First started in England during the Second World War by the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service, Meals on Wheels is now recognized internationally. By the 1960’s, Meals on Wheels programs were opening up across North America. In the fall of 1965 St. Christopher House in Toronto initiated a Meals on Wheels program, soon to be followed by Yorkminster Park Baptist Church, who began delivering meals to a few elderly residents in their community in the winter of 1966.

The Greater Toronto Area now has 22 Meals on Wheels Agencies, with services available to meet all kinds of dietary requirements.

After extensive planning and consultation with other churches in the area and with the Department of Health, Yorkminster Park Baptist Church delivered its first Meals on Wheels meal on Monday, February 7, 1966. In the months and years following, many churches from the North Toronto area became involved, taking on responsibility for the meal deliveries on different days of the week. This tradition continues to this day at Yorkminster Park Meals on Wheels. Among the churches who have been actively involved over the years are: Calvin Presbyterian Church, Glenview Presbyterian Church, Christ Church Deer Park, Blessed Sacrament, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Eglinton St.Georges’s United, St.Clement’s Anglican, Timothy Eaton Memorial and Deer Park United Church. This commitment to provide volunteers, made by the above churches, is still in effect today, more than 40 years later. Over the years many members of the community at large have also joined the ranks of volunteers.

As the client base continued to grow it became apparent that the administration of the Meals on Wheels program was too much for volunteers. Government funding was applied for in order to hire a coordinator who would streamline and integrate the entire program.

Yorkminster Park Meals on Wheels was incorporated and registered as a charitable organization in 1983, with funding from the Ministry of Community and Social Services Long Term Care Division and Metropolitan Toronto Community Services. A coordinator was hired to administer and operate the program with the help of the volunteers.

Now, over forty years later, Yorkminster Park Meals on Wheels continues to grow and thrive, delivering both hot and frozen meals to the North Toronto area.