Mail Order Meal Deliveries
One of the first questions anyone asked Neighbor to Neighbor in the Nenes (N3) when we opened our doors in 2018 was how to get meals delivered to a home. (The caller was not eligible for Meals on Wheels, the wonderful meal service available through Elder Care Services.) The caller was asking for regular, on-going meal deliveries, not a restaurant meal delivered on Friday as a change from the everyday cooking grind.
Thanks to research by Indianheader Leslie Inniss, a retired sociology professor, N3 can now identify a good number of meal providers. These are companies that deliver ready-to-eat and/or frozen meals as compared to companies that deliver ingredients and meal preparation instructions.
There is a provider for almost every type of diet: vegetarian, vegan, Kosher, paleo, diabetic, organic, gluten-free, non-GMO, plant-based, FIT, one-bowl, comfort. . . . The complete list of diet types is very, very long but there is bound to be a meal-delivery company somewhere to suit every palate. There is also great variety in type of purchase agreements, cost, delivery options, target client-type (students, seniors, diabetic, etc.), geographic area served, etc.
There are about 150 meal delivery businesses in the U.S. today (not counting restaurants) and others are popping up every day. Most serve a region of the U.S. but at least a dozen are national. A few are listed below, along with a few serving Tallahassee. Go to the web for more information about each or, even better, seniors in Indianhead/Lehigh who want help plowing through all the meal-delivery options can contact Leslie for help. To reach her, call N3 at 850-901-7818 or e-mail at ageinplace@earthlink.net.
Serving all U.S.
Serving Tallahassee but not entire U.S.
More information: There is a very helpful article in the Senior List (www.theseniorlist.com/meal-delivery/best/). It goes into things to consider before hiring a meal delivery service and names some companies it considers the best. Other provider rankings are at www.top10bestmealdelivery.com and, alldayconsumers.com.
June 2021