Meals at Home become twice as popular
Friday, October 6 2006
The number of elderly, disabled and housebound people taking Scottish Borders Council's Meals at Home has more than doubled since the Council appointed a new company to provide the service.
Confidence in the Meals at Home service has soared since April 1st, when Apetito, a company with an established reputation in top-quality home catering, took over the contract. The new service has not attracted one single complaint.
SBC Executive Spokeswoman for Social Work, Councillor Carolyn Riddell-Carre, said, "The uptake of Meals at Home has increased from 130 to 307 (136%) since the new service provider started. Apetito pays particular attention to the quality of the food it supplies. So far, this seems to be paying off, but, to make sure, we are about to conduct a customer satisfaction survey to check that service users really are happy with the new service."
The new menus offer a range of 56 main courses and 54 hot and cold deserts, as well as a selection of soups. Choices include favourite dishes such as roast beef or haggis, and there are menus for ethnic minorities, vegetarians and people who need to eat a special diet for health reasons.
A two-course meal costs £2.20p.
Andrew Lowe, SBC Director of Social Work, said, “The Meals at Home service is a very important part of the Council’s approach to supporting people in their own homes for as long as possible. Apetito has an excellent track record of delivering a similar service in many other areas of Scotland and the company has supplied us with an excellent service of high-quality, nutritious food in its first six months.”
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