Open Kitchens
Meals on Wheels Chicago contracts an outside vendor to prepare and deliver the meals for all eligible homebound seniors who qualify for our program. While we work with volunteers in other capacities, meal delivery is executed by Open Kitchens, a Chicago based food production facility that has the resources to produce a cost-efficient, three-tiered food plan of hot, chilled and frozen meals.
About Open Kitchens: Open Kitchens is a food production facility that was incorporated in 1969. This Chicago based company offers a wide variety of food services including: concession services, school lunches, catering, day care, and the Meals on Wheels program. Open Kitchens has been a partner of Meals on Wheels Chicago for 25 years and is a chief supporter of our mission to serve Chicago's homebound seniors.
Facts about meal delivery:
- Home Delivered Meals offer a variety of different special diet meals, each planned by a registered dietician using low-calorie, low-fat, and low sodium ingredients where applicable.
- All meals are freshly prepared and neatly packaged in easy-to-open, disposable containers and includes a meat or protein entree, a potato, rice or pasta side dish, a vegetable side dish, fresh fruit or dessert, juice, milk, bread, margarine and condiments.
- Open Kitchens drivers provide two meals per day, which meet two-thirds of the recommended daily allowance of nutrients, five days a week, to over 11,000 homebound seniors and serve over 3.7 million meals a year.
- The program was designed to incorporate hired drivers instead of volunteers because of the overwhelming number of clients enrolled in the program.
- Open Kitchens operates a fleet of 22 specially outfitted delivery trucks that run service routes daily, Monday through Friday.