At the mention of Meals on Wheels most people will think of tepid beef stew and overcooked sprouts. But the modern reality of Bradford's Meals on Wheels service is a smooth business operation offering a choice of nutritious and appetising meals to more than 500 housebound people across the district. To mark national Meals on Wheels week REBECCA WRIGHT got a taste of how the service operates.

Every week Meals on Wheels customers get to choose what they want for lunch from a detailed and diverse menu.

Once every five days alongside their hot meal - be it a lamb stew, a vegetable curry or a Halal dish and hot or cold pudding - the customers will be handed a sheet of tempting options for the following week.

And a couple of days later the van driver will pick up the list of choices along with delivering a meal and spending time to chat.

All of Bradford Council's Social Services Community Meals are delivered by contracted company Apetito, which is based at a depot in Carr Bottom Road, Bankfoot.

Meal requests are logged on a computer database and changes can be made to order numbers up until the minute the van leaves the depot.

For the staff at the depot, accuracy is essential because if one meal is left off the list, the result would be a needy person going without what is likely to be their only hot meal of the day.

Apetito driver Chris Johnson, 51, has been with the company since March.

He said there was much more to the job than just providing a delivery service.

"You see the same people every day, that's why I like the job.

"People look forward to seeing you, for some of them I could be the only person they are going to see all day," he said.

Mr Johnson said the rapport between customer and driver would develop to the extent where an Apetito employee would know if a client was feeling under the weather.

"You tend to look out for things, you notice if there is something different," he said.

Driver supervisor Brian McGrath, 58, delivered Meals on Wheels when the service was provided by the Women's Royal Volunteer Service. He moved to Apetito when the contract was discontinued by WRVS a little more than a year ago.

He said it was difficult for drivers not to get emotionally involved with the job, but said strong communication networks between staff meant help was always at hand, even in the face of tragic or difficult circumstances.

"If anyone has a problem like a breakdown they can phone another driver," he said.

Lynda Gannon, acting contract manager at the Bradford depot, said the demand for hot lunches had increased in the past year, so much so that the fleet of specialist vans had increased from nine to 14.

And the branch was this year given an award by Apetito management for adapting so readily to the changes.

Apetito is still trying to improve further, by testing out new technology that delivers piping hot food straight from ovens in the vans.

Each week a bulk delivery of more than 1,000 frozen meals is made to the depot, where the food is kept in a walk-in freezer.

And every day from Monday to Friday the required meals are loaded into gas-powered ovens inside the vans, where they are cooked for 40 minutes.

After cooking, the food is kept warm in transit and drivers use a hand-held thermometer to check the temperature of individual lunches when arriving at customers' homes.

Now a new van which is being piloted by the depot is able to deliver freshly-cooked dinners to hundreds of people.

The van has three ovens on board which are powered by the vehicle itself and can heat up separately - with 20 minutes between the cooking starting in each unit.

The staggered cycle means the meals to be delivered first are cooked in the oven which heats up before leaving the depot, with the ovens containing the later deliveries following.

Mrs Gannon said she hoped the trial would prove a success.

"The meals are more recently cooked. They cook at different stages," she said.

One customer who is certainly not complaining is 79-year-old Bill Ranyard, of Selbourne Grove in Keighley. Mr Ranyard has had his meals delivered for two years.

"I usually get a cottage pie, anything that has soft meat. The vegetables are all right, but I don't like the potato," he said.

Mr Ranyard has built up a fond friendship with his regular delivery man Peter Clay.

Mr Ranyard said he was considering taking up the Council's frozen meal scheme during the weekend, when he normally heats up pre-packaged food.

Anyone can apply to join the frozen meal scheme.

The dinners are delivered in bulk to residents by a franchise of Apetito called Wiltshire Farm Food.

Anyone wanting Meals on Wheels must undergo a need assessment by a social worker.

Those who join the scheme are charged £2.05 per meal. The rest of the cost is subsidised by the authority.

Sharon Bedford, the adult services direct and community meal manager at Bradford Council, said there was still a possibility that the service would extend to seven days a week.

Meals on Wheels has increased in demand by at least ten per cent in Bradford in the past year.

Mrs Bedford said people's life expectancy was longer and perhaps more people were being referred.

But she said there would always been room for more customers.

"A little bit of support, we all need that sometimes don't we?" she said.

Councillor Martin Smith, executive member for social care, said the authority was pleased with the way the new contract was working.

He said: "I am delighted about the performance of the new Appetito contract.

"It has made tremendous efforts to ensure that we have quality and timeliness and most importantly, they are really popular with our service users".

e-mail: rebecca.wright@bradford.newsquest.co.uk

'CENTRE IS A LIFESVER'

Yesterday scores of pensioners were served hot lunches by Meals on Wheels volunteers at Fagley Community Centre.

Mary Harland, 81, of Burlington Avenue, Fagley, who has been attending the centre for 16 years, said: "Without this place we'd go under, we live for it and it keeps us alive.

"I don't mind the food as long as it is nicely cooked."

Elsie Horsfield, 84, of Fairfax House, Church Bank, has been organising the dinners for 15 years. She also collects the money and organises six day trips a year.

She said: "It is not just the food that people come for, it's the chat and the social life and we have a nice crowd here."

Maureen McCabe, 71, of Otley Road, is one of the volunteers who serves the lunches. She said: "It gives me something to do and keeps me occupied."

Mary Carroll, 78, of Charnwood Close, Undercliffe, also helps serve the lunches. She said: "The lunch club gives people someone to chat to and a chance to spend a little bit of time with other people."

Graham Russell, managing director of Apetito which supplies the meals, said: "It is not about the meals, it's about the social event and the meal provides them with a focal point and a reason to come."