Planning for meals‐on‐wheels: algorithms and application

Home‐delivered meals provision, also known as meals‐on‐wheels, is a volunteer‐staffed activity for which little strategic planning is performed. We develop a Memetic Algorithm to solve the Home Delivered Meals Location‐Routing Problem. This planning model addresses facility location, allocation of demand to facilities, and design of delivery routes, while balancing efficiency and effectiveness considerations. The case study presented on a large data set shows how trade‐off curves, which are very useful for decision making, can be obtained by the method developed.