Below you’ll find the show notes for episode 95, Loving Your Ladies: Organizing Meal Trains, Freezer Meals, and Funeral Meals, from the Women’s Ministry Toolbox Podcast.

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Loving Your Ladies: Organizing Meal Trains, Freezer Meals, and Funeral Meals

Like most of the topics we’ve tackled in this series on loving our ladies, providing meals may or may not be something coordinated through your women’s ministry program. Either way, I think you’ll find some helpful tips in this episode.

Meals can be a very practical way to help our women during times of transition and crisis.

Everyone needs to eat, but prepping a meal during a stressful time can be a great burden. Providing a meal allows our women to shift their focus away from grocery shopping, meal prep, or Door Dash to their loved ones.

Let’s start with some basic questions you and your church staff will need to answer. Please don’t make these decisions in isolation. Your church staff may have some guidelines they would like to have followed or suggestions they’d like included.

As you think through each one, keep in mind that what you do for one sets a precedent for others. If you provide 3 weeks of meals for a new mom, every new mom is going to expect 3 weeks of meals.

Key Meal Planning Questions

1. Who is going to receive meals? Will you provide meals for a medical emergency, death in the family, chronic illness, cancer patients, and new moms (don’t forget about adoptions)? Think about other special circumstances you have encountered.
2. How many meals will they receive and for how long? Will they receive meals every day, every other day, or just a few days each week? How many weeks will meals be covered? Keep in mind most people prepare enough food for more than one meal. Leftovers are likely and meals may not be needed on consecutive days.
3. Who is going to make the meals? Is there a team of women that will prepare meals? Do you have a freezer meal ministry that has meals ready to go at any time? Will small group members take care of most needs with other lending help when the need is great?
4. How will needs be communicated? Will you send out an email to women who have signed up to provide meals for your meal ministry? Will the church staff share needs with small group leaders? Will you use an online sign-up like SignUp Genius, Take them a Meal, or Meal Train? Will you send out a group text?

You’ll want to have solid answers to these questions.

Meal Drop-offs

Meal drop-offs can be tricky. Often people receiving meals have little time, desire, or energy to entertain the person dropping off a meal. We should never assume we’ll be invited in. Chances are they haven’t had a chance to clean their home for company. They may not want to introduce germs into their home, they may not want to answer questions, or they may just want to avoid conversations about their illness, the baby’s birth, or their loss.

Those delivering meals often do not consider the burden they are placing on the recipient when they ring their doorbell to drop off food.

What important information do you need to provide for those preparing and delivering the meals?

• Food allergies and dislikes – Is there a gluten or dairy allergy? Do they not like to eat mushrooms or onions? Side note: I’m gluten free. Having meals prepared for me can cause a lot of stress. If you know there’s an allergy please make sure someone who understands can help guide the meal prep and make solid suggestions. Gluten is in most canned soups, so casseroles can be an issue.
• Address with any needed directions – Should they leave it on the porch and send a text?
• Drop off time
• Strongly encourage them to use disposable containers so the recipient doesn’t have to worry about returning dishes.

In need of a few meal suggestions?

• Pasta (sub gluten-free pasta if needed)
• Soup and Salad
• Chili with toppings and cornbread
• Breakfast for dinner
• Rotisserie chicken with sides
• Build your own baked potato bar
• Build your own taco bowl

Funeral Food:

Almost three years ago, I had the opportunity to coordinate a funeral meal for a friend when her husband unexpectedly, suddenly passed away. He was young, about 40, with young children, and that made the situation a lot harder. I posted in the Women’s Ministry Toolbox Facebook group and the leaders had so many great suggestions.

Some churches provide meals after the service for everyone, but this meal was just for their family.

Here are some tips they shared:

• Provide finger foods and trays such as meat, cheese, vegetable, and fruit trays
• Pick up fried chicken and ask for others to provide the sides
• Ask what the deceased’s favorite dessert was and make it for the family. It seems to bring a sense of comfort and thoughtfulness.
• Use real dishes and silverware or fancy plastic plates and really nice plastic utensils. We try to make it feel special for them.
• Many churches have a set funeral menu. Here’s one example: chicken tenders and ham, hashbrown casserole, seasoned green beans, deviled eggs, rolls, and desserts.
• One church has organized groups that helps with funeral food. The church funds the meat portion of the meal, and the groups cover the vegetables, salads, and desserts.

I’ve also helped with other funeral meals and one thing I’ve noticed is that there was always a lot of leftover food. In one case, the meal coordinator brought a package of gallon-sized bags and aluminum foil so we were able to send food home with the family.

Warm coffee was something that provided comfort that I hadn’t considered, but we met the need when it arose.

Churches of all sizes will benefit if someone is leading the effort and setting up some guidelines for funeral meals.

As I said earlier, it may not be something done through your women’s ministry program, but it is something many of your women may be helping with.

Meal Planning Tips from Other Churches:

One church has a Helping Hands ministry. Each month, a group of ladies is on call for anything that might come up, funeral, sickness, etc. One woman serves as the designated lead each month. She coordinates any needs that arise. If the needs are many, they will contact the previous month’s people to see if they can help.

Another group uses their meals ministry for outreach. They serve meals to families who have experienced a homicide. The lunches are provided during the trial period. This serves the family by cutting down costs as they come to town for the trial and also provides them a quiet place to gather to eat and converse rather than going out in public.

At another church, their meals ministry doesn’t  just provide meals for people in their church, they also cook meals for their local homeless shelter. When they meet, they prep meals for both. Meala for church members are stored in freezers at their church.

If your congregation is spread out across a large area, here’s a tip you might find helpful. A leader in the Facebook group shared that their church organizes meal providers by zip code. When a meal request comes in, they only distribute the need to the providers in (or close to) that area of town.

One leader shared they have a freezer-prep day to stock their church’s freezer. Her comment in the Facebook group explained, that a team of 9 got together, worked on 3 different recipes, and made 19 meals, our meals included a casserole, frozen veggies, and bread. It was a fun time for all who participated and we all learned how to make 3 different casseroles!

Another church with a freezer meal ministry, noted that their members grab a bagged salad and bread from the store to put with the main dish or casserole from their freezer making delivery a breeze.

Grief groceries can be a helpful alternative or addition to sending meals. Grief groceries can be food or paper products. Our women’s ministry team pulled together a delivery of paper goods when one of our team members’ father passed away. We dropped off paper products and plastic silverware so they wouldn’t have to deal with dirty dishes. We sent lots of toilet paper and paper towels to help manage the extra visitors and family that would be dropping by.

If you’re in a smaller church or have a small team of women providing meals, it can become a strain on their time and grocery budget. You may find it helpful to encourage people who don’t want to cook to send gift cards or a meal through DoorDash. You might be able to match up some church members who are willing to provide the money for a meal with someone else who would do the cooking. You could also divide up the menu among several people to ease the expense and the work.

Here are Today’s Toolbox Tasks:

1. Is there a plan to meet meal needs at your church? If so, it can be helpful to share that with your team members.
2. If your team helps coordinate the meals, make note of any tips you want to share with the coordinator or church staff to smooth the process.

Meals can be such a blessing to our women in times of need, but they can be a burden too. I pray these tips will help us be more considerate as we seek to love our ladies well.

You may also want to read:
Newborn and Grief Baskets: Loving Our Ladies in Times of Joy and Sorrow
Leading Through Tragedy: How to Support Your Community During Difficult Times
Hospital Care Packages and Sonshine Boxes: Showing Christ’s Love in Practical Ways