Table 2 Example quotes from participants with cognitive impairment according to the TICS-M

Participant 2 (daily)

10

“They mix the food. They don’t give me one thing all the time. Same thing over and over. They don’t give me, they mixed it, like how I would eat my food if I was cooking for myself.”

“Sometimes I eat part of it and put away a part, but I don’t let it stay for the other day because I don’t like to let it stay for the other day, because I don’t know when they cook it. So, I like to have it at the same time when they get here with it.”

Participant 8 (frozen)

13

“I used to eat a lot with everything. I wasn’t thinking that I had to take care of myself, which is why I have diabetes. I try to be more careful. At the time, I had my husband, and he loved to eat, so I’d prepare everything for him. Homemade soup, lasagna. I would cook everything. On Christmas I would make tamales. And they’d always ask for more and more!”

“I was in the hospital for a whole month and they didn’t want to let me go until I had someone to take care of me. I just have the one son, and he came. Dropped everything he was doing and came to live with me and help me out. I had a daughter, but she has a daughter of her own and they live out of town. So I didn’t have anyone. He’s taking care of me, medicines, groceries, things like that. He’s the oldest, and never been married. Too much trouble to get married [laughs]. Everyone says he’s smart, not getting married.”

Participant 6 (frozen)

20

“I ain’t got to worry about too much, because I eat one in the morning for breakfast, then eat me another one for lunch. If I don’t eat all of that, I can have leftovers for supper. But I eat pretty good. I can eat two a day real easy.”

“[Before getting meals delivered] I kind of ran out a little bit, but since y’all helping me this way, I ain’t got to worry about too much. It was a little hard, but it’s a lot better now. It’s better now.”

Participant 7 (daily)

21

“They will never just leave the meal. And if I was to say, ‘Just leave it at the door and I'll pick it up.’ They don’t do that. I’ve never done that. They physically will hand off the meal.”

“So, it’s very nice, because you can establish a rapport. On Tuesday, there’s a particular gentleman that comes, and so because there’s that one particular person that comes on Tuesday, you can establish a ready rapport. And so, it’s nice to have that familiar person, and so they know your routine.”