People were only eligible for the meal box delivery program if they had a home. Not only did the majority of food items delivered require refrigeration and/or freezing, they also included all the ingredients needed to make a meal. Therefore, being on this program also required recipients to have cookware, cooking appliances and adequate food storage capabilities. Program recipients were also required to have someone home to receive their meal box, or they could arrange to have it delivered to a friend or family member instead, if they already knew in advance that they weren’t going to be home on a delivery day. The reason we required someone to be home to receive their meal box is because of the amount of refrigerated and frozen food that could have gone bad if it was left in the sun for too long on a hot summer day, or left at the door base inside an apartment building. Furthermore, meal boxes left unattended could get stolen, and Leah was adamant with recipients about not wasting perfectly good food when there were hundreds of other people waiting to be on the program, who were more than happy to make themselves, or someone in their household, or even someone they knew and trusted, available for one hour every other Tuesday evening to receive their fresh food meal box delivery. Some people have asked about making the process of filling out food order forms simpler by having some sort of food preferences profile, and eliminate the need to fill out biweekly food order forms altogether. However, we noticed a direct correlation between the date recipients submitted their biweekly food order forms and the recipients who didn’t receive a meal box because they weren’t home. The recipients who filled out their food order forms as soon as they were available never seemed to miss a delivery. The ones who were constantly forgetting to fill out their forms, were also constantly forgetting to answer their door when their driver knocked, or answer their phone when their driver called. We've learned that if recipients can’t be bothered to submit a food order form that takes less than two minutes to fill out, they’re unlikely to be bothered to remember to be home for one-hour every other Tuesday, even with the reminder sent the day before. What If Their Mental Health Caused A Receiving Problem? If, for whatever reason, a recipient wasn’t able to receive a meal box, i.e., they had a legitimate memory problem (this is a bad example but it’s an example nonetheless), and if they had parents in town, we would arrange to have their meal boxes delivered to their parents address instead. Of all the recipients on our program, we did this for two recipients. And for a third recipient, we dropped his meal box off to his referring agency since he wasn't good at receiving his meal box. He also didn’t have a cell phone or landline, and it was impossible to get ahold of him at all times. What About Missed Deliveries? Recipients could reach out to Leah no earlier than two hours after their one-hour estimated delivery time frame to inform her of their delivery not showing up. Of all the deliveries we did, only one was missed and it was delivered the next day by an Instacart. We decided to just buy the exact same items from the grocery store since we gave away all the extra food to other local charities the night before.