Accessibility Tools

About this website

This is a unique and free to use website. For the first time, website visitors can:

  • Search a comprehensive database for details of Meals on Wheels providers who deliver to their address
  • Find out more about the benefits of Meals on Wheels
  • Discover a wealth of information and resources relating to Meals on Wheels

The Care Act 2014 legislates that high-quality information relating to social care services that prevent or delay the need for residential care (such as Meals on Wheels) should be easily accessible. However, until now, there has been no central information list of Meals on Wheels services in the UK. That’s why this website is so important.

You can also find out more via your Council’s Adult Social Care Services (for England), Social Care Services (for Wales), Social Care Department (for Scotland), or Health and Social Care Trust’s Social Care Assessment Teams (for Northern Ireland). 
 
However, our research showed that not all Council or Trust websites provide accurate or up-to-date information relating to Meals on Wheels providers. 

This website offers some of the most relevant and timely information available.

A photograph of a man in a wheelchair about to eat lasagne

About the Meals on Wheels UK map

Our research has identified approximately 280 Meals on Wheels providers who deliver locally, regionally or nationally across the UK. This is the first central information point to help you find providers who deliver to your address. This unique Meals on Wheels UK map was created specifically for this purpose and operates across all four UK nations. It is entirely free to use. By entering the first line of an address or a postcode, users of the map can find services to deliver Meals on Wheels to them.

Our research indicates that people value having key service details. So, where possible, we describe the meals offered, including those for special dietary or cultural requirements, the frequency and times of meal deliveries, costs and payment options, and whether wellbeing checks or help plating up a meal are provided. Further details can be found using the link to each provider’s website.

The development of this map was funded by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, Impact Accelerator Account (project A100505, 2024). The information used to develop the map was collected from online and publicly available resources, therefore complying with General Data Protection (GDPR) regulations, under a Research Capability Funding grant from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (2023).

A photo showing a selection of meals from Apetito

Photo courtesy Apetito © 2024

Our Aim

We aim to:

  • Raise awareness of Meals on Wheels in the UK
  • Make finding a Meals on Wheels provider easier for potential service users and those wishing to refer someone to the service
  • Continue to identify Meals on Wheels providers delivering to communities across the UK

By making our research available to you, we hope to raise awareness of Meals on Wheels in the UK, as a service that supports those who wish to continue living independently in their own homes and communities.

The development of this website was funded by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council, Impact Accelerator Account (project A100505, 2024).

Why Meals on Wheels?

Meals on Wheels services provide meals and social contact to adults who cannot leave their home to shop for food, or prepare their own meals

More than 20 million adults in the UK could benefit from Meals on Wheels due to old age, or because they live with long-term conditions or disabilities

However, our research has shown that many people do not know that Meals on Wheels still exist.

Our work also suggests that those who are aware of Meals on Wheels don’t necessarily appreciate the benefits surrounding the service. It really is more than just a meal.

Who does this website help and how?

Adults based in the UK who are considering ordering Meals on Wheels, their carers, and the wider public, because we can signpost you to providers plus offer valuable resources

Meals on Wheels providers, health and social care professionals, commissioners and policymakers in the UK, because we act as an information point and resource hub to foster collaboration and informed decision-making to enhance Meals on Wheels services

Social care researchers who would like to learn more about Meals on Wheels services in the UK

About us

Portrait photo of Dr Angeliki Papadaki

Dr Angeliki Papadaki
Associate Professor

Dr Angeliki Papadaki is an Associate Professor in Public Health Nutrition at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol.

She is a specialist in the study of dietary patterns, with a particular interest in traditional diets. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, her research expanded to the investigation of food provision models for adults with care and support needs. At present she is working on examining the role of Meals on Wheels services in Adult Social Care provision. She is a member of the National Association for Care Catering and First Editor of the British Journal of Nutrition.

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Portrait photo of Rayne Roberts

Rayne Roberts
Senior Research Associate

Rayne Roberts is a Research Associate at the Centre for Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences, University of Bristol, with an interest in how nutrition and physical activity affect quality of life.

Rayne is currently the Research Associate for the Meals on Wheels UK Map Project. Her previous research has included a rapid review, where she conducted desktop research to document the Meals on Wheels providers and provision models in the UK, and an online review about the quality of Meals on Wheels information in Local Authority websites. She is a graduate of the University of Bristol (2021).

Other members of our Meals on Wheels research team include

Professor Ailsa Cameron, Professor of Health and Social Care, University of Bristol
Professor Paul Willis, Professor of Adult Social Care, Cardiff University
Dr Demi Patsios, Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol
Dr Joanna Thorn, Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol
Dr Miranda Armstrong, Associate Professor, University of Bristol
Dr Becky Lambert, Senior Research Associate, University of Bristol
Yijing Zhang, Doctoral Candidate, University of Bristol
Dr Mary Wakeham, Research Associate
Paul Barrington, Web Developer

Since 2022, we have worked with users of Meals on Wheels services and / or those who have referred a family member to them. Their lived experience of Meals on Wheels has been invaluable to our research. We very much consider this group to be an active member of our research team and we would like to give our sincere thanks for helping us set priorities for our research.

This website, and our Meals on Wheels UK map, were user-tested by this group of people with lived experience of Meals on Wheels, and a group of health and care professionals and Meals on Wheels providers. We are indebted to them for their constructive feedback and suggestions, which was indispensable to produce this site’s content and design. Our partners, Healthwatch Bristol and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board, have also provided feedback on the website and map.