About – Meals on Wheels UK

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 166 Meals on Wheels providers who deliver locally or regionally 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

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 wider benefits of 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 information and 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.

Meals on Wheels UK is a research- and impact-driven project hosted by the University of Bristol.

The project combines social care and public health research with GIS mapping and predictive modelling to provide a national picture of Meals on Wheels service provision, predicted demand, and unmet need across the UK.

Our work is designed to support local government and system partners in planning meal support services around real need. By bringing together validated provider data with demographic and health-related indicators of predicted service demand, Meals on Wheels UK enables identification of gaps in provision and supports more targeted, prevention-focused service planning.

In addition to national analysis, Meals on Wheels UK develops local-level data reports and strategic insights to support decision-making, service planning, commissioning, and partnership development across local government, the NHS, the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector, and Meals on Wheels providers.

The project is underpinned by a commitment to equity, aiming to improve access to meal support services for adults with care needs, support independence, and reduce inequalities.

Meals on Wheels UK

Preventing need.

Supporting independence.

Reducing inequalities.

About us

Professor Angeliki Papadaki
Project Lead, Meals on Wheels UK

Angeliki is Professor of Public Health Nutrition at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol.

Her expertise lies in prevention, health inequalities, and the role of nutrition in supporting independence and wellbeing in adults with care needs.

Her work focuses on generating evidence to inform policy and practice, with a particular interest in how community-based services, like Meals on Wheels, can support healthy ageing and reduce pressures on health and social care systems.

Angeliki leads the strategic direction, partnerships, and delivery of the Meals on Wheels UK project.

Linda Sumpter, Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol

Dr Linda Sumpter
Senior Researcher

Linda is a Senior Research Associate in Social Care Research at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol.

Linda’s research interests include social care with adults, especially older adults, reablement, older people’s community-based support interventions, assisted living and closing the research-practice gap.

For Meals on Wheels UK, Linda leads data integration, provider validation, and stakeholder engagement.

Other members (current and past) of the Meals on Wheels UK team include:

Paul Barrington, Meals on Wheels UK GIS Analyst and Web Developer

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, Associate Professor in Health Economics, University of Bristol

Rayne Roberts, Senior Research Associate
Dr Becky Lambert, Senior Research Associate, University of Bristol
Yijing Zhang, Doctoral candidate, University of Bristol
Dr Mary Wakeham, Research Associate

Since 2022, we have worked closely 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 website’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.