Cordia roll-out new ‘meals of wheels’ service for Glasgow’s elderly

Glasgow City Council’s home care organisation Cordia is rolling-out a new service to deliver hot two-course meals for elderly residents of Glasgow. The service will run seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Delivered by ICare Group Ltd, Cordia will introduce the ‘meals on wheels’ initiative for service users who currently receive a home care over lunchtime.
 
An ICare community assistant will bring a hot main-course and dessert directly to service users’ homes, providing dishes from an extensive menu. Each meal is nutritionally balanced and clients can select a combination of their choice, along with a cold drink to be served using their own crockery and cutlery. A wide range of dietary requirements can be catered for including culturally sensitive options.
 
Community assistants will check-in with and greet the client, ensuring they’re in good health. If it is suspected someone is unwell the Cordia home-care team will be immediately contacted.
 
All ICare community assistants have been given a full PVG check and will wear appropriate ID badges with distinctive ICare purple polo shirts and fleeces.
 
Frances McMeeking, Cordia’s Head of Care Services said: “This new service will provide hot, high-quality meals to many of our elderly service users at lunchtime. Selecting from a large menu range, service users no-longer have to worry about running low on groceries, helping to sustain a balanced diet.
 
“It will enable our team of home-carers to visit service users who need a broader range of more complex services rather than simple meal preparation, helping us to support even more of Glasgow’s aging population.
 
“It’s also important to stress home-care teams are never far away and can be immediately dispatched if a community assistant detects a client is unwell.
 
“We have worked hard to find a partner which places such an emphasis on high-quality food delivered by a friendly and reliable team, conforming to strict criteria set out by the National Association of Care Catering (NACC.)
 
”Meals on Wheels was an extremely popular service which was held with great fondness by the city’s elderly. Having additional regular interaction with someone who is bringing you food has an important social benefit especially if you live alone.”
 
ICare, which prepares and delivers around 40,000 meals across the UK each week, has established a Scottish hub in Queenslie, creating 29 jobs in the process. The cost of each meal to service users is £1.50 and this is the least expensive in Scotland.