Support with meals
Are you struggling to get to the shops, or prepare healthy meals for yourself and your family at home?
There are many options available to help you overcome these difficulties.
Kitchen equipment
There are a range of special kitchen and feeding aids that can help you, particularly if you have flexibility, mobility or physical dexterity issues.
Kitchen and feeding aids can make a huge difference to your independence, allowing you to prepare food for yourself, rather than relying on others to do it for you.
Aids include:
- adapted knives and cutlery
- non-spill feeding aids such as cups, mugs, plates and bowls.
The following sites have more information about specially-designed kitchen and feeding aids:
Ready meals
If you find it difficult to prepare hot meals but you're able to use an oven or microwave, you can consider buying ready meals. These meals come already made and simply need heating up in the cooker or microwave. Meals come chilled or frozen and you can buy them from any supermarket, online or even over the phone.
Ready meals cater for people with all dietary needs.
These include:
- diabetic
- low-fat
- low-salt
- low-sugar
- gluten-free
- vegetarian
- vegan
- Kosher
- Halal
- puréed
- egg-free.
Although ready meals can be very handy, you should always read the label to make sure you're maintaining a healthy, balanced diet.
Food delivered to your home
If you're having trouble getting out into the community, there are many ways to make sure that you're getting the food and other shopping essentials you need.
The Lambeth Age UK myHOME service helps people aged over 50. This service can provide support with:
- shopping
- escorting to and from appointments
- preparing light meals or snacks for Lambeth residents in need of this service
The following companies offer special dietary cuisines for people with food allergies and intolerances, and can deliver hot or frozen meals to your door:
- Apetito - can make daily home deliveries of either hot meals or meals for your freezer.
- Wiltshire Farm Foods - can deliver batches of frozen meals to your home on a regular basis and provide a wide variety of options for people with different tastes or dietary needs.
- Oakhouse Foods - provide a range of home-delivered frozen meals across the UK.
- Blue Mountain Foods - specialise in Caribbean ready meals, with a minimum of 12 meals per order delivered to your door on a regular basis.
Another option is to use home delivery services provided by supermarkets. Most of the major UK supermarkets have a shopping delivery service that you, your carer or a family member can access online and will often deliver for free if your order is over a certain amount:
Some local food shops will deliver food to your home for a small charge, as will many local restaurants and takeaways.
Support with meals
If you're unable to heat up frozen meals yourself and you don't have access to someone to prepare your meals, you can request an assessment.