Food Delivery Advice

[foodiehelp]

Hi. My parent is not cooking nutritious food despite encouragement from myself and her carer.

I am struggling to find a meals on wheels service in my area that would deliver in the early evening and has vegetarian options.

I'm looking into getting her some pre made healthy meals delivered that she can put in the microwave. Can anyone recommend any brands that might deliver at a preferred time and date. Ideally if they could be delivered when the carer is there she can help with the meal planning and putting them away etc. Thanks

Hello, have a look at Wiltshire farm foods which can be bland.
You could order m and s meals via ocado when the carer is there?
My dm much prefers m and s meals.
Cook freezer meals are another option but need large orders.
Parsley box have been reccomended too.

M and S meals are a good idea. I was thinking of frozen meals but my parent hasn't been cooking things properly in the oven. Thanks for the suggestion

@twentyten do you know if it is quite easy to get delivery slots on Ocado?

I think it depends on areas…. Have a look on the website- I’ve got a delivery pass for free tues- thurs orders.
Been totally reliable and on time throughout pandemic even though slots harder to get then.
I get m and s mini meals for dm and freeze them.

Would something like this work for your DM? You can order them from Ocado, if you're doing an Ocado order anyway. When I lived in the UK I could book Ocado slots that were an hour long starting every half hour, I'm sure it's probably still the same now.

Thanks for the suggestion but I don't think she would like spicy food. I've just seen that the minimum delivery charge for Ocado is £40. I just wanted to order a few things from there but I will keep it in mind.

I think you can book regular slots too… and have a regular shopping list. £40 min order. I don’t work for them honest! 😂

But that kind of thing with plainer food would be ideal.

You could do a monthly order- m and s cottage pie, steak and mash type meals…. And freeze then?

Good suggestion but she doesn't always cook things properly in the oven so microwave food would be better.

I sometimes have to rely on ready meals. I've tried Oakhouse, Wiltshire and Parsley Box. They're nice enough but I find the ready meals you can get from Sainsbury's to be better value. An added advantage is being able to add prepared salad bowls and pots of prepared fruit to the order. It might sound easy enough to make your own salad or cut up some fruit, but there can be days when it really isn't.

Grandad uses Wiltshire farm meals and always seems to enjoy them

He likes that they all cook at the same temperature and can order bigger portions

He gets a delivery once a week, the driver always helps him put it all away in the freezer and rotates dates etc

He seems really happy with the service

M and s meals can be microwaved

Have you tried Parsleybox? I ordered some for my dad in the first lockdown. They are microwaveable ready meals, and they are long life vacuum packed rather than frozen so you can just keep them in a cupboard.

Sorry, didn't read very carefully, apologies to the other people who also suggested Parsleybox.

Before moving into a care home my mum had hot cooked meals delivered from a local couple that ran a meals on wheels business. All delivered on a proper plate/dish - main and pudding for £5 per day. Plenty of choice - I would order a selection each week so something different every day. They were a lovely couple who would call me if they find that mum had ever gone for a wander (dementia) between carers' visits. I found them via a google search for 'hot meals delivered'

@DriveInSaturday good idea - if they keep for a long time I could order quite a few

@Grohlsguitar - fab username!

Thank you @foodiehelp, I liked my old name but had to change it when the Daily Fail published it in one of their Mumsnet thread raids.

I just checked my cupboard and the best before dates on the Parsley Box meals left from an order a few months ago are August and December this year. So, they're pretty long dated. I find them generous with sauce/gravy but stingy with the meat and veg though.

@InTheRoomWhereItHappens - that sounds ideal. I did do some googling and contacted a carer's organisation for ideas. I might contact Age UK as well.

@Grohlsguitar - that's good to know about how long the meals last.

Apparently people with dementia can go off eating certain foods which explains why my parent is eating properly.

Thank you for this thread, I just searched on "hot meal delivery" and mum's location and found somewhere that delivers 7 days a week and will deliver a sandwich and dessert at the same time for tea. That's another part of my daughter duty that can be outsourced - mum simply forgets to eat and she doesn't get hungry like she used to so the Parsleybox meals never make it into the microwave. If a hot meal magically appeared then she'd eat it.

Hope it works for you both @Knotaknitter

I read that you said you wanted an evening service, but if your mum is able to answer the door at lunch time you could look at Apetito. It's the hot meal delivery branch of Wiltshire Farm Food.

We got them in for my mum who progressed from cooking her own meals to Wiltshire Farm Food to a soft option Apetito when we discovered she was cooking her meals at 9am every morning (dementia).

They'll plate up (which they did for mum) or do a doorstep delivery service.

Only issue is that they deliver at lunch time (12noon to 2.30pm but once it's established they try to stick to a narrower window for delivery).

Thanks for your suggestions.

I managed to find a company that would deliver pre-cooked meals at a certain time. However, the company have said that it might not be cost effective for them to keep doing this so I might have to look into Apetito or Wiltshire Farm Foods.