East York Meals on Wheels

Helping people with home-delivered meals is as old as neighbours. Before the organization of Meals on Wheels, elderly people, often against their will, had to seek haven in homes for the aged simply because they could not cook regular meals for themselves. Others ended up in hospital, largely due to malnutrition. This caused great strain on many institutions, caused great unhappiness and misery to thousands of people.

In early 1965, with support from the Laidlaw Foundation, St. Christopher House started the first Meals on Wheels program in Toronto. Later that year, St. Luke’s United Church started a unit. Co-ordinated Services to the Jewish Elderly (now known as Circle of Care), inaugurated its Kosher Meals on Wheels service in 1966.