Top Senior Meal Delivery Services for 2024

Sign yourself or a loved one up for a meal delivery plan to enjoy ready-made entrées delivered right to your door.

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Last Updated: March 2024

Meal Delivery Services Can Ease Mealtime

If older family members live on their own, or if they’re often left home alone, it can be difficult for your loved ones to cook themselves a nutritious, filling meal. With meal delivery plans, you can provide your parents or grandparents with delicious, easy-to-make meals.

If you're prioritizing ease, consider meal plans that offer microwave-ready or oven-ready meal options. If your elderly loved ones are looking to fill some free time, consider ordering a meal kit option that allows your family member to prepare and cook a meal in an easy, step-by-step format.

Choosing A Meal Delivery Service That Best Suits You

Choosing the right meal delivery service can seem a bit overwhelming at first, which is why we’ve spent hours identifying unique options that each service provides. In order to get started, you’ll want to identify the type of food you’re looking for, what diet-restrictions you want to follow, and whether or not you want premade meals or something that you can cook. 

Once you have this information, you can always refer to our reviews so that you can make an informed decision that suits you best. The best part? All of the meal delivery services that we've picked have flexible subscriptions allowing you to skip or cancel anytime! With the vast amount of meal delivery services and recipes available, we can guarantee you will find the best choice for you or your family. 

Meal Delivery Services Save You Time and Money

  • Spend less on fresh ingredients. It can be expensive to find high-quality, sustainable ingredients from the grocery store. With a meal delivery service, you can simply select the meals you want for the week and have fresh ingredients included right in the offer price. 
  • Access promotions and deals. To save at the grocery store, the burden of bargain hunting is pushed onto the consumer. Instead of searching for deals or cutting coupons, meal delivery services offer frequent promos and deals for first-time and returning customers.
  • Eliminate food waste. Everybody’s been there: you buy expensive, fresh ingredients from the grocery store, only to throw them out a week later. With vegan meal delivery services, you only get the ingredients you’ll actually use.
  • Avoid trips to the grocery store. A trip to the grocery store is a drain on your gas tank and your free time. With vegan meal delivery services, you can get ingredients and ready-made meals delivered directly to your door.
  • Ease cooking and cleaning. Shopping for ingredients, prepping, cooking, eating, and cleaning up afterwards: it can take several hours to put one meal together. You can save yourself multiple hours each week with vegan meal delivery services that show up right to your door.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

With meal delivery services, your loved ones’ meals are shipped right to their door. If your parents or grandparents struggle to obtain their meal package, consider contacting your local delivery carrier and ask for special drop-off instructions. Although meal preparation specifics changes with each meal delivery service, many meal delivery services offer ready-made meals. These meals can be simply microwaved or oven-baked and are ready to go—the perfect solution for elderly folks who may not be able to cook easily.
There are a lot of great new meal delivery options available in the market, with each meal service putting their unique twist on an otherwise tried and true model. If you are looking to maximize convenience, you should consider prepared meal plans such as Freshly or Fresh and Easy, with meals ready to eat in just 3 minutes. If you enjoy cooking but are tired of food waste and grocery shopping, you should consider meal kits such as Home Chef or Hello Fresh, where you can cook recipes from carefully packed, fresh ingredients within 30 minutes. Most services are accommodating, but meal delivery services aren't made equal when it comes to dietary restrictions. Sun Basket, Purple Carrot and Green Chef stand out with the widest range of keto, vegan, and organic options. Every meal from Freshly is 100% certified gluten-free. Other factors you will want to consider include cost per serving, delivery fees, cancellation policy, and menu size and flexibility.
There is a tremendous amount of customization you can make to the meal plans available in the market, which creates an almost endless number of options to choose from. The first decision you will need to make is whether you prefer a meal kit plan, where you cook with fresh ingredients, or a prepared meal plan, where your meal prep starts with a partially or fully cooked meal. The next factor you will want to consider is the diet type, with common options including meat, seafood, vegetarian, keto, gluten-free, and more. After you have chosen your meal plan and diet, your plan will be customized based on the number of mouths to feed, the number of meals you want per week, shipping dates, and more.
Prepared meals come in pre-packaged, individual servings that can be popped into the oven or microwave for a quick meal. Meal kits come with pre-measured ingredients and recipe instructions that are simple to follow. In both cases, your meals will be shipped in a well packaged box with an ice pack to keep ingredients fresh until they make it into your fridge.
Meal kits will provide you with pre-measured ingredients that you can quickly cook into a fresh meal. Ingredients will come in individually packaged bags or containers and a recipe card with detailed cooking instructions. Most meal kit recipes can be cooked from start to finish in 30 minutes. On the other hand, prepared meal delivery services will have done some, or all, of the prep work for you to make your cooking as efficient as possible. Some prepared meals can be cooked in the microwave and some will require a few minutes in the oven or stove. In any case, prepared meals are generally ready to eat in less than 5 minutes. Whether you choose a meal kit or a prepared meal, you can expect chef-inspired dishes made with fresh ingredients.