Susan Gledhill is sometimes the only person some people see in a day.

And her visit is all the more welcome as it includes a hot meal.

Susan has been a Meals on Wheels volunteer for ten years and co-ordinates the Keighley operation, which involves managing the routes and filling in for absent delivery drivers.

There are 12 routes, which include a catchment area spanning from Silsden and Steeton to Haworth and Cross Roads.

Today we are delivering liver and sausage casserole, followed by treacle sponge with vanilla sauce, to 12 people in the East Morton and Crossflatts area.

The contents of the meals are decided by Social Services, which also refers people to Meals on Wheels.

Nutritional content and use of fresh ingredients are both carefully monitored.

Diabetics, vegetarians and others with special dietary needs are also catered for.

Most meals are cooked in school kitchens, supplied with menus and recipes that run on an eight-week cycle.

Keighley uses four primary schools -- Haworth, Highfield, Hothfield Street, at Silsden, and St Mary's C of E School, at Riddlesden.

Drivers simply turn up and collect the food -- ready and packed for the round.

Staff at St Mary's C of E School's kitchen, from where Susan collects the meals in foil takeaway dishes and in special keep-warm containers, start cooking at 8am.

The meals are cooked separate from school dinners.

We collect the food at around 11.15am.

"It seems early but a lot of old people get up early. If we're late some of them panic," says Susan.

Everyone on the round is genuinely pleased to see Susan, but some are more talkative than others.

Betty Gill, of East Morton, had struggled to look after herself after breaking her leg in two places in a car crash in November.

Friends persuaded her to use Meals on Wheels, and she has now been a client for just a fortnight.

"I think they're brilliant," she says, tucking into a plateful of food.

Others say they would be lost without the service.

Susan says it is one of several initiatives that enable the elderly to remain in their own homes, and is an important lifeline.

"Sometimes people don't have any contact throughout the day apart from us," she says. "So we're the alarm call if something happens -- if they don't answer the door or don't respond when you call out to them.

"We are time limited so we can't spend a great deal of time in people's houses, but relationships build up and people are very grateful for the service.

"Sometimes we provide meals for people whose families are going on holiday, or when a cooker's blown up."

The round is over by 12.15pm, after Susan has returned the empty containers to the school ready for tomorrow's delivery.

But despite the task only taking an hour, the repayment of petrol expenses and the satisfaction of it, volunteers are in short supply.

Susan says: "People need to have their own cars and we give them a practical induction.

"We do ask for references -- a prerequisite for voluntary work but also because this work has a vulnerable client group."

Anyone interested in helping out -- they would be on a once a month rota -- should contact Susan on 01535 690344 or Keighley Voluntary Services on 01535 665258.

* When the Keighley service began around 1950 food was delivered by a milkman.

The Old People's Welfare Service then took over before it eventually came under the jurisdiction of Keighley Voluntary Services.