. This is in conjunction with SaTH’s wellbeing team and is a thank you for their hard work and continued commitment.

The team also have food bank donation boxes in both the Apley Restaurant at PRH and the Mytton Restaurant at RSH for people donate to foodbanks in Telford and Shrewsbury.

Nick said: “Christmas can be a time of many worries for a lot of people, but struggling to buy food should not be one of them. At SaTH we can make a difference to families and children across Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin by donating spare or unused items.”

The food collection is continuing until Friday (21 December). Donations will then be given to the food banks in Shrewsbury and Telford to help those in need.