Residents have their say on new village café experience

Bupa Parkstone Retirement Village

The Café Focus Group at Bupa Parkstone Retirement Village in Ilam, Christchurch provided their feedback on the potential cabinet food for a new village café experience. The group enjoyed tasting both savoury and sweet items including muffins, macarons and wraps.

It was a thumbs up for the delicious carrot cake and bite sized ginger slice, and a thumbs down for the crumbly Vietnamese spring rolls.

Harvey Bray, who has been a resident at Bupa Parkstone Retirement Village for five years, says he’s looking for food that’s easy to eat, wholesome, and nutritious.

“It’s really important that we have our say and are part of this, after all this café will be at our home and we are the village. A lot of people I talk to about the possibility of retirement village living are frightened they’ll lose their independence and that’s just not true, we even have a say on our own café.”

Other feedback from the group was around making sure portion sizes aren’t too large, choices for their grandchildren when they come to visit, such as the lollie cake they tried. There were also comments on ensuring the café will have gluten free, and vegan options too.

Jan Summerell, Bupa National Hospitality Services Manager says the village residents are really excited about the opportunity to give feedback on a new café experience.

“We want to provide a café that not only our residents want to visit, but also their families and the local Ilam community. Backing local is important to us too, that’s why we’ll be serving Jail Breaker coffee, a Christchurch based roastery.”

The group have named the café as Cafe Corfe (pronounced corfay), and it’s scheduled to open in late October, three days a week – Friday to Sunday from 10am till 4pm.