Meals on wheels does not exist anymore?

[Wheelymeals]

About 20 years ago, there was a meals on wheels service in my local area. The idea was that elderly people who could not cook would get a freshly cooked meal delivered to their door paid for by the council.

I had to enquire today for an elderly lady and the council said they closed the scheme several years ago. So I asked what are these people meant to do.

Option 1 - buy frozen food and microwave it.

Option 2 - pay for a food delivery service that is a business and also just available for lunch.

Option 3 - if they qualify for a carer, the carer will help them with food.

This does not make sense to me. I'm tried to look on the council website and they advertise the Option 2 I describe above.

Is this everywhere or did I misunderstand?

Parsley box

My mum and dad had it for a short while about 15 years ago. I know it has ceased since where they live.

Local council funding has been reduced such that many discretionary services have ended. Also why they are zealous about income generation such as parking charges.

Parsley Box say Why do the meals not require refrigeration?Our food is cooked using a steam heating process similar to home pressure cooking but on a larger scale. After cooking, the air-tight seal on each of our recyclable trays keeps the food from spoiling and allows our meals to be safely stored in the cupboard. No unnecessary preservatives are used, and the food will then keep for up to 6 months.

Much hinges on what 'unnecessary'' means.

The old meals on wheels hasn't existed for years.

There's some different options depending on where you live but free meals delivered to you stopped being a service for the elderly a long time ago. You've got the business who sell you frozen ready meals (but you'd get a better dinner from Tesco's frozen dinner section) and in some places things like churches and volunteers choose to help within the community but that's about it.

That's a shame my grandad definately used this until he passed 9 years ago!

I live in a small Northumberland village and our community centre has a thriving meals on wheels service, free for the elderly or anyone in need but available to everyone for a small charge. They do hundreds of Sunday dinners every week which helps fund it.

yes I see them in WGC all the time

Wiltshire farm foods deliver in my area. Tbh i wouldn't have expected the council to do this. I visit alot of house bound patients in my job

I used to buy my mum little ready meals from M&S. They were proper dinners but small. I froze all of them and then the carers lifted one out of the freezer and put it in the fridge every teatime so that it would be defrosted enough to microwave the following night. They only had 15 mins so not enough time to cook a fully frozen dinner. Lunch was yoghurts, fruit loaf, etc.

Don't get fixated on healthy. Elderly people sometimes just need calories. Doesn't really matter where they come from.

We have to buy wiltshire farm foods and organise for a volunteer carer from age concern to come in and cook it for my aunt. The volunteer cost £17! Her husband does most of her care so this is only respite.

https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/vital-meals-on-wheels-service-heading-for-uk-wide-collapse-without-government-intervention.html

It depends how much money you have and food or other support preferences.

I've just searched my area. The council suggests Apetito, which is expensive. A local charity advertises a free outreach service also offers to collect a few days each week. Then there's Wiltshire Farm Foods, Home Cooks, Khana prep, Bare Nutrition, Oakhouse Foods, Sussex Farmhouse Meals with some hot but mostly microwave meal options. Almost every supermarket could deliver a mix of microwave meals and sandwiches etc; if you could meal plan that would be the most flexible option. Lots of local restaurant and cafes here will deliver, or there's just eat etc.

If she needs help, then a cleaner or carer might put on a meal from whatever you pre-buy for delivery; you'd need to find someone you can trust, but that would be a good option as there is time to make a toastie and soup, or for something to oven cook and be served fresh; even if it's an easier supermarket meal, lasagne or a baked potato, pie or chips for example are all much nicer in the oven.

My dm gets a Tesco delivery and they told me they'd put her food away for her if she needed them to.

There are luncheon clubs where she lives too - one of them would pick her up on a bus & drop her off (she won't go as she'd have to talk to people ) and the other one she could walk to but then she'd have to talk to people from the village )

When she was recovering from an illness carers came in 4x a day & helped her to cook her meals or cooked for her if she wasn't feeling well enough.

Agree with the advice to get social services assessment and put a claim in for attendance allowance. If you ring up for a form the claim is paid from that date rather than date of receipt if you do it online. Age Concern have helpful info on their website about how to complete the form. It is long and complicated but once it's done I don't think you need to do it again unless they get worse. Not means tested and can be very useful.

Cook meals are lovely (definitely the best) but M&S have a very big range. X

It's available in my London borough, but not from our council - the service is outsourced to the nearest borough that still offers it (which can mean meals arrive quite late as it's a bit of a drive).

Honestly though, the meals are horrid - nasty little foil trays of slop, like the worst airline meal you can imagine! If you need e.g. a soft food option then Farm Foods is good, otherwise just get microwave ready meals from a supermarket - cheaper and probably nicer.

Carers do lots of things. are you thinking of those carers that visit morning, noon , night ? They dont have a lot of time, so things like sandwiches and ready meals are best. They also make sure medication is taken and get them up, ready for bed. Depending on what is asked for/needed. These cost money.

If your thinking of like me who is a carer, I dont cook, she's still capable of cooking, but I do order her food online, I'm there when its delivered and put it away. Make visits to chemists, arrange appointments and do online banking with her. I dont get paid, but as her needs increase, I'll be farming it out at a cost to her.

Just because its interesting to me and brings back memories, I used to make the meals for meals on wheels in a local Jewish centre. A very very long time ago. I wasnt impressed to be honest. Although allegedly the meals were delivered hot, they were made mid morning and sat there until drivers came for them. I bet most people got them vaguely warm, some got tepid and the rest were cold.
And they weren't free either.

Disappeared 15 + years ago here (urban with lots of need). Carers we had would only microwave not cook, and not shop because of money and time. I ended up paying cleaner to shop for ready meals and carers to heat up- a high salt, low veg diet. Crap and resulted in major health issues.

'Ping' meals from supermarkets are better, alongside the bags of frozen veg you can put in a microwave, plus potted fruit, yoghurts. Worth investigating options, as we tried Wiltshire foods and frankly, they were crap. A friend's Mum has access to meals from a local pub, that delivers plated meals, which is something that might be an option where you live, as there's an awareness of the need. Unfortunately local authority care is rarer than rocking horse poo in most areas!

It honestly depends on where you live, we have one on the midlands, the council stopped it but someone privately took it over. I have heard parsley box is ok too as well as the usual Wiltshire farm foods. Appetite is in some areas which I believe is owned by Wiltshire farm foods, they deliver hot lunch’s etc

We lost our council meals on wheels service a couple of years pre Covid. I know because my best friend used to work for them, she worked in the office and took the orders, placed them with the food company and then on some days delivered them in the afternoon depending of staffing. Most orders were placed on Mondays and Thursdays so it was full days in the office those 2 days manning the phones. She went from full time in 2012 to having her hours cut to 16 hours a week (2 full days Monday and Thursday) in 2014. Then in 2017 they made it 6 hours a week (Mondays) before slashing it completely the next financial year. They have also cut the community chiropodist as when they slashed her hours in 2014 they offered her 16 hours on the community chiropodist team where she would book people in. Again in 2017 that became another 6 hour contract and was slashed entirely.

Grandmother in law has used a selection of providers over the years. She's had supermarket ready meals (M&S was a firm favourite), then used Wiltshire farm foods. Then moved onto parsley box as they don't need to be refrigerated (she has early stages of dementia now and cannot be relied on to remember to fridge things).

Nana in Law is starting to have a lot of falls and keeps getting oven burns the last few months. We have started to encourage her to explore microwave meals. We've started with the supermarket ones. Near her and also in our town our local churches do "lunch clubs" on different days. Nana and Grandpa have started going to their local one. It's £5 each and they do a hot meal every Tuesday at 12. I know 2 of our local churches do them (I attend playgroups at the church so see the adverts) again between £5-8 per person and they do a different hot meal every week - next week is Xmas dinner. The local community hall also do a lunch club on Thursday and Saturday. They all seem to co-ordinate as each one does a different day and cooks something different. I know one of the ladies who volunteers at all 3 lunch clubs and she said there are a lot of people who go to all 3.

Sadly meals on wheels are not an essential service and local authorities have cut to the bone.

Forgot to add. Search Facebook too. A local lady who was a chef has started up a meals service very like meals on wheels. She cooks in her own kitchen and serves in Tupperware. She has a varied menu every week and you can order as many or few meals as you like. She is extremely popular.

Actual meals on wheels still exists in Sutton but I was speaking to their driver and he said there's virtually nowhere else in our area that still does it.

My bneighbours use a service, I think it's called Wilshire food or similar ( we aren't in Wiltshire) it comes every day

My dad's in his 90s, lives independently and relies on Wiltshire Foods. He really enjoys them and enjoys choosing his selection from the catalogue. His appetite is small, like most very elderly people.

I'm struggling to understand what the issue is?

If someone cant cook, then they are likely in receipt of care, whether that's paid for by them or the council will depend on their financial and health circumstances.

If they have a carer then they can do any of the above suggestions you made. What's wrong with that?

Lots of older, frail people also don't eat a full hot meal. They prefer more smaller snacks throughout the day. Half a sandwich here, a slice of cake there. Most don't want a full on dinner.

I'm also not sure why the council (most of which are already overspending) should have to fund for ALL older people; many of whom have a lot of equity ready to pass to their NOK. They should be funding their own care and meals where they can so as not to indebt the future generations even more.

I would contact your local Age UK for information and advice. They will have local information on a range of resources such as meals etc - and can help get extra money she may be entitled to.