Sympathy flowers, sympathy gifts, sympathy cards and now...sympathy food. A wonderful way to comfort a grieving friend or relative is to bring over home-cooked meals. Sympathy food meets a very practical need, but that's not all. A delicious and carefully prepared meal is more than nourishment, it represents love and support.

For the bereaved the daily tasks of cooking and caring for themselves is not only difficult, but it feels so wrong to focus on themselves. Many grieving people do not care if they eat or not. That's why they need caring people, like you, to help them out.

If you know that delicous dinners would be a great way to comfort a bereaved friend, relative or co-worker, but you just don't have the time you should consider sending them a meal through an online gourmet food shop. It is easy to provide one meal or a week's worth of meals. Sendameal.com offers a large selection of meals and they even have a section for sympathy dinners. Most online gourmet shops list sympathy under occasions. The meals are frozen fully prepared with only a minimum of preparation needed. It is easy to have a wonderful restaurant quality dinner delivered to their door.

Sympathy food gift baskets are also a popular option. Just about all the major online florists carry gift baskets and their are also many online stores specializing in sympathy gift baskets. There are fruit gift baskets, nuts, meats and cheeses, snacks, cookies, choclates and wine gift baskets. These are great for grieving families who have guests from out of town.

Tips for Arranging Meals for a Friend or Co-Worker

You can make meals yourself or you can arrange among friends or co-workers to have meals brought over for a week or two. Many people want to see meals taken care of for a grieving family, but they don't know how to head up something like this. I've done it a few times before and it's really not difficult.

1. First print out this sign-up sheet to take to work and give people an opportunity to participate.
2. Call everyone who signed up and assign them a day that works with their schedule.
3. You may want to ask people to give a general idea of what they want to bring, for example:a chicken dish, Chinese take-out, pizza, soup and salad, or a beef dish to try and avoid having the family recieve the same kind of dish more than once.
4. Write their name on a calendar for the day they've chosen.
5. Contact the bereaved family to let them know what days they will be recieving meals and to find out if anybody in the family has any food allergies or dietary restrictions.
6. Remind everyone who signs up to bring a meal by calling or sending out reminder cards a few days in advance.

Where would you like to go now?

Sending Flowers to comfort a grieving loved one

Back to Comforting the Bereaved

Return Home from Sympathy Food to Comfort the Bereaved