The menu photos sell the service. The rules decide whether it works in your parent's house. Pull the terms and read them before you pick a provider or fill out a sign-up form.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Reheating and the container
Ask what the container can handle. Check whether the meal goes in a microwave, an oven, or only a stovetop, and whether the lid vents. Ask whether the reheating directions are printed on the package in large type. If Dad will not read a long label, the box has to be simple enough that he can follow it without help. Ask whether the kitchen will follow a diet your parent's doctor or dietitian has set, and get that promise in writing. The doctor or dietitian sets the diet. The provider only has to follow it.
Skips, pauses, and the cutoff
Find the cutoff day for skipping a week, and whether the skip can be made by phone, by app, or only by one of those. Ask whether a pause ends on its own or stays open until someone restarts it. Find out what happens if a skip is made after the cutoff, and whether any charge applies. Skip rules are where most families get charged for food nobody ate.
The missed box and who gets the call
Ask for the delivery window, whether the driver leaves the box without a signature, and what happens when no one answers. Ask whether the company calls anyone when a box is missed, and who that person is. If you are not on the account, ask whether a second contact can be added and what that contact is allowed to change. A missed box with no one called is the most common failure, so this line deserves the most attention.
Compare the same three questions
For every provider on your list, compare the written reheating directions, the skip rule with its deadline, and the name of the person called when a box is missed. If a provider cannot answer one of those three in writing, cross it off, regardless of how the menu looks. The method behind comparisons like this is on How We Write.
The next move: pull the terms for your top two providers, find the skip cutoff and the missed-delivery line, then call each one and get the answers in writing before you place any order.