While all alternative plans had to meet the nutritional requirements established by the Secretary of Agriculture, the act did not require meals deliver one third of RDA.

Mr. Gould said repeated state inspections of the shelters have found inoperative toilets and showers, meals not delivered on time, filth and, sometimes, staff shortages.

Have meals delivered to your home.

Blankets had been brought in for them and meals on wheels had delivered hot dinners to them.

The meals on wheels schemes organised by local councils in UK deliver 40 million or 77,000 meals every week to 200,000 people.

Most of the money that Mr. Giuliani had withheld during his standoff with Mr. Vallone will pay for social and cultural programs, including foster-care and day-care programs; meals delivered at home and other programs for the elderly; library programs, and alternatives to jail.

The meals on wheels service provides 80 to 100 evening meals five days a week, prepared and delivered by over 100 volunteers.

For about $800 a month, subscribers get three balanced meals a day, five days a week, delivered to their offices or homes - and Ms. Wiatt says business is booming.

Where 25 years ago they might have envisioned a world akin to that of the Jetsons, the science-fiction television cartoon family, with personal space vehicles, and meals delivered to the table via robot, today they are thinking and talking in more conventional terms.

Since Hurricane Katrina, he has been a constant presence on television, rattling off statistics on people rescued and meals delivered.