The history of food delivery services dates back to its inception for sixty years. Since then, food delivery services continue to have the same basic principle to ensure that community members can have a hot, tasty and enjoyable meal.
The first meal delivery services are believed to have started in wartime London. As a result of the Blitz, many Londoners had lost their homes and their ability to cook for themselves. In response to this need, the WVS (Women’s Volunteer Service) produced meals and delivered them to people who had lost virtually everything. This caring approach was carried out in various areas of the UK, where nearby volunteers provided meals to wounded military personnel.
After the war, the first true food delivery service was developed in Hemel Hempstead in 1947. The recipients were still military men who were unable to cook their own meals, but instead of the vans that are used to transport meals today in These early services apparently used strollers, lined with felt. and even straw to ensure that the food was delivered hot. Understandably, this type of service was labor intensive and required a vast network of volunteers, each with good culinary knowledge and skills. Today, the processes involved incorporate principles of mass production.
In the UK, food delivery services work in different ways. There are agency-led programs, generally run in conjunction with local councils to serve the local population. There are also private services that cater to those who want the benefits of food delivery but who do not necessarily meet all the criteria.
In the modern era, there are also several different ways to deliver food. Some programs deliver meals that are cooked in a central location and then kept warm while being delivered. Other programs cook the food, let it cool, and then cook the food before delivery to mobile units that cook and deliver the food. The latter type of program delivers frozen meals that the recipient can heat in the microwave or oven.
Today, there is a range of different food delivery services catering to the elderly, disabled and also people with special dietary needs. This commitment to caring and ensuring that people eat well has been a constant theme throughout the development of food delivery services.