Intro

As you get older, your dietary needs change. It may also become difficult to prepare your own meals. Meal delivery services provide a convenient solution for seniors who want to eat healthy and delicious food without the hassle of cooking. But how can you pick the right one for your needs?

There are dozens of meal delivery services on the market, ranging from cheap to expensive, simple to gourmet, and healthy to indulgent. The best meal delivery for elderly adults should be convenient and easy to prepare while still being nutritionally balanced. And, of course, it should be delicious!

Obviously, we feel strongly that Martha’s Senior Gourmet is the best option for tasty, healthy meals for seniors. But let’s see how it compares to other leading meal delivery services for seniors.

Martha’s Senior Gourmet

Martha’s Senior Gourmet delivers fresh, nutritionally-balanced meals for seniors. We offer a variety of plans, including options that provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner 7 days a week. We may be biased, but we believe you won’t find better-tasting or healthier meals anywhere else.

Unlike national services, which freeze their meals to ship all over the country, Martha’s Senior Gourmet operates on a more local level, providing freshly made meals to older adults in California and other parts of the west coast. Our fresh meals have more flavor and better texture than anything frozen.

Every dish Martha makes is optimized for the unique dietary needs of the elderly. There are many specialized menu options for seniors with other food restrictions as well. Our options include a diabetic menu, a renal menu, a pureed menu, and many more.

Martha’s Senior Gourmet also offers a much more personalized service than any other meal delivery service. Our specially trained delivery drivers get to interact with our customers every day. Compare this to national services, whose meals are simply dropped in front of your door by a mail courier.

Overall, we feel strongly that Martha’s Senior Gourmet deserves the top spot on this list. The only downside is that it’s only available on parts of the west coast… for now.

Click this link to sign up for Martha’s Senior Gourmet!

SilverCuisine by BistroMD

BistroMD is a medically-minded meal delivery service that specializes in frozen weight loss meals. While losing weight is not a common concern for older adults, there are other advantages to BistroMD’s model. The menu is scientifically crafted by doctors and dietitians to be nutrient-dense and filled with lean proteins and low-fat dairy.

SilverCuisine is a sub-brand of BistroMD with a menu specially designed for seniors. This service offers ready-to-heat meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner as well as sweet and salty snacks. It also has menus for numerous dietary needs, including Heart Healthy and Diabetic Friendly menus.

In terms of nutrition, SilverCuisine’s prepared meals deliver on their promise. Compared to the frozen meals you’d find at a grocery store, SilverCuisine’s dishes have less sodium, less fat, and more dietary fiber.

SilverCuisine’s biggest drawback, however, is that its meals don’t actually taste great. Countless online reviews by real SilverCuisine and BistroMD customers make it clear that the company cares more about nutrition than flavor. It doesn’t matter how healthy a meal is if it’s too bland or unappetizing to eat!

SilverCuisine by BistroMD is a convenient and moderately-priced meal delivery service for elderly adults, but the flavor of its meals leaves much to be desired. I only recommend it if Martha’s Senior Gourmet isn’t available in your area.

Magic Kitchen

Like SilverCuisine, Magic Kitchen delivers frozen prepared meals right to your door. It also caters to a number of unique dietary needs, with renal-friendly, diabetic-friendly, and other menus. In our experience, however, Magic Kitchen’s meals aren’t any yummier than SilverCuisine’s. Both services freeze their meals, which has a negative impact on the flavor.

Though the 2 services are similar, Magic Kitchen ranks below SilverCuisine for a few reasons. For starters, we found the website to be much more difficult to navigate. As the senior-focused wing of BistroMD, SilverCuisine’s entire website caters to the needs of older Americans. Magic Kitchen’s senior-friendly meals are just a small part of its website.

I also found Magic Kitchen’s menu to be frustrating. I used the menu filter to see only its Senior Diet meals, but when I tried to add another filter, it removed the senior filter. This tells us that Magic Kitchen is not a reliable service for seniors with specialized dietary needs.

Also on the negative side, Magic Kitchen’s meals come with a wide range of price tags. Some meals, like the Mac & Cheese, are on the low end at $14.99 for 2 servings. However, other meals, like the Crab Cakes, cost $49.99 for 2 servings! Even if you aren’t on a strict budget, it’s frustrating when a meal delivery service has such inconsistent pricing.

Ultimately, Magic Kitchen is pretty similar to SilverCuisine in terms of food. However, we feel it’s not as convenient to use, so that’s where Magic Kitchen loses out.

Sunbasket

Sunbasket is an organic meal delivery service that offers multiple dietary options as well as the choice between meal kits and microwaveable meals. If you enjoy cooking, Sunbasket’s meal kits are a good way to try out new, healthy recipes. The company sends you all the ingredients you need, so all that’s left to do is follow the recipe.

If cooking a meal sounds like too much work for you, Sunbasket’s Fresh & Ready meals are microwavable and ready to eat in minutes. Sunbasket’s prepared meals are delivered fresh, so you can count on them to taste much better than the frozen meals from SilverCuisine or Magic Kitchen.

However, Sunbasket ranks below those services because it doesn’t offer a specialized plan for seniors. Its menu has filters for multiple diets, including diabetes-friendly, gluten-free, or vegan. Many of these meals will be suitable for the unique nutritional needs of seniors, but you’ll have to dedicate more time to studying the menu in order to find appropriate dishes.

For these reasons, Sunbasket may be a good fit for families with seniors or older adults who like to cook for themselves. If you need easy meals optimized for the needs of an elderly diet, though, Sunbasket falls short.

Home Chef

Home Chef is one of the largest meal delivery services on the market, and I wanted to include it to show how it compares to more specialized companies. Home Chef has its advantages, but it has some major drawbacks as well.

On the plus side, Home Chef offers some of the best prices on my list with dishes starting at less than $9.99 per serving. However, the service is able to keep these prices so low because Home Chef doesn’t cater to most dietary needs.

Almost all of Home Chef’s dishes require you to cook them yourself. It offers only a small selection of microwavable prepared meals, and many of these are unsuitable for seniors due to high levels of sodium and other dietary limitations.

Only some of Home Chef’s meals are suitable for older adults. If you try this service, you’ll have to examine the menu closely to find meals with good levels of protein and fiber without too much sugar or sodium.

Ultimately, I don’t think Home Chef’s low price makes up for how limited its options are for the needs of seniors.

FAQs

What is the Best Meal Delivery Service for Seniors?

Martha’s Senior Gourmet is an excellent choice for seniors located on the west coast. While other services offer meals that cater to the dietary needs of elderly adults, most of them offer tasteless frozen dishes. Martha’s meals are made and delivered fresh for maximum flavor and nutrition.

Is Home Chef Good for Seniors?

Home Chef is not suitable for most seniors. Its prices and easy prep meal kits can be convenient for older adults, but none of its recipes are designed with the needs of seniors in mind.

What are Good Frozen Meals for Seniors?

SilverCuisine and Magic Kitchen offer frozen meals designed for seniors, but the flavor leaves much to be desired. Frozen meals can provide convenient nutrition for seniors, but fresh meals from services like Martha’s Senior Gourmet are much, much tastier.