The best meal delivery services for seniors bring pre-measured ingredients or premade meals (your choice) right to your door. Most take dietary restrictions into account, and some have menus that are specially crafted around certain health conditions. This makes it easy to eat nutritionally balanced, nourishing meals each day with minimal effort on your part. Below, find our favorite meal delivery services for seniors. Meal kits are available in two- or four-serving boxes, and you can choose from a minimum of two meals weekly to a maximum of five. Premade meals are single-serve, and you can order four to 10 meals per week. If you choose a meal kit, most meals are ready in 15 to 40 minutes. Reheat premade meals in the microwave in as little as four minutes. Example Meal: -Blueberry BBQ Chicken With Warm Dijon-Horseradish Potato Salad (meal kit) -Peruvian Fried Rice With Duck Confit, Poblano, and Pineapple (premade meal) Sustainability & Quality: Sunbasket uses organic fresh produce, milk, yogurt, eggs, and tofu when available. All meats are antibiotic- and hormone-free with additional options for organic meats and poultry available. Sunbasket is also committed to sustainability; all packaging is recyclable, reusable, or compostable with most components made from recycled materials. Price: From $10 per serving New menus drop each week, and you can choose from grill-ready meals, 15-minute meal kits, and/or the Culinary Collection, which includes fancier meals that take longer to prepare but make you feel like a pro in the kitchen. When building your box, you specify how many people you’re cooking for (2, 4, or 6) and how many meals you want each week (2 to 6). Once that’s done, your box will arrive on your doorstep with preportioned ingredients and recipe cards to make it easy to prepare your meals. Example Meal: -Salmon and Hot Honey Butter -Queso Fundido Burger Sustainability & Quality: Home Chef doesn’t have a fully organic menu, but the company does use organic ingredients whenever possible. However, the company prioritizes local ingredients and considers seasonality. There are also “swap it” options that allow you to upgrade to organic chicken for some of the meals. Most of Home Chef’s packaging is recyclable (what isn’t is reusable and nontoxic) and made with recycled materials. Price: From $9 per serving The company also offers what it calls a flex subscription—you purchase three or six months of meals and then build your menus from there. The process itself is straightforward; you can filter by your dietary preferences and needs, as well as the meal type (breakfast, lunch/dinner, snacks, and desserts). You can also choose between single or multiple servings recipes. All meals are handmade by chefs in small batches and then flash-frozen to preserve quality and flavor. Example Meal: -Baked Tilapia, Brown Rice, and Minted Carrots -Beef & Broccoli over Noodles with Vegetables Sustainability & Quality: While not fully organic, Magic Kitchen does use organic produce whenever possible and is committed to antibiotic-, pesticide-, and hormone-free ingredients. All packaging is environmentally friendly, and while you can’t recycle some things, like the coolers the meals ship in, they are reusable. Magic Kitchen recommends donating them to Meals on Wheels, if possible. Price: From $12 per serving Menus vary by state, program type, and any health conditions (Mom’s Meals has options for those with diabetes, kidney problems, cancer, and heart disease), but the basics are the same: Meals arrive on your doorstep each week, precooked and ready to heat. They are vacuum-sealed and will stay fresh in your refrigerator for up to 14 days. If you’re paying through Medicare or Medicaid, you can place your order by phone. If you’re paying out-of-pocket, Mom’s Meals offers an online checkout process. Example Meal: -Chicken and Waffle and Peach Crisp -Three Cheese Ravioli with Garlic Basil Butter Sauce Sustainability & Quality: Mom’s Meals doesn’t offer a lot of information about food quality and sustainability practices, but there are some highlights: All kitchens are inspected for quality and safety by the USDA and certified safe. The company makes its own packaging, which allows food to keep in the refrigerator for up to 14 days (most other premade meals last five at most). Price: Varies based on plan and area Once you’ve nailed that down, the next step is digging into the offerings to see which ones can accommodate your dietary restrictions and/or preferences. If you have a health condition or are on a specialized diet, you want to make sure the meal delivery service you choose can provide meals that are well-suited to your needs.
