We never know the stories of the people we help who come into our drop in centre until we speak to them. As well as finding out about their housing situation, we also need to know about health concerns in case they are taken ill. Our Drop-in centre team were given the amazing opportunity to have Jacqui McPeake of JACS an award-winning food allergen specialist with us last week. Jacqui offers Highfield Level 2 & 3 allergen training as well as bespoke courses and presentations she generously offered to give us an afternoon of training completely free. Our Drop-in centre session leader Jazmine had this to say about the training.

Having Jacqui in for the Allergen training was a big eye opener for us in the Beacon. We are donated food all the time and the training has brought to our attention that we don’t actually know what is in each dish. At the moment none of our guests have brought any severe allergies to our attention but we have decided to make a list so we can be as accommodating as possible. We have also to have set menus so the recipe for each meal won’t change, people will then know what food they can eat. The new menu board will also have the allergens in each meal so people can see from first glance. We want to make sure the Beacon is as safe an environment as possible and having the training has really helped us with this goal.

We're so thankful to her for this vital staff training so that we can be more aware of allergens and be better informed to keep our friends experiencing homelessness safe. To find out more about the outstanding training Jacqui offers please visit: https://jacsallergenmanagement.com/