When Your Church Needs to Feed Someone, Let Us Carry the Kitchen
Deacon boards, care teams, Sunday school classes, and prayer chains — you already know who in your congregation is hurting this week. We make the feeding part simple: one order, one delivery, real food safe for every guest including celiac families. Built and run by a United Methodist pastor who has stood in more grieving kitchens than he can count.
Call (423) 525-2489 and tell us it's for a care ministry · Pickup & local delivery options in the Tri-Cities · $30 flat FedEx Ground nationwide
A Word From Pastor Lew
“I pastor two churches and I run this kitchen, so I've lived both sides of the care casserole. I've watched faithful volunteers wear themselves out organizing meal trains, and I've watched families get five lasagnas on Tuesday and nothing the following week. There's a better way to love people with food. Let your people show up with presence and prayer. Let us handle the cooking. That's not outsourcing care — it's letting each part do what it does best.”
The Problems Every Care Team Knows
The meal train breaks down. A sign-up sheet goes around, a few slots fill, the family gets a flood in week one and silence by week three — right when exhaustion peaks. Coordinating a dozen households is a part-time job nobody on the care team signed up for.
The food isn't always safe. Homemade casseroles arrive unlabeled. If someone in the household has celiac disease, a gluten sensitivity, or a serious allergy, a gift of food quietly becomes a new problem to manage. Every SmashMeals meal comes from a 100% dedicated gluten-free kitchen and ships with a full ingredient and macro label.
Volunteers burn out. Care ministry runs on the same few devoted people, and they tire. Handing the logistics to a kitchen frees your team to do the irreplaceable work: sit with people, pray with them, be present. Grief lands hard on the body — the National Institute on Aging describes how heavily it hits sleep, appetite, and energy in exactly the weeks most support disappears.
How a Care Order Works
Tell us who and when. Call (423) 525-2489 or order at order.smashmeals.com. Choose family-sized meals or individual entrées, and the delivery date.
We cook fresh in our Kingsport, TN kitchen — the Tri-Cities' first and dedicated gluten-free commercial kitchen (since 2017).
Local Tri-Cities: pickup and home delivery options on Sunday and Monday. Anywhere else in the country: FedEx Ground, flat $30, Tuesday delivery, insulated cold-pack box.
The family opens real food — labeled, safe, ready to heat. No cooking, no coordinating, no guessing.
Who Care Teams Feed
Different seasons need different food. Here's where care teams most often send a box, and the page that explains each one:
Grieving families — sympathy meals timed for the quiet weeks after the funeral.
New parents — one-handed, ready-to-heat meals for the newborn fog. See postpartum meal delivery.
An open table should be an accessible table. Our entire kitchen has been 100% gluten-free since 2017, so when your care team sends a SmashMeals box, the celiac grandmother and the newly-diagnosed teenager can eat the same food as everyone else — no separate dish, no anxiety, no exclusion. The same thinking applies at the communion rail: see our guide to gluten-free communion for churches, and the UMC Discipleship Ministries guidance it draws on.
1. Pick your meals Browse the menu that's live this week and choose what you want. Subscriptions are optional — order one week, every week, or whenever you need it.
2. Choose how you get them Free pickup at our Kingsport kitchen and Grab & Go partners, $15 home delivery in the Tri-Cities, or $30 flat-rate FedEx Ground for eligible addresses. Orders close Thursday 11:59 PM Eastern.
3. Heat and eat Meals are fully cooked and ready to heat. Local Tuesday delivery and shipped orders arrive with full macro labels on every meal.
Dedicated gluten-free kitchen — We do not bring wheat, barley, or rye into the building and we do not share equipment with gluten-containing production. A dedicated gluten-free facility is not an allergen-free facility — check each label for other allergens.
Transparent nutrition — Calories and macros are published for every meal, so you can match meals to what you're actually trying to do.
Cooked in Kingsport since 2017 — Founder-run production kitchen at 1917 Meadowview Parkway, Kingsport, TN — the same kitchen for local pickup, local delivery, and shipped orders.
Church Care Ministry FAQ
How does a church set up a care ministry meal order?
Call us at (423) 525-2489 or order at order.smashmeals.com and tell us it's for a care ministry. Choose family-sized or individual meals and a delivery date. Local Tri-Cities orders have pickup and delivery options; anywhere else ships FedEx Ground for a flat $30. One order feeds a family for the week.
Can you deliver to a member who lives in another state?
Yes. We ship to 30 states + DC via FedEx Ground for a flat $30 in insulated cold-pack boxes. Order by Thursday 11:59 PM for Tuesday delivery. Distance is no longer a reason your care ministry can't reach someone.
Is this better than organizing a meal train?
It removes the meal-train pain points: no sign-up sheet, no coordinating a dozen households, no five casseroles on one night and nothing the next week. Many churches use both — neighbors and members early, a shipped SmashMeals box for the exhausting later weeks.
What if the family has celiac disease or food allergies?
Every meal comes from a 100% dedicated gluten-free kitchen and ships with a full ingredient and macro label. It's the safest food you can send a household managing celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.
Can you cater a funeral reception or church event?
Yes — from individual meals to full gluten-free banquet catering, including 18-hour smoked brisket and taco or nacho bars safe for every guest. Call (423) 525-2489 to plan it.
Does the care team have to be local to Kingsport?
No. Your church can be anywhere, and the family you're feeding can be anywhere we ship. A care team in one state can send meals to a member in another.