In a care home, residents rely on consistent, well-prepared food every day, and many have specific dietary and nutritional needs that must not be disrupted by building work. When your kitchen is being refurbished, or it fails without warning, PKL keeps mealtimes running exactly as residents need and expect. We supply commercial temporary kitchens and catering equipment to care homes across the UK, delivered and installed as a managed service, so you keep serving residents on site and on time while we handle the temporary kitchen facility.
What we Provide for Care Homes
We supply a suitable facility based on the size of the care home, the number of meals being served per day, and the length of the project:
Dining and Office Units
A kitchen refurbishment often takes the dining room and the staff areas with it. Dining and office units link on to the temporary kitchen to give residents somewhere to eat and staff somewhere to work, and they can be combined to make a facility of any size for the length of the rental
One Partner from Design to Handover
When Does a Care Home Need a Temporary Kitchen
The usual trigger is a planned kitchen refurbishment that has to happen while the care home stays fully occupied. Cooking cannot stop for a prolonged period, so a temporary kitchen runs alongside the works and the catering team carries on as normal. Others come to us after a kitchen breakdown, when a fire or flood takes the kitchen offline, or when an ageing kitchen no longer meets the care home's needs and a replacement is being planned and built.
Whatever the cause, the priority is the same: hot, safe, familiar meals served to schedule, with as little disruption to residents and staff as possible.
Why Continuity Matters More Here
A care home cannot ask residents to wait, skip a meal, or eat cold food while a kitchen is rebuilt. Many residents have texture-modified diets, allergies or medical nutrition plans that have to be followed precisely. A temporary kitchen must allow the catering team to reproduce the full menu, not a reduced one, for the whole project. That is the standard we design to: a like-for-like kitchen, specified to the home's menu and resident numbers, ready to cook from day one.
Working Around an Occupied Care Home
A care home is a home, not a building site, and we treat it that way. We plan delivery, positioning and any crane lift to keep residents away from the works, minimise noise and disruption at mealtimes, and keep access routes clear. Every kitchen is commercial grade, prepared and tested at our specialist facility before being delivered to site, and finished to the hygiene standards the setting demands. A 24-hour on-call line supports the hire throughout, and for emergencies we can often respond the same day.
Meeting CQC and Food Safety Standards
A care home kitchen is inspected against Care Quality Commission expectations whether it is the permanent kitchen or a temporary replacement, so every PKL facility is specified to meet them from the day it is handed over. Layouts are drawn to keep clean and dirty flows apart and to make daily cleaning straightforward, which is what holds contamination risk down.
Layout also decides how well a small team copes. A temporary kitchen planned around the home's actual menu and resident numbers, rather than dropped in as a standard box, is what keeps meals going out on time while the main kitchen is out of use.
Why Care Homes Choose PKL
With more than 35 years supplying temporary catering facilities and over 15,000 facilities delivered, we are used to working carefully around sensitive, occupied sites. The service is fully managed: site survey, kitchen design, equipment preparation and testing, delivery and installation, support throughout, then removal and reinstatement at the end.
Site
Survey
Kitchen
Design
Equipment Preparation
and Testing
Delivery and
Installation
Dedicated
Service Team
A Complete Kitchen Solution
Care Homes we have Supported
We have provided temporary kitchens for care homes during refurbishment and emergencies, including a kitchen refurbishment for a 62-bed care home and a temporary kitchen during refurbishment at Bethesda care home.
What is Included in Every Care Home Kitchen Hire
If required, each project includes a site survey and a layout designed around the care home’s menu and resident numbers, with equipment prepared and tested before delivery, transport and installation, and 24-hour on-call support for the duration. Where the site lacks services we can arrange power, water and waste, and at the end of the hire we remove the facility and reinstate the space. PKL is accredited to ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, and holds CHAS, SAFEcontractor, Gas Safe and F-Gas, so the assurances a care operator and its insurers look for are in place from the start.
FAQs
- 1
Can residents keep getting their normal meals during the works?
Yes. The temporary kitchen runs alongside the refurbishment so the catering team prepares the same meals to the same schedule throughout.
- 2
Can the kitchen handle special and texture-modified diets?
Yes. We specify the kitchen and refrigeration to the home’s menu and resident needs, so the full range of diets can be prepared.
- 3
How quickly can you help in an emergency?
We run a 24-hour line, 365 days a year, and can often deliver an emergency kitchen the same day, depending on what is needed.
- 4
How disruptive is the installation for residents?
We plan delivery, positioning and any lift to keep residents away from the works and to avoid mealtime disruption. Most installations are completed quickly and quietly.
- 5
Is there a minimum or maximum hire period?
No. The facility stays only for as short or as long as you need it.
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