Meal support refers to assistance provided in preparing, obtaining, or consuming nutritious meals to ensure your dietary needs are met on a temporary or long-term basis.
Tips & Links
Changes in your physical and mental health can impact your dietary needs and physical capabilities to access good nutrition. Providing meal support, even if for a short period of time, can address these changing needs.
Things You Can Do
- Learn about healthy eating and weights from Healthlink BC.
- Think about the different types of meal support that you might need such as: meal planning (consider food allergies and sensitivities), grocery shopping, meal preparation, safety of using the stove/ kitchen equipment, eating with others and monitoring food safety.
- Consider ways you can address your needs such as a nutritional assessment by a dietitian, community delivery services, pre-made paid for home delivery, home care services that includes someone coming in to provide meal preparation, and/or calling on your care partners for support.
- Explore meal services in your community offered by non-profit groups and volunteers that provide home delivery and if desired, offer ethnic choices. These services may also include an emotional health check-in. For example, Meals on Wheels delivers nourishing meals to seniors who are recovering from surgery, illness, or injury. It is a non-profit service run by volunteers.
- Make a list of your favourite meals. Share with your care partners so they can make meals for your freezer – be sure to include your allergies and sensitivities as well as preferences of salt, spices, and flavours.
Find Support
- Check out healthy eating suggestions for seniors – available in a number of languages – from the Government of BC.
- Check out the guide on eating healthy suggested by the First Nations Health Authority.
- Be aware of disordered eating and its overall impact on your health from the National Eating Disorder & Information Centre.
- For answers to your dietary and eating questions, you can Dial-a-Dietitian at 811 (or for Hard-of-Hearing 711) at Healthlink BC. They also provide specialized services such as oncology services.
- Learn about low income food support programs in your community like the list provided by the Fraser Health Authority.
Record all allergies, food sensitivities, vitamins, supplements, herbs, and special diet requirements on your Health Profile and Medication List in the activity My Health Information. Collect all your favourite recipes and file them in My Day to Day in your Mywell Health planner.