My mother is in hospice care at home. Dad can not cook and they are mostly living on fast food. Any suggestions for meal delivery?

Is your dad able to put frozen foods into oven or micowave and serve? If so, you or volunteers could prepare casseroles, dishes with instructions on how to heat up and he has one set aside for dinner each night. Easy foods for breakfast and lunch. If your dad is not able to do this, I'd consider if the home setting is right for them.

My mom loved Schwan's. The food was good, easy to prepare, and reasonably priced.

Meal Train?

Is there a Fresh Direct, Wegman's, Shop and Stop or any other large chain grocery near them? Most of them have prepared foods that are heat and serve.

PeaPod could deliver a week's worth of frozen entrees, sort of like the old TV dinners. Pot pies, a tray of lasagna that could last a week.

How about canned soups?

I have been searching for healthy home delivery meals. Heart to Home Meals just delivered fresh frozen meals today, great service and a welcome package. Prices are responsible. The meals look good, but saving them for when we have lots of appointments coming up, and I don't feel like cooking. I would goodle meal dilivery service, and see if they will deliver in your area, or you could pick them up at the facility. I know some places have that service. Post me for an update in the future if you would like. I am still searching for more services.

I'm with Sunny, considering the overwhelming options of heat and serve foods available in the average supermarket I question how a man who can't put a meal together can provide the level of care your mother needs.
Maybe planning and initiation are part of the problem, especially in a man unused/unwilling to making those kinds of domestic decisions. Perhaps stocking the fridge, freezer and pantry and then providing a daily menu plan based on available items would help.

Update on frozen food delivery, Rushing2. The food was terrible, very bland, turkey and corned beef were tough as leather, portions were small. I thought this would be good on days we have tons of things to do, but no thank you. I will stick to my own homemade cooking.

How is their freezer as in "how big". Any friends or way to make a food train delivery? I usually cook for myself by making up a big batch of meatballs, whatever it is I am into at the time, and freezing batches in yogurt containers.If Mom is on hospice now what are the plans for Dad, who cannot cook after? It may be time for entering care. Food is one of the basics and at the point it can't be provided it just isn't OK to be in home without help. So sorry. So hard to be so far away.

Cook up at your Own at Home Homemade Meals enough to make a Few Days and better Worth for Dad. He can Fill in with anything else.

Have you tried Mom's Meals or GA Foods? They are two of the delivery services used in my state, but are located out of state. Their delivery service is by Fed Ex, so the location should not matter, on county line or not.

I do not know where you live, but here in New York City, I believe it is Catholic Charities who has a service in the community for senior citizens living at home called "Meals on Wheels". It is quite a helpful program. delivering good cooked nutritious meals for the at home elderly person or peoples. Perhaps you might want to look into this.

momsmeals.com best out there...

Have you talked to the Social Worker from Hospice? They may have some ideas.
I know the Hospice where I volunteer often asks volunteers to make meals for families. the meals are made, frozen and then brought to the family.
Another option, when you are making meals make extra and portion it and freeze. The next time you visit you could bring a few weeks worth of meals.
Soups, stew, lasagna all freeze well.
Get in a few packages of frozen fish. They cook fast and are easy to make in a toaster oven or microwave. Paired with some frozen veggies it is a fast easy meal.
There are some pretty good frozen meals that would be a step above the fast food.

All those services you mentioned: Uber Eats, Doordash, GrubHub; they all deliver restaurant food too. Not just fast food. If you have any of the chain restaurants and even local restaurants, the food is prepared well and there is endless variety. The portions are usually large enough that as long as they can save the leftovers and reheat in the microwave, your dad and mom should be good to go for just about any day of the week.

Grocery store deli counters should have freshly prepared food.... whole rotisserie chickens, for example, at our local BiLo are $7.99 for a nice sized bird. Couple that with a container of Bob Evans microwaveable mashed potatoes, a jar of Heinz gravy, and they've got a meal for a couple days. And it's as close to home cooking as you can get without making it yourself.

And frozen dinners are pretty darn good. Sure, eating "healthy" might be ideal, but in their situation it seems as if just getting fed is the priority.

My dad thinks that he cooked dinner when he opened a can of beany weenies. I don't think that you can expect that to change for yours at this point.

I would encourage him to get some healthy frozen meals, they are not like home cooked meals, but better than fastfood every meal.

Have you spent any time helping him with simple meal prep? I would do that, show him how to heat items up in the microwave, oven, toaster oven, steamer etc., one meal at a time.

I would not be worried about eating if my spouse was on hospice, I would just want to fill the void. Could he be overwhelmed with the fact that his wife is dying?

When my sister was dying, people would bring food when they visited, usually enough food for 3 lunches and 3 dinners for her and her mom. Can you get others involved with getting food to them?

I am sorry that your mom is dying. May God grant your family strength and wisdom during this time.

I'd like to suggest that not all food has to be hot or cooked. I never cook--I eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, yogurt, oatmeal, bread, peanut butter and various tree nuts, and I love canned sardines. If I want anything more substantial, I go to a restaurant (generally only once in a couple weeks, typically Asian buffets--I even fill a soup bowl with water and "rinse" items that are salty). I've starting buying canned beans now that preparations without added salt are available.

My parents were getting Meals-On-Wheels several years ago--I thought they were typical American "too much fat and salt" preparations and not particularly appetizing, but I'm sure some people like them.

I don't really like to smell food cooking until I'm hungry and ready to eat, which in part discouraged me from cooking. In addition, I find many fresh items more appetizing.

You can bring a weeks worth of meals when you visit. You can buy disposable trays to make "TV Dinners" that are healthy and appealing.

When I lived in a totally rural area, my neighbor was able to get meals on wheels but they only came once a week. They brought her a 7-day supply of everything, including small cartons of milk.

I believe they brought to her 7 lunches & 7 dinners - I think she was expected to provide her own breakfast - but I can't remember now.

My mom had a fall earlier in the year and there was a period of time where she couldn't really get to the market easily (I live out of town). I found this site that sends balanced, delicious frozen meals:
https://www.mybalancemeals.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuKicgJeI5gIVLR-tBh2BlQbZEAAYASAAEgLv7_D_BwE

You can filter by specialty diets.

The meals are around $10 average, but they were delicious and mom really enjoyed them! They are shipped to the door so I could never send too many at once for fear she couldn't lift the box!

But it really helped us!

Try checking with your local hospital. My parents had meals delivered to their home by St. Luke's Hospital in St. Louis, County. I don't know if the hospital where you live will do this but it might be worth a call.

I didn’t read through all of the answers, but I have used a site called Take Them a Meal for organizing meals for folks in my church when they were recovering from surgery, etc. While you likely don’t have connections with family friends or a church group that could prepare and deliver meals, the site also includes an option for sending meals: https://takethemameal.com/

Several folks did mention that your mom probably isn’t eating much, if anything, and I’m sure hospice will explain that to your dad. It does seem to me that hospice staff should have options for your parents—Dad, especially to get meals delivered. I would check with them, too.

Sorry you have to go through this sorrow of losing a mom. I do understand, as I went through similar things with both of my parents. Thankfully, when my dad was alone and couldn’t get food (somewhat before Uber, etc.), we had great neighbors and church family who took plates of food to him that he could heat up in his microwave and eat. His neighbor also made sure he had his chick-fil-a sandwich and fries, when he craved that!

If their finances can handle it, hire an aid who can come in 3 times a week for several hours and cook meals for them. On days the aid is there, they can eat a fresh meal and leftovers on the days she isnt. 3 visits, 3 times per week should run about $1K per month. The aid can also do laundry, tidy the house and make sure they are safe. Good luck to you.

My mother received Meals on Wheels that was delivered to her everyday right before lunch time. She said the food was so good and they gave her enough that she could have 2 meals out of it. I believe it was free but you may want to check with Senior Services in their area. Call the Ombudsman, Dept of Health and Human Services etc to see if they can direct you. Also my parents had Kaiser Insurance and unbeknownst most people, they have a meal service which is delivered to you for very little cost. Good luck!

If you visit once a week or so invest in a seal a meal type of vacuum sealer. This will allow you to seal and freeze individual meals for them by cooking a bit extra when doing for your family. The process of vacuum sealing keeps items from freezer burn and let's them store more in their freezer because it's in packages instead of containers. Quick tip for items such as lasagna, prefreeze portions before sealing so it doesn't lose it's shape. Great for soups and stews too. This way they still have options of what's for lunch or dinner but you know it's a healthier choice instead of fast food or sodium laden tv dinners. Mark the bags with permanent marker so they know at a glance what it contains. Lactose free milk has a much longer shelf life than regular milk giving you more time to replace it for them. Instant oatmeal or cereal for breakfast. Not sure if it's available in their area, but their local walmart may deliver to their home for access to fresh fruits and veggies.

Where I live ( CA)., there is a good free program called Meals on Wheels that delivers hot meals(fish,chicken, etc), milk, fruit, vegetables. Maybe you can check with your county's Social Services Dept. I wish you the best

My MIL is 90, and for everyday, uses the microwave and frozen one package meals from the grocery. Some are better than others. You could bring some when you do go to visit. I also noticed a beef stew - carrots, potatoes and meat prepackaged - all you need to do is put it in a crockpot in the am. Prayers to you and your family during this difficult time.

Checknif hospice have people who prepare food. Or they know someone who does.

I wonder if you have looked recently in the ‘frozen meals’ section of a big supermarket? ‘TV Dinners’ used to be just awful, but they have got a lot better. My husband thinks he is not capable of cooking (long story...), but when I go to the city he can get one out of the freezer and microwave it. I did coach him the first time.

I once had to give a management talk to our local ‘Meals on Wheels’ organisation and its volunteers, on the occasion of their millionth delivered meal, and they actually complained that the increasing quality of the frozen meals was shrinking their ‘market’. I was shocked – it’s improving the options, not being nasty to them.

My parents in law gave up on Meals on Wheels, because the meal included soup and desert, which they didn’t want, while the main course was smaller than they wanted. They were fine with frozens.

Are they members of a church? If so, I would appeal to someone you know at their church that help is needed. A "casserole brigade" should be able to put together a few things that can be frozen and reheated.

My dad is approved for meals on wheels thur Area Againg, He unfortunately did not like them, someone suggested Moms Meals & he joys the food, they are delivered monthly can be frozen until needed then put in microwave. They call each month & review& can chance meals. Best of luck