Stacey Ritzen
A meal train can be a great way to support loved ones who are about to welcome a new baby into their lives. Essentially, meal trains function as sign up sheets or calendars so that friends and family can volunteer to bring over a meal, and make sure that the family stays well-fed during those exhausting and oftentimes stressful first weeks with their newborn.
Of course, the keywords here are “loved ones,” “friends,” and “family,” which is why one couple has gone viral for soliciting their neighbors for free meals on the Nextdoor app. And not just any meals, mind you, but a list of highly specific dishes, all complete with recipes.
The post went viral after being tweeted by podcaster Jack Jokinen, who expressed his incredulousness with the couple’s brazen demands from essentially, strangers.
Jokinen added that he was trying not to be negative, but that the couple was being completely unreasonable with their ask. For example, one of the “breakfast” dishes was Paleo breakfast egg muffins with thinly sliced cremini mushrooms, pork breakfast sausage, and 3 tablespoons of melted and cooled ghee. Some of the dinner ideas included a spiced lamb meatball stew with orzo and a Swiss chard stew with lentils and sausage.
Even the suggested “snacks” were rather bougie, such as antipasto, homemade granola, chocolate peanut butter energy balls, and 70% dark chocolate. Can we get you anything else, your majesties??
And then, to add the Luxardo Maraschino cherry on top of the Haagen-Dazs gourmet sundae (just kidding, they don’t eat sugar), the father-to-be had the nerve to request that these offerings be left in a cooler outside of their home, as they preferred not to be disturbed. “If I don’t egg their house, I deserve an award,” he added.
After Jokinen’s post went viral, others piled on to express their disgust with the finicky, yet demanding couple.
“I apologize if it was taken the wrong way — and I’m frankly just very surprised and a little disheartened by … the response,” the father-to-be later told the New York Post. “If they are not interested, then they don’t have to check that site or do anything. This is the world we live in.”
This is the world we live in, that sure is one way of putting it!