When Community Care Peterborough expanded Meals on Wheels to Lakefield in 2012, there was no established meal supplier or shared kitchen—just a dedicated local team with determination, creativity, and a leased oven.
At the time, meals weren’t picked up and delivered from Peterborough. Instead, the Lakefield office leased a compact heating unit from Apetito called the “Hot Serve Lite,” allowing staff and volunteers to cook meals directly on site. Each hot meal went out with a beverage and dessert, fresh and ready to enjoy. It was a grassroots solution that enabled the program to start quickly and meet a real need.
As the program grew, Lakefield transitioned to working with local restaurants, including Cassis Bistro, before eventually aligning with the Peterborough office’s provider. Today, Maple Ridge Retirement Services prepares all hot Meals on Wheels for both Peterborough and Lakefield clients—a partnership that has helped streamline service while maintaining quality and reliability.
Now more than a decade later, Meals on Wheels is a well-established part of daily life in Lakefield. But those early days—cooking in-office, experimenting with systems, and finding local solutions—tell the story of a community that made it work. Staff and volunteers built something lasting from scratch, driven by a belief that every client deserved a hot, nutritious meal delivered with care.
In Lakefield, Meals on Wheels wasn’t simply expanded—it was handcrafted, step by step, by a community that believed in feeding its neighbours.
