{"id":393905,"date":"2026-03-19T22:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/393905\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T22:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:01:11","slug":"maggie-beer-brings-aged-care-nutrition-project-to-outback-renal-health-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/393905\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie Beer brings aged care nutrition project to outback renal health hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian culinary icon Maggie Beer is in Alice Springs training workers at an Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation that provides dialysis and aged care for people with kidney failure.<\/p>\n

Her work at Purple House is part of her foundation’s effort to transform food and menus in aged care homes across Australia.<\/p>\n

Ms Beer was lured to central Australia by Purple House CEO Sarah Brown’s promise of a feral-cat sandwich.<\/p>\n

“We talked a lot about cooking kangaroo tails and then I also told her about how one of our directors \u2026 had recently cooked us a feral cat from Kiwirrkurra,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Brown said.<\/p>\n

“She got very excited about this and I said, ‘Well if you come to Alice Springs and do some cooking classes with us, then Bobby West will teach you how to cook a pussycat and you can have a pussycat sandwich for lunch,'” Ms Brown said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Maggie Beer and Sarah Brown meet at Purple House in Alice Springs. (ABC Alice Springs: Emma Haskin)<\/p>\n

Ms Brown said they were unfortunately unable to secure a feral cat due to recent rain in the region.<\/p>\n

She said having a team from the Maggie Beer Foundation was crucial to providing nutritional food and keeping elderly people living on country in their homelands.<\/p>\n

Remote community celebrates anniversary of dialysis breakthrough<\/a><\/p>\n

Smithy Zimran died before he could realise his dream of receiving dialysis on country, but his legacy lives on.<\/p>\n

“We cook thousands of meals every year, both for dialysis patients in town and we run aged care in Mount Liebig and Yuendumu,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It can be a bit of a slog, so for people to have the opportunity to step out of their day job role and have some fun with food \u2026 is really important.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Brown said hosting the Maggie Beer Foundation on Close the Gap Day highlighted how Purple House was “thinking outside the square”.<\/p>\n

“It’s all about agency and having a voice and having some hope and that’s what Purple House is all about,” she said.<\/p>\n

Malnutrition dangers<\/p>\n

Ms Beer said her foundation was hoping to transform nutrition and food across the aged care landscape by sharing knowledge and empowering cooks and chefs.<\/p>\n

“We can set them up for success by sharing what we’ve learned over many years about beautiful food that is simple, accessible, affordable, that can be done for 100 people at a time,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.<\/p>\n

She said malnutrition was the biggest danger for elderly residents.<\/p>\n

Maggie Beer Foundation brings training to aged care homes to improve dining offerings<\/a><\/p>\n

Aged care kitchens are improving the nutrition, variety and taste of their meals to bring flow-on benefits to residents.<\/p>\n

“We have to think of it from so many points of view, like texture modified dysphagia, that inability to swallow.”<\/p>\n

“You have to tempt a resident to eat and what is going to give them joy as well as sustenance.”<\/p>\n

Cookery challenge<\/p>\n

Maggie Beer Foundation senior chef trainer Paul MacDonald worked in the kitchen with the course participants.<\/p>\n

“Today we’ve got a cookery challenge. We’re cooking lunch for 15 people in 90 minutes from scratch,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr MacDonald said the menu comprised of barramundi wrapped in banana leaves, lemon blueberry high protein cakes, fresh vegetables, and thyme crumbed pork steak.<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

A cookery challenge was held at Purple House. (ABC Alice Springs: Emma Haskin)<\/p>\n

“The idea behind this is we’re simulating a real-life kitchen, real-life drama, real-life pressure,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“It is fun but we’re throwing in some curveballs.”<\/p>\n

Mr MacDonald said it was important to be able to improvise, adapt and overcome challenges.<\/p>\n

\"Food<\/p>\n

Some of the food prepared in the cookery challenge. (ABC News: Victoria Ellis)<\/p>\n

“Where we are is a remote location so we can’t always get what we need,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re in Alice but it’s flooded so some of the ingredients we haven’t got.”<\/p>\n

Mr MacDonald said working with flavour and nutrition was vital.<\/p>\n

“That’s how we keep people healthier for longer,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Good nutrition throughout the day.”<\/p>\n

Everyone’s role<\/p>\n

Dolly Hampton, who has worked as Purple House’s laundry manager for more than three years, was relishing the opportunity to learn more about providing nutritious food.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Paul MacDonald gives some advice to Dolly Hampton. (ABC Alice Springs: Emma Haskin)<\/p>\n

“I do jump in the kitchen at times, just to help out,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Hampton said she was making a dessert as part of the training.<\/p>\n

“We are doing an oven-baked custard and lemon yoghurt blueberry cake,” she said.<\/p>\n

“[I’m] learning about what foods to include for our patients.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said she also learnt about how to cater for diabetic and renal clients.<\/p>\n

“[It’s also about] putting variety into the food and making it look even more appetising,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.<\/p>\n

“With the drinks too because they don’t always want water or cup of tea.”<\/p>\n

Ms Hampton said the course was fantastic.<\/p>\n

“They’re also teaching us if we don’t have the ingredient, we can \u2026 substitute something else,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian culinary icon Maggie Beer is in Alice Springs training workers at an Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[277],"tags":[75029,19745,18,135,19,4660,17,179605,179606,508,179607,179608],"class_list":["post-393905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-aboriginal","tag-aged-care","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-indigenous","tag-ireland","tag-maggie-beer","tag-maggie-beer-foundation","tag-nutrition","tag-purple-house","tag-renal-health-hub"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}