news story

2nd October 2007

Celebrating National Meals on Wheels Week

Steve Webb MP and Cllr Howard Gawler make a meals on wheels delivery to Mrs Jones of Yate

To celebrate national Meals on Wheels Week, local MP Steve Webb yesterday joined local Councillor Howard Gawler and the Meals on Wheels team in dishing up meals at King Edmund's School and making deliveries to local residents.

Meals on wheels is 60 years old this week. In South Gloucestershire the service is changing to a new and innovative scheme where school kitchens are used to provide fresher and more nutritional meals to older and disabled people.


Six schools are already signed up to the new look service, St Chad's Patchway Primary School, Bradley Stoke Community School, Hanham High School, Kingsfield Secondary School, King Edmund Community School and Mangotsfield Secondary School.

By the end of the year the scheme is expected to roll out to the rest of the district. The benefit to clients is that they will be eating the same fresh and organic produce used by the school meals service, and, they have a direct link with the local school, bringing communities closer together.


Commenting on the new scheme, Cllr Gawler said:

“It’s a pleasure to see all the hard work put in by Council staff to make sure the new meals on wheels service arrives at last. It hardly seems any time since I had the pleasure of tasting the food as it went through the safety and quality checking process.

"We all know Jamie Oliver learnt from the innovation here in South Gloucestershire when he was trying to improve children’s health by improving school meals. So it’s quite right that we should be serving up the same quality for our elderly residents.”