Located in a quiet corner of Serangoon Gardens, the Singapore Cheshire home has been a providing a residential home and day care centre for the physically disabled and handicapped since 1984.

The home was founded in 1956 by Group Captain Leonard Cheshire VC and located formerly in Changi. The home sees the provision of meals as one of the most important of its services. So from a small and antiquated kitchen, three cooks face the daily challenge of producing over four hundred tasty individual meal portions a day spread over three meal times.

“Good home cooking is how we like to think of the meals we provide,” says Mrs Chan Chooi Ling PBM, Chairperson of the homes’ Management Committee. “ We all eat the same thing, residents, day-care clients and even the staff who mostly have lunch in. In total Cheshire home feeds 65 residents and about 35 day care clients every day.”

Proud of their spinach harvest.

The home gets through quite a lot of food every week, “ the residents eat least 15-20kg of meat and vegetables a day, not to mention the rice and other necessities like oil, sauces and spices,” says Ong Tui Fong one of the home’s cooks.

Though their pantries hold a lot of food, it is a constant battle to keep them full. In fact, the Cheshire home accepts donations of every sort of food, but rice, cooking oil, packaged or tinned foods that are within their ‘best before’ dates make the best contributions according to Mrs. Chan.

She also says the residents really appreciate the fact that some restaurants and bakeries also contribute their excess stock to the home. “They give pastries, bread and cakes which are much loved treats by our residents, although we do watch what they eat so they have a balanced and healthy diet,” says the active octogenarian who has been the chairperson at the home for fifteen years and has been involved in the home for over fifty-three years in various capacities.

The lunch menu on the day of our visit was sweet and sour fish and mixed vegetables with rice, with bananas for dessert. Their halal kitchen had the same menu, along with the addition of some spiced dahl (lentils).

“Our kitchens haven’t changed since 1984 and are badly in need of a refit. However as with every charity, money is hard to come by and we would love to find a kind company or person who could contribute their time and resources to our kitchen revamp,” Mrs. Chan appealed.

The Cheshire home also has various food related programs by which the public can help as volunteers. You can help take residents out for a hawker centre meal as a change from their normal diet or even become a gardener for a day in their hydroponic vegetable growing program or their sense and herbal garden. The sense and herbal garden is therapy for the residents and is enjoyed for its pleasing aroma as well as its herbal remedies.

Residents show us their herb garden.

Residents Tay Poh Moi and Yeo Chong Choo showed us several fruit trees, flowers and herbs that they cultivate to augment their diet and use as health supplements.

Back in the kitchens, cook Ong Min Choo who has been with the home for over fifteen years, proudly says, “ this spinach is part of our last crop, our hydrophonic vegetable garden isn’t just good occupational therapy for the residents, but also a nice way to supplement our diet.”

All those who would like to help with any Cheshire home programs should look on their website  .

The Singapore Cheshire Home
159 Serangoon Garden Way
Singapore 556056
Tel: 6284-0966
Fax: 6284-2782

* All pictures courtesy of Guy Hoh.