About Shiva Mealtrain
A free, simple way for a community to feed a family sitting shiva.
Why it exists
When someone dies, word travels quickly: through a synagogue, a group chat, a neighbour at the door. Plenty of people want to help with a meal. But the meal trains most families use sit behind a private link, so if you heard the news by word of mouth, there’s no easy way to find the family or know who’s organizing.
Shiva Mealtrain lets a family choose to be found by name. Anyone who wants to help can look them up, see what’s still needed and bring a meal, without an account and without a phone call to a grieving family.
It’s built around how shiva actually works: Shabbat meals, kosher needs, family members helping each other run things, and a home address that stays private.
Who made it
I’m Ryan Sugar, a web developer and digital marketer in Canada. By day I build websites and marketing systems for companies. Shiva Mealtrain is a project I build and run myself.
If you need a website, or help with your marketing, you can see my work at ryansugar.com.
Keeping it free
Shiva Mealtrain is free for families, and it will stay that way. It doesn’t sell anything about you.
If you’d like to help, the kindest thing is to tell someone about it, or about my work, if they need a website.
Get in touch
Questions, ideas, or a family you’d like help setting up a page for? Write to hello@shivamealtrain.com. A real person reads every message.