Does anyone have a food delivery for their elderly loved one?

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Does anyone have a food delivery for their elderly loved one?

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I will be bringing my mom across the country to live with me after two strokes and some nasty falls. I have had very bad Ulcerative Colitis since I was 19. I am 52. I literally only eat cereal, bananas and soup. My husband only eats cheese on bagels or pizza. We don’t cook for these reasons. I have no idea how to get good food for my mom to eat three times a day. The special prep deliveries are so expensive.

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My parents would never use meals on wheels. A good dinner is about the only thing left they can look forward to. There are quite a few restaurants where my parents live, so they order in quite a bit, They can usually get two meals out of the portions. Way easier for the aides to just heat up dinners than having to cook from scratch. This is especially true now that they have to devote more time to my fathers needs.

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We get "Meals on Wheels" for our mom

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BarbD25: One can 'get by' with the noontime delivered Meals on Wheels, which is typically offered on weekdays (Monday through Friday) and is one meal per day. They also provide an extra meal for holidays. They typically operate out of the town's COA (Council on Aging) although they do have a business office. I said 'get by' because although my mother had MOW, she tired of the meals/classified them as 'satisfactory, but nothing spectacular.'

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Do you know your neighbors? If so, approach one of them about cooking for your mom. More often than not, people who cook on a regular basis, have more than enough to feed one more person. We had a neighbor who came in and cooked breakfast 6 days a week. She provided evening meal 6 days a week too using what she cooked for her family and I also kept meats in the freezer for her to select from (I packaged the meats to be enough to feed mom and her family of 3). I also bought fresh veggies so she would have some side dishes to include with mom's meals. Same lady helped with housecleaning, so we just worked out a weekly pay for food and household help. Wonderful neighbor!!

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I did not think Sun Basket was bad at all. My dad liked the flavor and I ordered the kind you just heat and serve. They delivered a box once a week for as many meals as you want and they kept well in the fridge.
https://sunbasket.com

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Hi, I have used a service named “Mom’s Meals,” which is also popular with my Caregiver-friends. https://www.momsmeals.com/

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Suggest all three of you sit down with a dietician. Your husband could benefit all of you if he would take some cooking classes to create healthy meals for all of you. There are a lot of good ways to hide vegetables in smoothies.

Hope you will work with a Gastroenterologist, if you haven't already been doing so; they're great detectives. You could plan a weekly meal plan to help yourself have a healthier diet. Hope you're all taking vitamins!!!!

Here's a place near you! (copy and paste) https://www.surlatable.com/cooking-classes/

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Mom hated meals on wheels. we just got her in the habit of choosing frozen or freshly made bagged salads which require a minimum of prep. Tossing cooked chicken in the salad and adding more cheese or veggies made it a full meal.

Most stored offer soups in smaller containers. Cheese and crackers cane be stored for a long time.

So many frozen food options. Filling and better than MOW, in my opinion. The Marie Callendar pot pies are delicious and filling. Old 'TV dinners' are a favorite of mine when DH is out of town and I don't want to cook.

A LOT of elderly people prefer a later breakfast and an earlier dinner. Mom ate at 10 am and 4:30 Pm. She was pretty much immobile and didn't burn many calories, so that was enough for her.

Fresh fruit cut up and cups of pudding, nuts and a few M&M's thrown in would keep her snacking to a fulfilling but not heavy meal.

Most of us, before visiting her, would call and ask if we could bring her a burger. She loved that. Her ability to go to a restaurant and have a good time were not possible since COVID--so, what? 3 years?

Check out the options at the grocery store you use. Shopping online is nice, a little more expensive, but when I use that service, although I pay for delivery--I'm not filling my cart with stuff we don't need and shouldn't be eating.

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We used the local grocery delivery service and mom liked several of the lean cuisine and healthy choice options. Microwaving was an easy.

We did also use a company called
" Mom's Meals" and the food was a better quality but it also cost a bit more. Mom's insurance had a benefit covering some of these meals. Ask also for a senior price when ordering.

Most grocery store have hot bars for grab and go options.

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I did for my mom for the same reasons. You can try but all my mom did was complain about the food, how she had to be up and dressed, etc. When she went back into the hospital after another fall, she refused to start back up again. It’s exhausting. Blessings

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I think everyone has different eating habits. I have diabetes and after Obama got my health insurance canceled I dramatically changed my died and went vegan. ( moved to another state and got insurance) my wife has dementia and is bed bound. We have totally different diets. I typically feed her a wide variety of frozen meals. I try to keep a big variety but one thing I learned in my own quest was that most people only eat about 6 different things and keep rotating through the list. It makes preparing meals easier. When things were good, we would eat out almost every day now will prices through the roof $20 for a hamburger. It is all home prepared foods.

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It’s very interesting that your observation is on point, I do rotate just about 6 items on my list, I agree that’s what people do.

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My mother liked the healthy choice frozen meals for some variety and easy meals. Mom didn't have any meal restrictions and these meals are not as heavy on the salt as many out there. We usually would eat one of these a day with eggs or cereal for breakfast and some sort of homemade soup and cornbread for lunch.

I started ordering grocery basics for a couple of elderly neighbors during covid lockdowns and we continue because they like it. They call and give me their list, I order for them and tell them when the delivery will arrive. They have a cart for the groceries to be loaded into when delivered and put them away at their leisure. They still cook and shop for some groceries but having the eggs, milk, tomatoes, cheese, flour, shampoo, soap and so forth delivered reduces the total effort required for grocery shopping.

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My cousin hired a personal chef who comes every three weeks to cook and freeze meals for them. She does all the shopping for the meals, too.

They handle their own breakfasts and have leftovers for lunch. It's not as expensive as you'd think.

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https://local.safeway.com/safeway/az/oro-valley/12122-n-rancho-vistoso-blvd/grocery-delivery-pickup.html

Google says this is your local Safeway, and they offer online shopping and delivery services. I should make full use of ready meals, if I were you; and don't forget to involve your mother in choosing what she likes. I trust she's paying for her own groceries, yes?

Any swallowing impairment as a result of her stroke? Will she be getting any therapy once she's moved in?

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Thank you. She has zero funds and owes on her home in NJ. The money left over from selling will go towards her expenses. I am seeing an elder care attorney at the end of the month. There may be a time I cant take care of her and she will have to go on Medicaid, which looks back 5 years of finances.

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I second Meals on Wheels. I live 4 hours away. Mom was just snacking for food after her husband passed and not eating very healthy meals. Because she is a T1 diabetic, she had to have some balance or her sugars would go too high or too low, so diabetic education recommended it. She gets a menu every month and circles her selections. We have had them delivered now for about 3 years. They deliver every morning. She gets an entree with a carb side and a vegetable side, choice of beverage, bread and butter, and a dessert. They offer both meat and vegetarian meals. The prices are reasonable ($6.00) and that price may vary by location. Some items she likes better, so she will order 2 sets of meals for that day and freeze one for backup. Highly recommend it. I even order them while visiting. Saves me time on cooking since I am using running around doing everything while I am there and it gives me a chance to just sit and visit for a meal with her. Call your local senior center and they should have info how to connect with a coordinator. Before we had the meals on wheels, I would visit and purchase a variety of Hormel meals or Trader Joe's meals for her to have on hand to eat over a day or two with frozen vegetables, but once they ran out, she went back to the snacking. Since you don't cook much, you might want to find out what she likes and just make up a breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu of about 4 or 5 items and just rotate them. Mom gets hard boiled eggs every morning with either peanut butter and toast or cereal with fruit. Sometimes microwave precooked bacon. Sometimes cereal bar and eggs. She saves the fruit cup from the Meals on Wheels for breakfast. For lunch, soup/sandwich. For dinner the Meals on Wheels entree. Sometimes a caregiver will make a pot of pasta with veggies and chicken for her to eat off of, using pre-grilled chicken pieces, spaghetti and jarred sauce with frozen veggies. Things like that can be frozen in portions and thawed for lunch or dinner. You will have enough on your plate with a new person living with you. Keep it simple. Good luck.

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Thank you. Good idea, though she never liked any of the meals in rehab or the hospital.I am low on any tie as I work 7 days a week and my husbands mom is also in the area and failing.

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Meals on wheels they were very helpful to my mother always.she is 90 years old and couldn't get out. So they delivered 4 days worth of meals and they've come every 4 days they were great! thank God for them. And I still live with my mother and take care of her but by then bringing food made it much easier for me. There is no income limit or anything like that you just have to be disabled and not be able to leave the house

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Thank you!

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Does anyone have a food delivery for their elderly loved one?

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