Ellington

Prior to October, I had never heard of Take Them A Meal. The free site provides sample schedules, schedule ideas, recipes and tips. It allows you to either create a meal schedule or search for existing ones. As the meal coordinator, you set up the account and choose the date range for the meals. From there, you can add information about the family: any likes, dislikes and allergies, the family's phone numbers, address and driving directions. Once completed, you enter the e-mail addresses of potential meal providers and that's it.

As a meal provider, you can view the entire meal schedule, and also see who is bringing what and when—a great feature to prevent meal duplication. Meal providers receive a reminder e-mail the day before they are scheduled to take a meal to the recipient.

The meal recipients can pull up a meal history after the schedule has ended, making it easy to send thank-you notes or e-mails.

Friends Scott Rogers and Adina Bailey created Take Them A Meal in December 2007. Based in Harrisonburg, Va., they started the site after a close friend collapsed from a heart condition. They received so many calls from other friends, family and neighbors who wanted to help, they became overwhelmed coordinating it all.

Rogers and Bailey recently launched a sister site, Perfect Potluck (http://www.perfectpotluck.com). The site is similar to Take Them A Meal, but designed to coordinate group dinners, office parties, children's classroom parties, picnics and other potluck events.