Meals at Home

Meals at Home

Shopping and cooking for yourself or someone you care for can sometimes be difficult.  We can help by delivering hot, nutritious, great-tasting dishes direct to you at home.

Our Meals at Home service offers freshly prepared, two-course lunches on a daily basis. The service operates every day of the year including Christmas Day and bank holidays.

We can deliver meals to you on a long term, short term or emergency basis every day, up to seven days a week, 365 days a year. 

Our meals are planned on a three week cycle and we offer a range of options each day, including a meat based main course and a vegetarian option.

All of our meals are traditionally cooked from fresh ingredients on the day you get them.

Our friendly drivers are fully Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) police checked.

Who is Meals at Home for?

Meals at Home is now available for anyone who would like to use it.

We also provide meals to residential accommodation, lunch clubs and day centres. 

If you are running a lunch club or thinking about setting one up, why not talk to us about the meal options we can provide?  We can arrange for a free, no obligation taster session.

Lunch clubs offer a variety of well-known benefits, they provide:

  • a hot meal;
  • an opportunity to keep active and get out of the house; and
  • an opportunity to meet other people and catch up with friends;

If you run a lunch club or are thinking of setting one up, we can provide your meals.  We can provide hot meals in the serving option of your choice, such as:

  • delivered individually packaged, ready to serve; or
  • delivered in large serving dishes for you to serve up (a more economical choice).

Why choose our Meals at Home service?

Our Meals at Home service is prepared to high standards producing quality meals.  Here are some good reasons why you should choose our service:

  • We ensure that we produce meals that are nutritionally balanced and in line with the Caroline Walker National Guidelines.  These guidelines encourage healthy eating and all of our menus can be adapted to your needs.
  • We ensure our meals reach you piping hot and ready to eat.
  • Meals at Home can help you remain living independently by making sure you get a hot meal.
  • We make sure, wherever possible that the same regular drivers will be delivering your meal so you'll see a familiar face.
  • Our drivers will arrange to call the designated first point of contact if they are concerned for your wellbeing.
  • We have reporting mechanisms in place to report concerns.
  • You can order meals for just short periods to cover temporary situations such as your carers being away or poorly or if you are recovering from an illness or operation yourself.

Locally produced meals from local ingredients

All our meals are produced by locally employed staff at our kitchen in Newcastle.  We also use locally sourced ingredients where possible.

This means that we can deliver our meals quickly and economically whilst also supporting the local economy and protecting the environment.

Menu

You have three savoury options to choose from each day and a choice of a hot or cold dessert.  We also provide a small carton of fruit juice to help with hydration and supplement your vitamin C.

To request a copy of our menus, please email meals@newcastle.gov.uk or call 0191 277 3978 (8am to 4pm, Mon to Fri; and 8am to 1:30pm, Sat and Sun)

Information about allergens in our current menu's dishes is available to download.

Choosing and ordering meals

We've made it really easy to arrange your meals. You can order meals every day or for just the days you want each week.

Meals are delivered over a lunch time between 11am and 2pm.

Once you are a customer our delivery driver will give you a form where you can select your meal choices for the following week.  If you need help with this form the driver can help you to fill this in.

Catering for special diets

We can cater for a wide variety of dietary needs.  If you have a special dietary need, please contact us and we will do our best to accommodate you.

If you require assistance

Our Meals at Home drivers can help to plate your meal, get cutlery and pour your drink.

Pricing and Payments

If you are a private client and have not been referred to us by Social Care Direct then the price is:

  • Two course meal - £6.70
  • Single course - £4.50

Meals are invoiced monthly and can be paid by direct debit, or over the phone with a credit or debit card.

For clients who have been referred by Social Care Direct you will be charged directly by Social Care Direct.

Allergen information (Natasha's Law)

From 1 October 2021 new legislation came into place relating to the packaging of food. This law will help protect customers through improved food labelling.

The law is split into three elements:

  • Food sold as prepacked for direct sale – It is now law that prepacked food is labelled
  • Food sold at the point of sale which is unwrapped – This does not need to be labelled
  • Distance selling – It is now law that food sold as distance selling is publicised as part of menus and advertisement must include details of the allergen information.

What Natasha's law means for Meals at Home?

Meals at home food is classed as distance selling as clients pre order food in advance of a delivery.

As the Meals at Home service we are informing our clients about allergen information in the following ways:

  1. The Meals at Home website includes information  about allergens found in our dishes (Please see our Menu section)
  2. When customers call to place an initial order for the Meals at Home Service our staff have all the allergen information relating to our menus. Please discuss any concerns you may have with the call handler.
  3. Both existing and new customers receive an information pack including allergen information.
  4. Meals at Home drivers have all been trained in this new law and have details of the menus in case customers wish to discuss.

Additional allergy information

Food Standards Agency

NHS food allergy information

Allergy UK

Additional care and support

If you require additional care and support needs either at home or to help you get out and about then you can find more information on our care and support pages.

Contact us

You can get in touch with us by:

Phone: 0191 277 3978 (8am to 4pm, Mon to Fri; and 8am to 1:30pm, Sat and Sun)

Email: meals@newcastle.gov.uk

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