Young adults host ‘chicken shop’ at Jacksplace
Young adults at Jacksplace recently cooked and served lunch to everyone at Naomi House & Jacksplace!
After a ‘board meeting’ and some planning, the young adults decided to create a KFC-styled take away meal to serve to families and staff at the hospices. They worked in collaboration with our Play Team and Catering Team, researched the recipe, chose the products, priced up the menu, made a leaflet and advertised the event to family, staff and volunteers. They also nominated Play Specialist, Claire Floyd, to dress up as a chicken and give out leaflets at another event; the opening of new space, Jesters.
The menu consisted of chicken tenders and Quorn chicken tenders coated in seasoned breadcrumbs, homemade ‘slaw’, salted skin-on fries, southern gravy and a can of drink. To create the chicken shop feast, ingredients used included 150 pieces of chicken, 11 different herbs and spices, 20 eggs and over 3 kilograms of breadcrumbs!
Chefs, Ebony and Josh, who regularly visit Jacksplace, shared this about the experience:
We were asked what we wanted to do, and we chose cooking. We wanted to do something different and create our own takeaway. We ran a poll, and the most popular food choice was KFC and fried chicken, so we decided to open our very own chicken shop. Our favourite part of the process was, of course, tasting the final meal!
After preparing the ingredients and cooking the meal, young adults served the lunch to families and staff from across the hospices, preparing, cooking and serving over 40 people.
Mark Butterfield, Catering Manager at Naomi House & Jacksplace, said:
We’re here to enable the young adults to do what they want to do. Creating a chicken shop was their choice and they started from the very beginning, using all their skills to create their own business, from working out the recipe, pricing up the products to a budget, and advertising the event.
On the day, individual cooking tasks were assigned to suit each individual’s skills and abilities – it’s important to us to look at and embrace people’s abilities, not their disabilities. None of us expected over 40 orders, but everyone was organised on the day and the whole process was flawless. We all sat and ate together afterwards, and everyone was proud of what they had achieved. And… the chicken was delicious – 5 stars!
Claire Floyd, Play Specialist at Naomi House & Jacksplace, said:
The chicken shop was a huge success. It was great that everyone worked together as a team, including the catering team, play team and the young adults. Jacksplace is all about independence and the young adults did it all, from conception to completion, and that’s what it’s all about. And everyone was fed, which is a win!
Part and parcel of the chicken shop request from the young adults was me in a chicken suit! A lot of chicken puns were thrown around and we had a lot of fun! Keep an eye out for our catering plans for Wimbledon!
