Are Meal Delivery Services Worth It? Here’s How They Can Bless Others
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Are meal delivery services worth it? Can they ever be worth the price per meal? I didn’t think so until I discovered a few years ago how to turn them into a blessing to others.
Are Meal Delivery Services Worth It?
I’m sure by now you’ve seen plenty ads on the internet for Meal Kit Delivery Services; they’ve been around for a while now! A Meal Delivery Service is a company that basically sends you a meal in a box. Some services offer fully put-together meals, and you’ll just need to heat and serve; some offer ingredients for you to make a recipe and then serve.
Over the past few years since this type of service has come out, I’ve tried a few of them. I’ll share some of my thoughts today on how they work, but mostly, I wanted to share how you could use these companies and the service they provide as a blessing to others.
How Meal Delivery Can Be a Blessing
My sister had a baby a few years ago, but I could not be there at the time. I enjoy taking meals to others when I can, so it was frustrating that I couldn’t do what I normally like to do.
So I tried to think of what else I could do. My initial thought was to send groceries. But that didn’t work either, as their family lives in a rural area with no grocery delivery service.
Then I remembered I had gotten a discount for Hello Fresh, a meal delivery service. I decided to order the service for their family and have the meals sent after her husband returned to work and she needed a little more help. I chose a few kid-friendly, easy-to-make meals so that she didn’t need to buy groceries or figure out her meals for a week.
These were mailed right to her house on the week that I specified. My sister told me later how nice it was to have already planned out meals, and it was even fun for the kids to try a few new things that seemed special during the time.
Even though some might consider a meal delivery service a luxury and a little frivolous, we use it as a way to bless others in a rural, not easy-to-get-to location.
More Ideas on How to Use Meal Delivery Services to Bless Others
Here are some other ways I thought of how one of these meal delivery services can be used to bless others:
- To send meals to the sick.
- To help out a family that has just lost a family member (maybe the one that cooks!).
- To help out during a stressful time.
- To show support even when you can’t be there in person.
- To help out a new mom.
- To celebrate a special occasion.
Things to Consider When Ordering
All meal delivery services are a little different, so if you decide to order something for a friend, here are some things to keep in mind.
Decide if you need fully made meals (heat and eat) or if your recipient has time to prepare the meals.
Consider any food allergies that your recipient has. Not all meal delivery services have gluten-free options or other allergy-friendly choices.
Do you need something kid-friendly? Or will anything do? I’ve noticed that some meal delivery services have more kid-friendly choices than others do. You can usually check to see the “current menu” before you sign up to know for sure.
How easy is it to cancel? In most cases, you are probably just going to send a few meals and not continue with the ongoing delivery services. How easy it is to cancel might be something important to take into consideration.
Exactly How to Order a Meal Delivery for Others
Decide which company you are going to go with. I have several that I will list below, along with their current promotions. There’s nothing wrong with taking advantage of a first time buyer’s deal!
Pick how many meals and servings that you need to send the family. Most meal services won’t send less than 3 meals in a box but you could also send up to 5. Double check that your serving size is correct as well. If you are sending to a family of 4, you don’t want to have a serving size of 2 selected.
Your name and info will go in the billing information but your recipient’s name and address will be in the shipping info. Don’t forget to do this or you will get the meal delivery and not them.
Select meals that you think your recipient will like. Keep in mind the ease of making, the kid-friendliness, and any allergies.
Select the date that you want to send it. Usually, you can send a package no quicker than the following week. In most cases, this is ok. If your recipient might be getting meals from other people, waiting until a week later or two weeks later might be very helpful to them after the initial support is gone.
Let your recipient know that you sent the package and when it will arrive. This is very important so that they can be sure to get the package and put things away in the fridge when it arrives. It will also help them plan out their meals.
Meal Delivery Service Recommendations
Here are a few deals that I found for first-time meal delivery kit buyers.
Hello Fresh – This is the meal kit service that I sent to my sister. I felt like they had a good selection of kid-friendly meals and good first-time buyer discounts. Through this link for Hellofresh, you can get 16 free meals plus free shipping on your first box. This discount is meant to come off multiple boxes but will essentially be 50% off your first box.
Hungryroot – I ordered this service to help my family when I struggled with major morning sickness last year. It was wonderful for our allergies because they had so many dairy and gluten-free options. With Hungryroot, you can select meals, or you can select individual grocery items (which is what I did). Hungryroot offers 30% off your first delivery of $99 plus a free gift. They offer lots of fruits and veggies as well as meats like chicken, beef, lamb, etc.
Every Plate – I haven’t ordered from this one yet, but their menus look pretty family-friendly, and they have a good deal for a first time order. EveryPlate offers a special pricing of $1.49 per meal (per person) for your first order.
Home Chef – I’m including them here because they have a good offer for first-time sign-ups. With this link, you can get 50% off your first 4 boxes. (Or a total of 18 meals free.) This might be a good deal for those of you looking to provide a few weeks of meals for someone.
Blue Apron – We’ve received meals from Blue Apron once when we were moving (another great way to bless someone else…provide the meals before or after a move!) You can actually see one of the meals laid out along with the recipe card that went with it in one of my pictures above (and the steak meal pictured is from that package too). They offer 50% off your first few boxes plus free shipping on the first box.
There are many others of course as well (Purple Carrot, Green Chef, Daily Harvest, Fresh n’ Lean, Splendid Spoon, and more) but I have yet to have any personal experience with these so I won’t make a listing for them until I do.
If you’ve tried any of these, please leave a comment about them below!
How Meal Delivery Services Help in Times of Need
I mentioned above some different scenarios of when you might want to send meals, but here are some ways that they actually help.
Meal delivery kits save time prepping in the kitchen. Everything is right there and ready to go when it’s needed, with very little meal prep. You can even do oven-ready meals from some suppliers to save them even more time.
They also save time for meal planning. As I’m sure you know, meal planning is very hard to accomplish during times of stress. (Especially planning healthy meals!) By sending meal kits, you’ve eliminated this stress for your recipient.
Home-cooked meals are always welcome in times of stress. Gift cards to restaurants are ok but it also means that they will have to go out of the house to get the meals…not always possible in all situations.
Sending meal delivery says your recipient a trip to the grocery store. They might be a long distance from any grocery shopping or unable to get there because of a condition.
Prepared Meal delivery makes it easy to add or not add ingredients to fit dietary preferences. This can be really helpful if your recipient is on a special diet like high-protein, low-calorie, low-carb, paleo, keto, vegan, only eats plant-based meals, has diabetes, or has other needs.
I hope this helps you in your journey to helping others during times of stress. We are lucky that we live in a world with so many unique options available to us to help bless others!
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Merissa has been blogging about and living the simple life since 2009 and has internationally published 2 books on the topic. You can read about Merissa’s journey from penniless to the 100-acre farm on the About Page. You can send her a message any time from the Contact Page.
This article on How a Meal Delivery Service Can Be a Blessing was first posted on Little House Living in June 2023.
What a great idea! We have ordered from Hello Fresh several times and have loved all of the meals, (except for 1, I think)! Because they send recipe cards, we have also made several of the meals again and they are some of our favorites.
That’s a great idea to keep the recipe cards!
Hello, I have tried two meal delivery services, the first was Hello Fresh which I did for over a year until they charged me for meals I did not order and refused to credit me for them so I canceled, not the best customer service experience. I now have Martha Stewart’s Marley Spoon which I am enjoying. Meals are easy to prepare and have really great and easy desserts you can make. They send full-size veggies such as a whole head of garlic not just a dry clove or two. Lots of selections for kid-friendly meals and fully-cooked meals. I am happy with Marley Spoon and will continue to order from them.
I’ve tried Every plate for my family. It’s been a help, not to have to plan during periods of stressful events for my family. There’s a couple of things I didn’t care for there weren’t enough vegetable options potatoes served with each meal. You do have an option to pay a couple of dollars more a substitute if offered. The meals options at times are recycled. We made it work some weeks we ordered 3 days vs the standard 5. Would recommend if someone wanted to try it on a budget.