Meal-planning site helps friends care for friends

Anyone who’s ever had a baby or undergone surgery knows all too well how challenging it can be in the days following simply to prepare a meal. MealBaby is a new online service that aims to help people in such situations by helping their friends take care of them. When a friend or family member is in need of a little TLC, MealBaby allows users to plan and organize all the details of a meal registry. Users begin by creating an account along with a meal schedule for the recipient featuring a list of their favorite foods, gift card options, contact information, maps and directions. They then choose friends and family near and far to ask for help, either via home-cooked meals, food delivery or gift cards to a local restaurant. An e-mail is sent to all those people, who can then sign up for particular days using MealBaby’s calendar planning tools; the system blocks out each date that’s spoken for. MealBaby is a free service for users and is supported in part through partnerships with a variety of restaurants, whose gift cards can be purchased through the site. MealBaby also offers meal givers the option of donating to Feed the Children. The site’s founders explain: “We have all been in a place where a friendly familiar face stopping by our door with a yummy lunch or dinner means the world. And we often have wanted to repay others with the same sort of gesture when they are in need. But we are all busy people and keeping up with who needs what and when can be a little overwhelming and turn good intentions into, well, good intentions and nothing more. Now, with the help of MealBaby’s easy registration process and calendar planning tools, we can become people whose good intentions become reality.” Illinois-based MealBaby targets primarily users in the United States; one to emulate in other parts of the world….? Spotted by: Bill McMahon