Mobile Meals of Southern Arizona — Attraction in Tucson

A year ago , Mobile Meals were prepared in hospital kitchens around town. THEN they bought a kitchen in South Tucson and 'prepared' meals there! The balanced meals disappeared, the quality of food disappeared, and the dietary restriction conscious meal ingredients disappeared! Their NEW improved system has created food WASTE rather than edible quality meals. Cucumbers do not freeze well, and thaw poorly. A typical 2 meal delivery has evolved to 1)mystery meat/bean blob, 2)mystery concoction of hmm.. maybe chicken and a bunch of unidentified white 'gooey' 'sauce'?, and3)2 servings of frozen peas, 2 servings of frozen cucumbers, and a packet of buttermilk ranch dressing (i suppose it's for something).If you put the veggies or 'meals' in the fridge for overnight, your kitchen will likely smell gross until you dispose of the 'balanced nutritious meals' to eliminate the smell. $5 for a meal/ but you get (in theory) 2 meals per delivery, that is actually $10 for a friendly volunteer to embarrassingly deliver your meals. It is wonderful to know someone would be checking to see if I'm still alive 3 times a week!!!! The volunteers are kind and friendly and seem to actually care. Additionally, it's generally the SAME volunteers, so you don't have a revolving door of strangers coming to your door. Mobile Meals does not make it easy to volunteer either. One of my volunteers travels 45 miles to make her 11 'meal deliveries! That's a lot of miles. ALSO, the volunteers are in charge of storing MANY food coolers AND having enough freezer space to freeze MANY ice packs, so the food stays cold after they pick it up from misc. "refrigerated" trucks, which are much more like freezers as food is primarily frozen and requires preparation. I find it quite inappropriate and unprofessional to BLAME the volunteers for food 'jostling around in their cars, making covered containers getting uncovered and airborne! Wrapping the food correctly would be a much-preferred reaction! So, for $120 per month, I can get 2 horrible excuses for meals, 3 times a week. $200 per month if you want poor quality food 5 days a week. WOW. I stayed with them through their change of venue and meals, but the food waste is excessive and the attitude of the administration is quite different than their amazing website pitch! The ONLY improvement I've witnessed since their new agenda is: their ADVERTIZING budget has clearly expanded...

When I signed my grandfather up for Mobile Meals of Southern Az the meals were prepared in a hospital setting. That transitioned in August of 2023 and ever since, everything has gone downhill fast.

Meals were originally nutritious and wholesome and were “Captain Obvious” regarding content. Now, there’s a printed ticket that is supposed to reflect the contents of the meal for the day, that has never once been accurate. Instead of having a single container with the entire meal in it, there are many celafane covered tiny containers that he must open and figure out what to put together.Not only is the new practice wasteful, it is confusing for my grandfather and at times I cannot make sense of it.

The premise behind getting this service was to allow him to feel more independent than he is. The ability to put a meal into the microwave when he is hungry, gives him independent satisfaction.

My efforts to communicate with Mobile Meals when errors occurred started out with many promises from the Manager. I found after at least 10 phone conversations, that she is a “Yes woman”, one that tells you what she thinks you want to hear to get you off the phone, but never does what she says she will to fix an issue.

Recently, grandpa was missed on two days and when I call the office to inquire, they no longer answer my calls or emails. I have reached out many, many times and no one ever returns my calls or emails. We now have gates in our community park and when I called to inform the staff on how volunteers should enter, I never received calls back. Now it’s January 2024, and they’ve ceased delivery for him completely, without any notification to either of us, merely discontinued service. However, they never miss taking a monthly payment out of the bank account!

This was originally a stellar service, but has unfortunately been run into the ground due to poor staff management and lack of communication.

I would run away if you are considering inquiring about this company, as it will assuredly cause you constant issues...

Something tells me that you don't expect many people to sign up for your (un)service. I read your material and as soon as I got to the "shut up and eat" sentence, I almost gave up. You know, the one that says NO SUBSTITUTIONS. Why can't you have a few dishes that can be ordered at any time - a sandwich, chicken, salmon - as the assisted living facilities have. Do you have a specialist in elder care on your staff or your board? If not, I know exactly where to find somebody. I wish you all the luck...