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26
EXTRACTS FROM THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
FULHAM OLD PEOPLES WELFARE COMMITTEE
I AM INDEBTED TO THE SECRETARY MR. C. F. THATCHER, LL. B.,
FOR THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION
"Meals on Wheels"
A great improvement in the "Meals on Wheels" service was effected in December last
by the use of Hotlock containers which were purchased with the aid of a grant from the
Mayor of Fulham's Air Raid Distress Fund. The meals are kept hot throughout the whole
of the delivery period by means of fuel heated units.
During the year our van EWK 707, which was purchased second hand in April 1952 and
which the W.V.S. had used on a regular five day service for six years in the delivery
of meals and other work reached the end of its useful life and following discussions
with members and officers of the Council it was decided not to consider purchasing
another van in the name of the Committee but to accept the offer of the use of a
Council van, adapted suitably for meals delivery, to be charged to us on an hourly
basis Accordingly a Commer vehicle was made available to us and it was possible for
the new van and the improved food conveyors to go into service at the same time
Again our thanks are due to the W. V. S, whose voluntary helpers keep this important
service running
The cost of the meals which are supplied by the South London Catering Company is
1s. 9d, each, towards which the London County Council pays 10d. Pensioners are still
charged 10d per meal and the balance of 1d. per meal for washing utensils etc is
borne by the Committee.
Invalid Meals
The Invalid Meals for London continues its day to day delivery of meals to
pensioners who need special diets. The service is not exclusively for the elderly but
pensioners form a large proportion of the recipients. Two vans are operated from the
Munster Road Kitchen and in the twelve months ended March last a total of 16,502 meals
was delivered The average number of persons who received invalid meals was 84, which
number is unfortunately limited by the capacity of the two vans.
Chiropody
The demand for the chiropody service has continued to grow and towards the end of
the municipal year we agreed to add two more sessions of two hours each. We felt this
was justifiable in view of the fact that at both clinics there was a waiting list of
about 6 weeks for an appointment
For information the chiropody sessions which will be provided as from 1st July,
1958 are set out below. It will be seen that the extra sessions will be undertaken
by another chiropodist, Mrs. Ursula Taylor, who is a colleague of Miss Hardman.