Eating enough is one of the most basic tasks we all have to manage each day, but it gets a lot harder when you don’t have easy access to transportation to run to the grocery store or go out to eat. For many seniors, from the day driving becomes unsafe, one of the biggest problems they have to find a solution to is figuring out how to get enough food to eat without being able to drive. This is a serious need – you can’t opt out of eating when it becomes inconvenient, even if you wanted to – and it’s often one of the reasons seniors end up moving to assisted living sooner than they might have otherwise. Fortunately, a large number of businesses have come onto the scene in the past few years that make it easier than ever to have people bring food to seniors.

Let our care assessment guide you

Our free tool provides options, advice, and next steps based on your unique situation.

1. Grocery Delivery

Going to the grocery store has long felt like a tedious chore for many. A number of businesses have therefore stepped in to take that particular chore off customers’ plates, allowing seniors to shop from home and get food delivered.

For seniors who can’t get to the grocery store themselves, these services can be especially helpful. Many of these businesses only offer services in some areas, but as their popularity grows, they’ll likely expand their offerings to more cities over time.

Popular Grocery delivery services include the following:

Shipt. For a monthly or annual subscription fee, you can use Shipt for grocery delivery as often as you please. Orders over $50 get free delivery.
Instacart. Instacart has a delivery fee each time, or seniors can select the option to pay $99 a year for free delivery.
Burpy. Burpy is available in a few cities in Texas. They charge a delivery fee for each order under $50, but offer free delivery for those over.
PeaPod. Peapod offers services in a few cities around the country. They do have a delivery fee and a minimum order requirement of $60.
Amazon Fresh. Amazon is in the process of adding grocery delivery to the long list of services they offer. For now, it’s only available in a few cities, but may well expand if it proves successful. Where it is offered, Amazon Fresh is available only to Prime members at an extra monthly subscription fee.
Jet. Unlike most of the services on the list, Jet doesn’t send a personal shopper to your local grocery store, they have their own inventory of grocery items they send. They offer free shipping on orders over $35.
FreshDirect. Fresh Direct also has their own inventory rather than using your local grocery stores. Their big selling point is the promise of freshness. Fresh Direct does have a minimum order and delivery fee, both of which vary based on location.

Today, many local grocery stores offer their own delivery services. Check with your loved one’s local grocery store to see if this is an option.

Let our care assessment guide you

Our free tool provides options, advice, and next steps based on your unique situation.

2. Meal Kit Delivery Service

An increasingly popular trend in the last few years, meal kit delivery services deliver pre-portioned ingredients for recipes that seniors can then cook. Most of them work essentially the same way: people sign up for weekly deliveries and receive the ingredients for a set number of meals each time. A couple of the services (Chef’d and FreshRealm) have a more on-demand model, allowing customers to pick specific meals and order them as needed.

Explore the following meal kit delivery services:

Blue Apron: Starts at $11.99 per serving
Hello Fresh: Starts at $7.49 per serving
Green Chef: Starts at $11 per serving
Home Chef: Starts at $11.99 per serving
Purple Carrot: Starts at $13.25 per serving
Marley Spoon: Starts at $9.99 per serving
Peach Dish: Starts at $12.50 per serving
Terra’s Kitchen: Starts at $9.99 per serving
Sun Basket: Starts at $13.99 per serving
Plated: Starts at $9.99 per serving
Chef’d: Starts at $9.95 per serving
FreshRealm: Starts at $5.25 a serving (for light meals)

For many of these, the prices decrease with a family plan that’s enough food to feasibly feed several; the price for fewer servings goes up a bit per serving.

Some of these services offer specific plans designed to satisfy dietary needs, so if you don’t eat meat or are allergic to gluten, look for a service able to accommodate those needs. Some also make a big point of ensuring their meals are either organic, healthy, or both, so if those qualities are important, there are many options.

3. Prepared Meals

If the meal kits sound like too much work and you think your parent would rather not cook their own food, some services send over already prepared meals.

The following businesses offer prepared meals ready to heat and eat:

Munchery: Offers both a subscription model with weekly kits and the option to order specific meals when you want them
Factor 75: Offers several subscription plans starting at $12.99 per meal
Magic Kitchen: Customers can pick specific meals or explore a meals menu developed by their chefs, including a Senior Meals menu
Top Chef Meals: Allows seniors to choose specific meals from their menu for delivery anytime
Sunfare: Offers both monthly subscription plans and weekly plans

Many of these services offer plans and meals that accommodate specific dietary requirements, such as being gluten free or vegan, if your loved one has specific dietary restrictions.

Talk with a Senior Care Advisor

Our advisors help 300,000 families each year find the right senior care for their loved ones.

4. Restaurant Delivery

While not as new as some of these other options, the possibility of having food you love delivered from your favorite restaurant remains an easy option that seniors can take advantage of.

Lots of restaurants offer their own delivery services. But the following delivery services can bring food from a variety of restaurants to your parent’s door:

GrubHub
Seamless
BiteSquad
DoorDash
UberEats
OrderUp
Eat24
BringMeThat

These services partner with restaurants in the area in order to offer a range of options.

5. Meals on Wheels

All of the options above can make seniors’ lives easier, but they come at a price. For seniors who aren’t sure they can afford those options for all their meals, Meals on Wheels can help fill in the gaps by providing some extra food each week. And seniors get the company of a friendly volunteer as a nice added bonus.

Possible bonus option: Local CSAs

Depending on where a senior lives, there may be a Community Supported Agriculture program in their community that will deliver produce. The option isn’t widespread enough to include it on our main list of options, but it’s worth checking to see what’s available in your area if your parent might like the idea of having farm fresh produce delivered to their door.

Recommended For You

What to Do When It’s Time for Your Parents to Stop Driving

Products to Help Seniors Monitor Health

SHARE THE ARTICLE

Meet the Author

Kristen Hicks

The information contained in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute medical, legal or financial advice or create a professional relationship between A Place for Mom (of which OurParents is a trademark) and the reader. Always seek the advice of your health care provider, attorney or financial advisor with respect to any particular matter and do not act or refrain from acting on the basis of anything you have read on this site. Links to third-party websites are only for the convenience of the reader; A Place for Mom does not recommend or endorse the contents of the third-party sites.