Can NDIS Funding Be Used for Meal Preparation?

This is one of the questions we get asked most often.

Can I use my NDIS funding to have someone cook meals for me?

In many cases, yes.

But there is an important distinction.

The NDIS may fund the support you need to prepare meals because of your disability.

It doesn't generally pay for the groceries themselves.

So if one of our cooks comes into your home and prepares meals for you, the participant supplies or pays for the food, and the NDIS funding covers the eligible support involved in getting those meals prepared.

That sounds simple enough.

Naturally, there are a few more details. 😂

What does NDIS meal preparation support actually look like?

For many of our NDIS clients, we come into their home and prepare several meals in one session.

Rather than having somebody come every evening to make one dinner, we batch cook.

Depending on the service, that might mean preparing around 15 or 25 adult serves at once.

The meals are portioned for the fridge or freezer, the kitchen is cleaned afterwards, and the participant has food ready for the days ahead.

This can be useful for people who find cooking difficult because of things like:

• physical disability
• fatigue
• pain
• reduced mobility
• cognitive disability
• executive function difficulties
• sensory challenges
• difficulty planning or sequencing tasks
• other disability-related barriers to preparing meals independently.

The reason for the support is important.

NDIS funding isn't designed to pay for cooking simply because somebody is busy or doesn't enjoy it.

There needs to be a connection between the support and the participant's disability and plan.

What does I Hate Cooking actually do?

We are an in-home cooking service.

That means the cook comes to the participant's home and prepares meals in their kitchen.

For a standard meal preparation booking, the participant can choose the meals they would like from the options available.

The groceries are organised before the cook arrives.

Then we get cooking.

A Mini Cook generally includes three dishes and around 15 adult serves.

A Full Cook generally includes five dishes and around 25 adult serves.

The exact amount will naturally depend on the recipes and portion sizes.

We cook the meals, portion them, clean the kitchen after ourselves and leave everything ready to be stored.

Basically, we create the food without leaving the participant with the kitchen disaster that normally follows batch cooking.

Does the NDIS pay for groceries?

Generally, no.

Food is an everyday living expense, so the participant is responsible for the cost of their groceries.

The easiest way to think about it is this:

The food is yours. The support involved in preparing it may be funded.

Participants can organise their own groceries, have them delivered, or use shopping support where appropriate.

The grocery cost itself remains separate from the cost of the cooking support.

This is also why our service is different from buying ready-made meals.

We're not selling the participant 25 meals.

We're providing the support to prepare their own meals in their own home.

Do I have to cook with the cook?

Not for a standard meal preparation booking.

This is an important distinction because different participants have different goals.

Some people need somebody to cook for them.

Others are working towards being able to cook more independently themselves.

Those are not the same support.

For standard meal preparation, the participant doesn't need to stand in the kitchen helping for the whole session.

They may want to be involved in choosing meals or deciding how food is portioned, but the cook can take care of the cooking.

Sometimes the whole reason the service is needed is because participating in a three-hour cooking session would be exhausting or unrealistic, and our service is FAST paced. 

What if the participant wants to learn to cook?

That's where our Cook Eat Repeat service is different.

Cook Eat Repeat is about cooking with the participant rather than simply cooking for them.

It is designed for people who want to build confidence, learn kitchen skills, practise recipes or work towards greater independence around food.

The participant might learn things like:

• following a simple recipe
• preparing ingredients
• using kitchen equipment safely
• cooking familiar meals
• planning what to cook
• cooking from the pantry
• organising ingredients
• cleaning up
• building a repeatable cooking routine.

The aim isn't to turn anyone into a chef.

It's to make cooking more achievable.

And sometimes success is simply being able to confidently make three meals you actually like.

That's a perfectly useful life skill.

Can Cook Eat Repeat be funded the same way as meal preparation?

Not necessarily.

This is where the participant's plan and funding type matter.

Standard meal preparation and skill-building support can sit under different types of supports because they are trying to achieve different things.

One is primarily helping someone complete an everyday task they are unable to complete independently.

The other is focused on building the person's capacity to do more of that task themselves.

Our Cook Eat Repeat service is available for appropriate self-managed and plan-managed participants where the funding and goals support that type of service.

If you're unsure which type of booking fits, it's much better to ask before booking than try to turn one support into another halfway through the session.

Need to check if your funding can be used? Grab a quote or chat to our team.

What if the participant doesn't want to be involved?

That's okay.

Independence doesn't always mean physically doing every task yourself.

Sometimes independence means having the right supports in place so you can live the way you want to live.

If preparing five meals uses all of someone's available energy for the day, outsourcing that task may allow them to use that energy somewhere more important.

Work.

Study.

Parenting.

Appointments.

Community activities.

Or simply having enough capacity left to enjoy the rest of the day.

Support should make life more manageable, not create another test someone has to pass.

Can we work with dietary requirements?

Often, yes.

A lot of the people we cook for have more going on than simply needing help with the physical act of cooking.

There may also be allergies, intolerances, sensory preferences, texture requirements or medically recommended dietary changes.

We work with a broad range of dietary requirements and train our cooks around the practical side of preparing food safely and appropriately.

That doesn't mean every recipe can be modified for every person.

Sometimes the better option is simply choosing a different dish. We don't guarantee the flavour of heavily altered dishes. 

And where a participant has specific medical nutrition needs, we work from the information provided by the participant and their health professionals rather than deciding what they should be eating ourselves.

We cook the food.

We're not their dietitian.

What about participants who have strong food preferences or safe foods?

Also very normal.

Some participants prefer predictable meals.

Some don't like foods mixed together.

Some have strong texture preferences.

Some will quite happily eat the same five dinners forever and would prefer everybody stopped trying to introduce quinoa.

That's fine.

The point of meal preparation support isn't to create the most impressive menu.

It's to prepare food the participant will actually eat.

We would much rather leave behind 25 useful serves than 25 very nutritious containers destined to live permanently in the freezer.

Can a support coordinator, OT or family member organise the service?

Yes.

We regularly work with participants as well as family members, support coordinators and other people involved in their support.

That can be especially helpful when meal preparation is part of a broader goal around living independently, managing fatigue, improving routines or reducing reliance on less suitable food options.

We still want the participant's preferences to be at the centre of the service.

They're the one eating the food.

If you're a support coordinator, OT or plan manager, you can send us a referral or request a quote.

Does being an NDIS participant mean I need a special menu?

No.

This one always makes us laugh a little.

There isn't an “NDIS menu”.

People want normal food.

Lasagne.

Curries.

Soups.

Casseroles.

Mexican.

Pasta.

Family meals.

Food they grew up eating.

Food they actually like.

Having disability support doesn't mean dinner suddenly needs to become clinical.

We can make practical adjustments where needed, but the starting point is still:

What do you like to eat?

What happens if my needs are more complicated?

Tell us.

Before the cook is ideal.

If there are important dietary requirements, allergies, behavioural considerations, accessibility needs, communication preferences or anything else that will help the cook provide the service properly, we want to know.

The more information we have beforehand, the better the booking generally goes.

Our team has also developed a lot of additional training over the years because our participant group is incredibly varied.

The service we provide today has been shaped by years of cooks going into real homes, working with real participants and telling us what they needed more information or support around. After 70 000 we kinda get it! 

Turns out actual kitchens teach you quite a lot.

So, can the NDIS fund in-home meal preparation?

It can, where meal preparation support is related to the participant's disability, goals and available funding.

The groceries remain the participant's responsibility.

The support can look different depending on what the person actually needs.

For one participant, that may mean having a cook come in and fill the fridge every fortnight.

For another, it may mean learning how to prepare a few reliable meals themselves.

For somebody else, it may be a combination of both over time.

The important thing is that the service matches the participant.

Not the other way around.

Because meal preparation support isn't really about producing an impressive stack of containers.

It's about making sure somebody has food available in a way that works for their life.

If you'd like to know what this could look like under your plan, you can request a quote.