A new shopping service is aiding more than 100 elderly people in Dundee.
The Food Train was set up eight months ago and uses volunteers to collect groceries for people who cannot get to the shops on their own.
Morrisons was the first supermarket to back the scheme and the Asda store at Milton of Craigie has now joined in.
Sainsbury’s has said it is willing to get involved, too, if it gets enough interest from potential customers.
The service will cost £84,000 to run during 2012/13, with the city council picking up most of the bill.
Users are either asking for help themselves or being referred by their families or the social work department.
A report to be presented to councillors states: ”The Food Train works closely with the Dundee Volunteer Centre.
”There are currently 45 volunteers giving their time to the service.
”Volunteers include retired individuals, younger people who are seeking work experience in order to up-skill themselves for the employment market, and people with disabilities.
”A second vehicle has been secured in order to meet the demands of the service and to ensure that further increases in capacity can be met.”
The report explains that the Food Train also provides a useful link between elderly people and social workers.
It has already been used to tell users about the trusted trader scheme and tell firefighters about homes that could benefit from a free fire safety check.
The Food Train has carried out its own customer satisfaction survey, with only four of the 43 people who took part making complaints about incorrect or missing goods.
It said: ”We will continue to do all we can to ensure our members receive exactly the groceries they order, whilst bearing in mind the factors in the process outwith our control.”
The survey found that almost half of service users could only get to a shop with difficulty and almost a third would not be able to go shopping at all.
The biggest impact it had was helping them to maintain their independence, with their health and general wellbeing also benefiting.