On Christmas Day when many people around the world were feasting on turkey, Darlene Mitchell’s dad was eating bologna.
According to reports, Darlene Mitchell went to visit her father at Pioneer Village, a publicly-run nursing home, and was angered when she saw what the residents were being served on Christmas Day – a piece of bologna, a piece of salami, some “watery” macaroni salad, and a bun.
“It’s dismal, it’s depressing, it’s sad and it’s horrible that [this is how] these people are living the last years of their life,” Mitchell told CBC News. “So what would I like changed? A hot meal. This is Christmas day, but it’s not acceptable any day. Somebody meal-planned this meal. Somebody thought this was a good idea. I think we need better thinkers in charge of things like feeding our seniors.”
Out of anger, Mitchell took a picture of the meal and posted it to social media, and as expected, the image was widely shared. Now, Pioneer Village is responding to criticism, claiming that they fed residents a full turkey dinner at noon on Christmas, as they allegedly do every year.“We make sure the nutritional needs of our residents are met,” Michael Redenbach, vice president of integrated health services for the Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region, told CBC News in an email statement. “I don’t think we expect any one meal to provide all of the nutritional value that a resident would need. We need to look at the entire meal plan.”
Mitchell says she posted the photo on Facebook and wants accountability for the government-run care home.
“Once you know better, you do better, so I’m hoping that someone who sees this maybe will say ‘Hey, that probably wasn’t a good meal, so what could we do different?'” Mitchell said.
“I don’t ever want to walk in and see senior citizens slumped over eating sandwich meat on Christmas Day. That’s what you’d give a dog.”
Do you feel her anger is justified? What would you do or say if your loved one was subjected to a meal such as this?
Sources: CBC, Huffington Post Canada, CTV News Regina /Photo Source: CBC