So your loved one is hungry, but can’t cook or doesn’t want to cook and they’re living at home. You don’t have time to cook 3 meals a day for them, so what do you do? Do you order pizza everyday? You may want to give an in-home delivery service a shot such as Meals on Wheels. My dad used to order from them when he and my mom were still living on their own. The price is relatively low, ranging from 2.50-5.00/meal and this is donation requested. Since services like Meals on Wheels is volunteer-based it is encouraged to give something.

In-home food delivery is convenient and you do not have to stick with Meals on Wheels. Though they are the most recognized in this country, there are several small organizations including churches and other non-profits that have senior meal-delivery programs. In fact, after my dad found out that his church had a senior nutrition program, he started having meals delivered from them and cancelled Meals on Wheels. Nonetheless, Meals on Wheels is an excellent program and much needed program as the senior population continues to grow. If you or your loved one can afford it, they even have gourmet delivery food geared towards seniors.

How it Works
It’s quite simple. You just call up your local Meals on Wheels branch or other group, normally found in your eldercare directory or in the yellow pages. Arrange for your loved one’s meals to be delivered and state their preferences: Diabetic, no meat, etc. and just wait for your scheduled delivery. Normally, you do not get a breakfast, but you do get a lunch and dinner delivered at the same time, usually mid-morning. At the end of the week on Friday, your weekend meals are delivered so you are stocked up. This is typical. Schedules may vary with different organizations.

What type of food
Whatever service you use, whether it be Meals on Wheels or church group, they strive to vary the menu. Lunch is normally delivered as a “sack type” lunch with a sandwich, snacks and juice or milk. Sometimes they might have dishes such as chicken salad or a turkey wrap. Dinner is delivered hot. It’s about the size of a TV dinner. You may have spaghetti and meatballs or chicken enchiladas. Also included are condiments and dinner rolls or whatever side dish is appropriate. It’s actually quite alot of food considering that as you get older, your appetite decreases. Although don’t tell that to my mom, she can really eat! I’ve tasted the food and it’s not bad at all. It’s not what you find as restaurant-quality but it can be tasty if you dress it up a little bit.

The ups and downs
The upside to the meals are definitely the convenience and cost. Considering that the prices of groceries are going up, this might actually be a cheaper alternative when trying to keep to a budget. The food is ready to eat and all that needs to be done sometimes is to dress it up or heat it up.

The downside is: if your loved one can’t get to the door on time when the volunteer arrives or happens to forget about the delivery time and leaves, they may miss out on a meal for that day unless arrangements are made to have the meals delivered to a neighbor to watch until they get home. The volunteer always calls however, if they can’t get an answer at the door. They would always call me if my dad wasn’t opening the door. You can always call to cancel a delivery or reschedule but it can become a hassle sometimes. Because of health and safety reasons, they will not leave the food at the door step.

Also, if your loved one gets tired of the food, they may save it for later and then, like in my dad’s case, you have tons of extra meals piled up and a. you have to help them eat it. b. cancel service c. throw it away.

So as you can see, Meals on Wheels beats having to feed your loved ones junk food or making them suffer through Healthy Choice or other TV dinners. They not only get low cost meals delivered to them, but wholesome and nutritious meals as well.

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