Serving Comfort from the Kitchen at Kavanagh House

Something new is on the menu at Kavanagh House.  New Food Service Manager Rebecca Macbeth-Nuzum joined the staff over the summer.  She brought with her a love for cooking and, even more so, bringing people together.

"My favorite thing to cook is the next meal.  It's the next thing that I'm going to make," Rebecca says, "We want to put that exclamation point at the end of your day.  That's what we want to do with our food."

Rebecca has been filling the menu with daily specials along with the comfort classics that families and patients with dietary restrictions expect.  "We're doing daily specials.  Today, we're doing an au jus with a roast beef sandwich and a penne pasta salad.  Tomorrow we'll have chicken noodle soup that we're making from scratch; the next day it will be split pea," she says, "We like to have things that are maybe going to be a little bit more exciting and give folks an anticipation of what's coming next."

Rebecca recognizes that Kavanagh House is a unique environment, and she hopes her food can add to the comfort that visitors are seeking inside its walls. "Food is medicine.  Food brings people together," Rebecca says, "Sometimes the best part of your day is the next thing that you're going to eat.  Whether it's a good cup of soup, a sandwich, a sherbert sorbet – whatever we can do to bring a little fun and light to our residents."

And, she says, she recognizes the importance of some of the food that she serves, and that honor is always on her mind as she cooks with love.  "It's the best job that is going to break your heart.  You never know if your next meal is going to be someone's last meal.  So, you take that into care and importance, "That's why we're going to make it count.  We're going to make every meal count."