Lorna B.

These meals are prepared by numerous churches in the area. One of them really provides you with a good lunch. Protein content, flavorful, NORMAL food that they would feed their family like a pot pies, spaghetti with meat, sweet n sour chicken made with chicken chunks, cheeseburgers, meatloaf and mashed potatoes, frozen peas, chops etc. The rest give either boiled down pasta with either no meat or with one tiny bite of meat. If there is no meat in it, they add some canned vegetable to the pasta and mix it up. OR they give you a bunch of white rice with a little strange meat concoction on top. Also a dry elbow macaroni meal mixed with a few grains of ground beef and seasoning. Sauceless. The thing is the donations are distributed among the participating churches. Why are some using it to provide a substantial and appetising meal while others purchase pasta with the funds? The meal I received today is not from the good church that delivers, but it is one of the BETTER meals from the churches that serve pasta. I dug up all the meat from the meal and put it on a fork. Keep in mind, this is their BETTER pasta—the bow tie pasta.

I used Instacart once only. It was for grocery delivery from Sprouts. One of the things I liked about it was the way you can decide on substitutions. At the close of your order it shows a handful of choices for you to choose from in the event that your item won't be available. You simply click on one, or you can click "refund this item in the event it is out of stock". No more (like Walmart who has their own shoppers) surprise substitutions like you choose Jordan almonds (a candy) and your grocer substitutes with a jar of mixed nuts…or You need tongs for the holiday…there out of that brand but there are other brands…but they send you a ladle instead…or you order steaks and they send pork chops as a substitution. Nope. You are in the drivers seat and there is not the necessity for your delivery person (like Shipts) to send you a slew of texts that you must respond to for every other item that is out of stock as if you even know what your other choices are in the store off the top of your head. You also (unlike Walmart) know during the shopping experience as opposed to once you receive your order…what is and isn't available.

As a matter of fact, you see each item as your shopper gets them and how much more the have to go. Even when they need to go with one of your substitution choices, they send an in app or in website instant message for you to put Y to indicate you still want that substitution in lieu of a refund. And I LOVE the in app or in the website messenger instead of rifling through my texts on my phone. The whole experience was like I was shopping myself without the crowds, waiting in lines, having to get dress, searching for items, or the traffic. Plus, and I don't know if this lies with Instacart or with Sprouts, there was no padding the price for each item. And the fees were reasonable ($3.99).

If all this wasn't enough they have an 800 number for the sixty and older crowd to help you maneuver the system if you need it. Friendly and efficient.

The meals are prepared by different churches in my area. You can tell. Some NEVER give meats. Others have tiny scraps of meats mixed in with what seems to be whatever could be found and mushy pasta. The combination that is mixed together is something you know they wouldn't prepare for their families even with better quality ingredients. 80% of the meals are not for diabetics—which many seniors are—as they are low quality starches boiled to a mush for the main course and a white roll or cookie. Now you have the exceptions on healthy meals, tastiness, and quality. As I said they are prepared by MANY churches in the ares. Some stand out for giving dignity to the seniors by giving decent food (a cheeseburger, pot pie, spaghetti WITH meat, etc.). If the donations in one city are distributed evenly, why are some delivering boiled pasta with random things like olives or nuts mixed in, while others (probably about 15% of the time) are giving tasty, good quality meals with a protein? That 15% are giving something they might give to their teenagers for a quick meal—which is fine. Nobody is looking for gourmet or perfect nutrition or huge serving sizes. Just looking for average food that will curb the hunger and has a real protein component. Not pasta mush with weird additions. 1. We're humans. 2. If some churches (the 15%) can do it they should all be able to in the same area as the donated funds are distributed evenly. It also would be nice to have the same good meal twice. As it stands there is no coordination between these churches besides delivery. I have been receiving for 2 1/2 months and have only had the same thing twice. Sounds good? No. It's a variety of the pasta mushes mostly (super overcooked pasta with a surprise addition that is not meat or scraps of meat. Just a note, really appreciate the delivery guys and gals. I am currently physically unable to prepare meals most of the time. The delivery people are kind, one even brings homemade cookies—you get a few that are intrusive beyond the purpose of delivering a meal. I mean if a recipient wants to socialize, they will. If a recipient wants to have you familiar with their home, you don't have to stretch your neck or take advantage if a child answers the door. Maybe many recipients would be more talkative if the delivery people wore mask. Only two out of about 15 that deliver to me do, and the elderly and those with comorbidities are at high risk for deadly affects of COVID19.

Issues with being able to input data on assignments. Just give zero and keep moving. Techs are patient, but they don't have a clear system to address problems in systems, especially for iPads (which schools issue). It's guesstimating. It's a chaotic nightmare, calling half a dozen times in the few weeks school has been in, and the school system should choose another platform. A fourth or fifth grader on an iPad can't navigate through the many hiccups with adding data and submitting assignments in this system. We've done online schooling before, and with this one the pathway to locate email for teachers isn't simple, there is no clear instructions as to how to input info to admit assignments or what app to use. No clear tabs like-email teacher, etc. They expect 9 and 10 year olds to figure out how to turn a document into a document in which you can input data, submit it, use the right app to create a file and edit it. Half the apps are not accessible without some login info nobody has told us about. Complete nightmare for the child and the "coach" (parent, older sibling, grandparent, babysitter, neighbor etc.)

Site is much improved, but there are far too many groceries available in the store that are not available in grocery pickup and delivery.

Fill in the form at jacobymeyers.com. If enough of us do that, we may be able to start a class action suit.