In the past, home care staff cooked meals on-site for the elderly. Later, the most common model became municipal central kitchens cooking and distributing meals, similar to school meals. Currently, it is not uncommon for elderly people to be referred to frozen ready meals for lunch, according to multiple reports.
Jönköping municipality introduced a model with frozen ready meals on January 1. For most elderly people with a decision for home-delivered lunch, the practical reality is ordering from Coop's frozen food section. Anger has been significant among many affected elderly and local pensioner organizations, reports say.
Two municipalities have chosen completely different approaches, according to multiple reports: Laxå delivers freshly cooked, adapted meals from the municipal kitchen at Ramundergården, while Askersund delivers frozen meals from procured grocery stores and restaurants to elderly living at home. A new procurement of food for all municipal operations has been completed in a collaboration covering all municipalities in Sydnärke. The use of frozen food and ready meals delivered to the elderly instead of cooked meals has been criticized.