Ontario Community Support Association (OCSA)

Nutrition Services

Nutrition Services provide healthy home-delivered meals and lively community dining events. These services include the following:

Congregate Dining
A support service which provides a nutritious meal at a central location, on pre-arranged days. The service should include social activities as well as transportation. Also known as Diners’s Club and Wheels to Meals.

Clients enjoy a hot meal in the company of friends in their community. Following the meal, a wide range of educational and recreational activities are offered such as outings, bingo, educational presentations and more. [Top]

Meals on Wheels®
A support service which delivers a meal to a homebound individual to meet that individual’s nutritional needs. The meals are delivered by volunteers who provide social contact and some monitoring of potential crisis situations.

Meals on Wheels delivers nutritious meals to a customer’s door around noon each day, up to seven days a week. Many agencies offer a choice of two convenient options: a ready-to-eat hot meal or a package of frozen meals to heat up as needed. The meals are specially created to be well-balanced, tasty and nutritious and menus change every day.

Therapeutic meals for special diets may also be available such as diabetic, renal, gluten-free and lactose-free meals. Customers who have difficulty chewing or swallowing may request their meals to be minced or pureed, or they may choose from an assortment of thickened juices. Special ethnic meals are also available, depending on the community.

Each month, as I travel my route and see both the familiar and new faces of those we serve, I attempt to pause at each door and spend a few moments in conversation. Their faces light up, and as you depart there is a sense of quiet satisfaction in the air. I'm sure you'll agree that it is important to touch our friends and bring not only food but an opportunity for companionship. Ours is a special service, it is personal, and it is vital. Mark Roper, Meals on Wheels of Peterborough. [Top]

Helping People Live at Home

This site was developed with the support of