1. Take Them a Meal 

This website seems to be the most commonly used by people not residing in the United States. It gives the organizer the ability to set up a schedule for meals for a recipient, as well as multiple meals (up to three) per day. There are places in the set-up procedure for the organizer to list any food allergies and the time the recipient would like to receive the meals. It is also possible to write in specific notes and information that the organizer wants to share with the volunteers. This site, however, does not allow for more than three meals a day which could be problematic if multiple people want to split the foods being provided for Shabbat or a holiday. Nor does the site allow for any other kinds of assistance to be arranged and scheduled. The site is free to use.

2. Meal Train 

On this site the organizer has the ability to set up a calendar for volunteers to sign up to take a prepared meal to the recipient and to make cash donations, or if you are in the US you can purchase GrubHub gift cards for the recipient. All of this is free under the basic program. If the organizer wants to arrange for multiple meals a day or to have housework, rides, grocery deliveries, childcare or visitors arranged there is a monthly fee for a plus account. The organizer is provided with places to input food likes and dislikes, allergies, meal time preferences and a little blurb about why the recipient is in need of meals/ services. It is also possible to upload a photograph of the recipient and the organizer can edit the calendar as needed.

3. Lotsa Helping Hands

This site is set up like a community with one or more coordinators acting as administrators. Photos can be uploaded and the admins are able to set up a calendar with requests for a number of different tasks that members can volunteer for. The tasks that can be set up include meals, rides, childcare, shopping, visits, assistance with medical care and a category for miscellaneous needs. The admins are also able to post updates and a brief description as to why the assistance is needed. It is a little more complicated to navigate than some of the other sites, but it is free and has the ability to handle multiple areas of assistance.

4. Care Calendar

This site, like the preceding sites, is set up and run by an administrator or a group of administrators. It is easy to start a calendar, the site walks you through the process and even provides a downloadable, printable worksheet for the user to gather all the required information. Adding multiple meals or courses to a single day is simple and the user can choose to repeat these needs in multiple ways. The site also allows for other needs to be scheduled: rides, grocery shopping, house cleaning and more. The recipient is also given access and editing capabilities. Like some of the other sites, updates and photos can be added to keep volunteers up to date. The site is also free.

5. Give InKind

This last site has a relatively easy-to-set-up free page but there are ads and suggested readings as you navigate the site. If you want to remove them you need to pay a fee. As with the other sites, the organizer can post photos and a description of why assistance is necessary and they can arrange for meals that volunteers can sign up for, as well as an array of other needs. Grocery shopping, transportation, childcare, adult/senior care, house cleaning and a customizable need category. There are also options to create a wish list of purchasable gift cards or to link the page to a Paypal or Gofundme page to raise money for the recipient.

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