My Cranky 5-Year-Old Helped Me Figure Out the Best Meal Delivery Services for Families (2026)
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If I say “What’s for dinner?” and “I’m hungry” and your first reaction is to shudder from the trauma of the countless times a child used that question to plague your exhausted, post-workday evenings, then you’re in the right place. Sometimes, even if we’re willing to cook, we just don’t have the time for regular meal planning. So, if you’re one of the primary dinner providers for your family, a meal kit service can take the pressure off figuring out what to feed everyone who depends on you for dinner.
But as a parent of two, I know that the culinary demands of occasionally tyrannical five-year-olds and the requirement to fit all your cooking into a window small enough to contain a single episode of Paw Patrol doesn’t do anything to relieve that pressure. But I’ve tested just about every meal kit imaginable, so myself and other Bon Appétit editors and contributors with kids have kept an eye out for which delivery services offer the best meal kits for families.
Our top picks
- Best meal kit for families overall: HelloFresh
- Best meal kit for big families: HomeChef
- Best meal kit for unpredictably busy families: Blue Apron
- Best meal kit for predictably busy families: Tovala
- Another good all-around family meal kit: Marley Spoon
- Best for snacks and super-quick prep: Hungryroot
- Best meal kit for vegetarian families: Purple Carrot
- Best organic meal kits for families: Green Chef
- Best meal delivery service for babies and toddlers: Little Spoon
Of course, every family is different, so I’ve broken down our picks into categories that take into account the size, age, and certain dietary restrictions or preferences of many families. No matter how much or how little cooking you actually want to do, a family-friendly meal kit subscription will lighten your load by taking a good chunk of the thought and grocery shopping—and maybe some or all of the prep work—behind mealtime. And with many offering marketplace groceries, they may even help keep your pantry stocked with snacks between meals too.
New in this update: I retested Blue Apron (someone at BA is always in the process of retesting one meal kit or another), which recently launched Family Style menus, as well as Dinnerly, with an eye for its vegetarian options, because it was our previous pick in that category. I newly tested Marley Spoon, utilizing both its regular meals, big-batch meals, and marketplace offerings, as well as the app-based smart oven Tovala, which offers ready-to-assemble and ready-to-cook meals as part of its no-commitment subscription.
- Best meal kit for families overall: HelloFresh
- Best meal kit for big families: Home Chef
- Best meal kit for unpredictably busy families: Blue Apron
- Best meal kit for predictably busy families: Tovala
- Another good all-around family meal kit: Marley Spoon
- Best for snacks and super-quick prep: Hungryroot
- Best meal kit for vegetarian families: Purple Carrot
- Best organic meal kits for families: Green Chef
- Best meal delivery service for babies and toddlers: LittleSpoon
Best meal kit for families overall: HelloFresh
HelloFresh
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HelloFresh
About HelloFresh: HelloFresh, one of the first meal kit delivery services to hit the market, has an impressively large weekly menu. It’s aimed at a wide audience but allows you to choose plans geared toward different requirements: meat and veggie/carb-conscious meals, veggie and plant-based meals, quick-and-easy meals, family-friendly meals, and pescatarian meals. Unless you’re focused on specific dietary needs, it’s a great go-to.
Why it's great for families: Every week, you can choose your family meals from more than 100 options—which means that no matter what your household does or doesn’t like to eat, there’s almost sure to be a recipe or three you can all agree on. And, importantly for our considerations here, HelloFresh offers family-friendly meals, which are “kid-tested” and “picky eater approved” (citations to which kids and picky eaters are testing and approving not included). Additionally, HelloFresh offers “Big Batch” dinners (with an upcharge), which offer double portions for up to eight people or the option of leftovers.
What we love: Multiple Bon Appétit staff and contributors have tried HelloFresh over the years, and our testers have all been happy with the large portion sizes, fresh ingredients, and the add-on options, which include stand-alone proteins (chicken breasts, steaks, etc), smoothies, snacks, and desserts. Most recently, we tried Hello Fresh in a home with two adults and two kids, including some Big Batch options for families. The recipes were crowd-pleasing and satisfying for every age.
What we’d leave: Our one flag had to do with preparation and cooking time with the larger meals, which was often noted around 45 minutes on the recipe card and took even longer in practice, especially when batch cooking was necessary.
Specs:
Best meal kit for big families: Home Chef
Home Chef
Meal Kits
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Home Chef
About Home Chef: Home Chef is a traditional meal kit service that sends pre-portioned ingredients and easy-to-follow, family-friendly recipes that make it easy to get a fresh meal on the table in 15 to 30 minutes. Meals are available in four categories: classic meal kits, Express kits that take 30 minutes or less, oven-ready Chopped & Ready options that you assemble in a provided tin and then pop in the oven, and Fast & Fresh microwavable recipes. You can pick a mix of all types for your weekly box. Home Chef also offers a selection of add-ons like extra protein, soups, salads, snacks, and desserts.
Why it's great for families: If you have a lot of mouths to feed, Home Chef is a great option, because the more meals you order, the more budget-friendly it becomes—especially if you order from the Family Menu. Home Chef’s standard meals are two servings each and, on average, cost $7.99 to $9.99 per serving; but when you order from the Family Menu, meals are just $6.99 per serving, no matter how many you get (customizations like swapping your protein may come with an upcharge).
What we love: The portion sizes are large, the meal plans are customizable, and you can select your meal kits based on dietary needs and preferences. We found the recipes simple and kid-friendly enough to please young critics. Meals weren’t too complex, but they were hearty and filling. Many of the recipes had a nostalgic feel (think meat wrapped in puff pastry) that reminded us of the dinners we ate as kids. We also liked the specific Family Plan option with categories like Express and Chopped & Ready which are designed to get food on the table in 30 minutes and under 20 minutes, respectively, along with traditional and oven-ready meal kits.
The flexibility of Home Chef can also come in clutch if your family has a busy schedule one week and a relaxing schedule the next. It’s easy to customize how many meals you want in each shipment; if you select three meals one week, you can still order five for the following.
What we’d leave: There’s quite a bit of plastic in each Home Chef kit. Contributor Alexis Berger acknowledged that this may be the norm for meal kits, but thinks there’s room for improvement. “Home Chef divides each meal into its own plastic bag and then within that bag, you’ll find individually bagged ingredients for each recipe. This organizational structure is great for knowing what items go with which meal, but the literal added layer is just more disposable packaging,” she says.
Specs:
Best meal kit for unpredictably busy families: Blue Apron
Blue Apron
Meal Kits
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Blue Apron
About Blue Apron: Blue Apron is a veteran of the cook-it-yourself food delivery business, having started shipping way back in 2012. While initially offering a relatively involved “you’re the chef” selection of fancy-ish recipes, the menu has expanded to over 100 weekly options, including heat-and-eat meals to meet all kinds of customers and constraints.
Why it’s great for families: Blue Apron recently launched a Family Style meals menu for two to six people, which lets you mix and match some proteins and sides or order them a la carte at a fixed price, rather than making or scaling up a bunch of individual plates and portions. (However, sometimes putting a per-portion priced main and fixed price side dish together starts racking up the cost closer to dining out.) But for busy or distracted families, you’ll want to hear this: In 2025, Blue Apron turned the meal kit subscription service model on its head a bit by doing away with the whole “subscription” part. Now, you can simply go shopping for the meals you want and have them shipped, no commitment or recurring deliveries necessary (unless you want that). For that reason alone, we recommend Blue Apron for both the meal kit-curious family to test out how meal kits might work into your lifestyle, families whose schedules shift from week to week, as well as for the forgetful family who may not remember to curate or pause the upcoming autoshipped boxes from a different service.
What we love: When contributor Lizzy Briskin tested Blue Apron’s new model, she found the meal kits to be satisfying and delicious overall, and a great option for filling out a week of meals when you simply don’t have the time to plan or prep yourself. While I found the price point to be a little on the high side, I did see the value in the Family Style menu as a way to plan a home-cooked meal without going to the grocery store. The flexibility to add prepared meals that simply need to be microwaved or baked also makes Blue Apron a winner for anyone with zero time to consider dinner.
What we’d leave: Despite its large menu, filters for food types and dietary restrictions leave a bit to be desired. And unless you opt for the pre-made, single-portion dish meals or low-lift assemble and bake options to replace your takeout, you still need to allow time to cook the kits, which, in my experience, did take more time and concentration, especially when cooking for four.
Best meal kit for predictably busy families: Tovala
Tovala
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Tovala
About Tovala: Tovala is an appliance-based meal kit delivery service. That is to say, its meal kit model is based around the Tovala smart oven, which uses a combination of baking, broiling, and steaming to deliver dinner with a few simple prep steps and the scan of a QR code. It comes with a rack, a small sheet pan, an air frying basket, and functions both with and without an app, though it does require WiFi to scan recipe codes and other pre-programmed items.
The process is this: Do some minimal ingredient like chopping, seasoning, and saucing, then put everything in the oven and use one of its recipe presets to have everything come out perfectly at the same time. It’s sort of the sheet pan dinner perfected.
Why it’s great for families: Tovala strikes me more as a go-to option for singles and busy professional couples who like a hot meal but don’t have time to prep or plan one. But I tried it with families in mind, meaning my subscription included four portions of every meal to accommodate my partner and two kids. While a bit cumbersome at times to prepare four trays for every course, the one thing I kept enjoying was how quick and simple it was to get dinner going. And once the timer dinged, it usually meant dinner — mains and sides — was all ready at the same time. Also, the scanning function has access to a bunch of frozen and refrigerated items from grocery store aisles, including Costco and Trader Joe’s, making it a handy helper for non-kit meals.
What we love: Tovala’s food is good and the diversity of dishes was enough to keep surprising me and my family. I liked that each meal’s ingredients (aside from proteins) came in its own box with the recipe card and necessary number of trays inside. But the real draw for me as a parent was how much time Tovala gave me back. Once I spent a minute or two getting the ingredients arranged in their little trays, I scanned the QR code and found myself with 20+ minutes of free time to pay attention to my kids and actually watch that episode of Paw Patrol with them. That’s why I would recommend this one for people who truly don’t have time to cook. And while it may not teach any major culinary skills, it’s also a great option for homes with older tweens and teens who can take on making dinner with minimal oversight.
Though most of the meals are not cohesive family-style meals (they’re cooked all at once as individual portions), that actually became another feature: Occasionally, I knew my kids wouldn’t want something on the menu, so I could easily individualize the ingredients or split the four portions into two meals. Though the Tovala oven is necessary for Tovala meal kits, it also functions as a smart toaster oven. It can scan many store-bought items like chicken nuggets or frozen pizza and automatically set the time and temperature for you.
What we’d leave: Many items are cooked in Tovala’s little aluminum trays, which it supplies for single portions or multiples for a whole family’s worth, rather than a single large tray like Blue Apron and other brands use for quick prep meals. Sometimes four trays are a little tricky to fit together on the rack and, frankly, I got sick of having to rinse and recycle so many of them, but it still (barely) beat scrubbing pots and pans. Another downside of using a prepared meal service with food you don’t have to fuss over is that the food is pre-fussed over. Raw chicken breasts come brined, so you must relinquish some control over the saltiness or other aspects of your meal.
Finally, this is the only meal kit service that requires you to buy hardware. The requisit Tovala oven is available subsidized for $69 (or the Pro for $119) so long as you order meal six times, but the fact that you can’t really use the meal kit part of Tovala without it ponying up and clearing countertop space is definitely a consideration.
Another good all-around family meal kit: Marley Spoon
Marley Spoon
Meal Kits
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Marley Spoon
Why it’s great for families: Marley Spoon falls somewhere between the fanciness of Blue Apron and the broad appetite appeal of HelloFresh. It’s a good option if you’ve either burnt through another meal kit services’ mainstays, you’re looking to inject some variety into your weeknight meals, or you want to try some new flavors. The marketplace includes unofficial “Meal Shortcuts” kits with the basic ingredients to make a pesto pizza or veggie burgers and potato chips that can serve as dinner in a pinch. Plus there are plenty of dessert kits, snacks, and grocery items in the market section to help you fill out your fridge or save a trip to the supermarket.
What we love: There are dozens of recipes to choose from, and Marley Spoon seems to excel at serving family-friendly flavors without sacrificing variety. My kids were excited to try the pot pie as it emerged from the oven, and even the pre-packaged veggie burgers (probably because that kit came with chips). Some of the “Big Batch” options, which do carry a higher price tag, make cooking the kits feel more like putting a traditional shared family meal together. The market offered unique and occasionally less expensive ways to fill out the dinner menu, too. One week, I chose three main meals and supplemented with a “Tie-Dye Pizza” kit (raw dough, cheese, sauces, etc.) and a few charcuterie items (a mixed cured meats tray and a cheese platter) plus a bag of pita chips to fill out another easy, throw-together meal for me and my kids on a busy after school activities night.
What we’d leave: Probably the biggest difference I noticed between Marley Spoon and some other kits is the longer lists of ingredients that I, the cook, was expected to supply. For most meal delivery services these remain limited to the most basic pantry staples: salt, pepper, oil, sugar, etc. But Marley Spoon calls for items that I’d call pantry staples in a slightly more advanced kitchen setup. Apple cider vinegar, for example, came up three times over two weeks. And for that pot pie, even though it came with refrigerated dough and pre-cooked chicken, I still had to use my own butter, flour, and eggs, all things other meal kit brands generally supply. The price point, to me, doesn’t quite justify exclusion from the box. Speaking of price, market grocery items are sold at a bit of a premium, with bagged salad kits coming in at nearly $8 and some of those "shortcut” meals I mentioned, edging close to the actual meal kits costs per person.
Some recipes were quicker than others, though in general, I found they ended up on the longer end of the time window printed on the recipe card. Marley Spoon's self-declared “family favorite” chicken pot pie which took me a full two hours to get on the table and, as I mentioned, didn’t include time to cook the chicken. It was tasty enough, but the timing made it less of a favorite for my family.
Finally, one week my box came with zero recipe cards to follow… at all. And I found one package of ground meat had a leak, which thankfully spared my fresh produce but I still discarded that portion of protein. If you’re relying on a meal kit service to hold your hand through the process, this one, unfortunately, left me hanging. To be fair, all meal kits services are subject to some logistical issues, but the combination of some missed instructions, calls for so many of your own pantry ingredients, plus the range from simple and quick to complicated and time-consuming meals kept this one from being my top all-around pick.
Specs
Best for snacks and super-quick prep: Hungryroot
Hungryroot
Meal Kits
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Hungryroot
About Hungryroot: More of a grocery delivery service store than a traditional meal kit service, Hungryroot offers a large selection of ingredients (often semi- or fully-cooked) and packaged items that can be thrown together for super-quick, satisfying dinners for two or four people. In addition to the ingredients intended for meals, you can also get many of your other groceries from Hungryroot, including meat, fish, eggs, dairy, poultry, pantry staples, and snacks—so many great snacks!
There’s a pretty lengthy survey at sign-up to help the system learn your preferences. Then, you can narrow down your options by using Hungryroot’s massive number of filters for cuisines and dietary restrictions, including pescatarian, high-protein, carb-conscious, dairy-free, tree nut–free, and even diabetes-friendly. And if you or your kids hate something, you can add it to your “never send” list. In recent years, Hungryroot has also leaned into its AI and algorithmic capabilities to recommend products and autofill your shopping cart.
Why it's great for families: Hungryroot replaces an essential and often hassle-filled experience (when done with kids in tow): grocery shopping. But unlike other online grocers, the convenience extends to its meal prep options as well. It’s not uncommon to enjoy your first bite within 10 or 15 minutes of beginning your cook thanks to simple recipes, often with pre-trimmed and washed produce or precooked ingredients.
What we love: The ingredients are high-quality and many of the condiments, salad mixes, and other packaged foods are Hungryroot’s own brand (we liked their unique offerings such as chickpea-based edible cookie dough). But you’ll also find brands you see in the grocery store, too, blending the best of shopping at, say, Trader Joe’s or Aldi with a trip to Whole Foods.
What we’d leave: Setting your preferences and selecting your groceries is a little tedious at first, but once you get rolling with this service, it’s great.
Specs:
Best meal kit for vegetarian families: Purple Carrot
Purple Carrot
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Purple Carrot
About Purple Carrot: Purple Carrot stands out among the major meal kits for its commitment to plant-based eating. The service doesn’t offer anything containing meat or dairy, meaning vegans (and vegetarians) can experience the variety- and convenience-based benefits of meal kit subscription services. It also offers grocery items and pre-made meals for busy nights and pantry/fridge stocking.
Why it’s great for families: In addition to providing recipe variety and meal planning, Purple Carrot’s meals generally tend to be on the quicker side, taking 20-30 minutes. At $13.25 to $14.25, meals tend to be pricier per portion, but some of the fixed-price, multi-portion options can go lower in the $5 to $10 range. And if you’re a family without access to a grocery store that has a decent selection of nut cheeses, vegan protein shakes, and other plant-based meat substitutes and snacks, Purple Carrot’s grocery section can be a valuable, convenient lifeline for keeping your fridge stocked.
What we love: If you’re already plant-based and feeling a bit ho-hum with your go-to weeknight menus, or if you’re plant-based-curious but don’t know which cookbook or website to start pulling recipes from, Purple Carrot’s meals are flavorful and diverse enough to make dinner interesting and fun. Recipe instructions are generally easy to follow and dishes come out looking like the picture, often with bright and colorful veggies that only enhance their appetizing appeal. If my young kids were more adventurous, it might be a better match, but for older kids and adults, it’s one of the better meal kits I’ve tried, vegan or not.
What we’d leave: Your reasons and preferences for plant-based eating are unique to you and your family, so if part of your ethos is consuming whole foods and not processed food, some of Purple Carrot’s plant-based protein substitutes and snacks might clash with that. Tests by multiple contributors noted that Purple Carrot’s recipes can be both dish-heavy (you’ll use a bunch of pots and pans) and that you have to read the ingredient lists carefully as sometimes the whole block of tofu you received needs to be crumbled or diced in advance.
Average pricing per portion, as mentioned, is on the higher end for meal kits and so, in our opinion, you’ll be paying the premium for the diverse recipes and convenience more than the actual food. Some testers noted that recipes “sell out” quickly, so be sure to jump on placing your next order the day it becomes available if you don’t want substitutions. Finally, the elephant in the room here is that you may not be seeking to go fully vegan, so if dairy and eggs are important parts of your diet, consider a broader, more robust menu service like HelloFresh which offers plenty of vegetarian and some vegan dishes (but not exclusively, of course).
Specs
Best organic meal kits for families: Green Chef
- Original photo by Brittany Loggins
- Original photo by Brittany Loggins
- Original photo by Brittany Loggins
Green Chef
Meal Kits
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Green Chef
Why it's great for families: Green Chef is a high-end meal kit service that prioritizes sustainability and quality ingredients. So if your goal is to feed your family organic home-cooked meals—but you don’t want to spend hours in the kitchen every weeknight—this is a great option. Another plus is that you’ll likely also save money by subscribing to Green Chef over shopping the grocery store for organic ingredients. When contributor Lizzy Briskin tested Green Chef, she found that the cost per serving for a Green Chef meal was up to half the cost of shopping for the same organic ingredients.
What we love: The selection is impressive, and the recipes are reliable and flavorful. Briskin enjoyed the shrimp in her Southwestern Shrimp Tacos With Corn Slaw recipe, noting that, “often, frozen shrimp can be rubbery and flavorless, but these were juicy and sweet. There was plenty of fajita seasoning to coat every crustacean, and the tacos were fully loaded.” We also appreciated that the ingredients were organized by recipe and that the instructions were easy to follow, thanks in part to pictures on the recipe cards.
What we’d leave: In repeat testing, many Bon Appétit staff and contributors find that these meals do take a little more work and time—and produce more dirty dishes—than other kits on this list.
Specs:
Best meal delivery service for babies and toddlers: LittleSpoon
Little Spoon
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Little Spoon
About Little Spoon: Little Spoon offers snacks and nutritious meals for kids of all ages, starting with organic purées, baby cereal, and puffs for the earliest solids stage. Meals are selected with guidance from registered dietitians, pediatric nutritionists, and other feeding experts. As your littles get bigger, you can introduce new flavors and textures through healthy meals like kid-friendly smoothies (in a pouch, of course) and three-course finger-food dinners made with whole, organic ingredients. There are even premade meals for bigger kids; think Lunchables, but made with more premium organic ingredients. And yes: There are noodles, too.
Why it's great for families: Like meal kits for adults, you can personalize your kids-only subscription to fit your family’s dietary preferences, and you can filter different meal options based on common kid allergens like tree nuts, shellfish, and gluten. Little Spoon also makes it easy to pause or skip your subscription and to adjust the quantity and frequency as needed.
What we love: If you’re tired of the constant requests for the same sandwich or processed snacks over and over again, Little Spoon is a great way to introduce new flavors and cuisines into your home in a decidedly kid-friendly way. Contributor Emily Farris tested the service, saying that “everyone in my home (including me) really loved every element of the Sunny-Butter Chicken, a limited-time collaboration with Brooklyn Delhi—especially after I put the veggie turmeric poppers in the air fryer to crisp them up.”
What we’d leave: Packaged snacks aside, this meal service is really best for babies and toddlers, because the simpler preparations are what Little Spoon does best. We felt that some of the big-kid entrées are trying to do too much, and there’s a chance older, pickier kids will find at least one thing on the plate to hate.
Specs:
How we tested the best meal delivery services for families
I, along with our methodical Bon Appétit editors and writers, test and retest meal kits on an ongoing basis, cooking them in real life situations at home, on weeknights, and for our partners and children.
Using all of that information, I selected the best available options to cater to specific household needs: bigger families, little kids, organic meals, and flexibility for home cook involvement (i.e., little to no prep). Like all our meal kit tests, this list of the best meal kits for families is regularly updated based on feedback from our ongoing testing and new industry developments.
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Source: This story originated with Bon Appétit.
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