These 8 Meal Delivery Services Are Great for New Parents

A quick look at the best meal delivery services for new parents

• Best for well-rounded meals: Gobble
• Best for homestyle meals: What a Crock
• Best for your fitness plan: Trifecta
• Best for breakfast or lunch: Daily Harvest
• Best for produce: Misfits Market Mischief Box
• Best for a quick meal: Freshly
• Best for baby: Tiny Organics
• Best for the whole family: Nurture Life

If there’s ever a time in your life where you need easy, healthy meals that take minimal time to cook and serve, it’s now while you’re dealing with a crying, sleep-resisting, cute-as-a-button infant.

Not only are you walking around in a zombie-like state with little-to-no free time, but your arms are almost always tied up — either breastfeeding, bottle-feeding, cradling, burping, or playing with your new baby.

If only you had a live-in chef whipping you up fresh meals every couple of hours, right?

While the chef fantasy may not be a real possibility, the good news is that the concept of home-cooked meals that can be ready to eat in minutes isn’t a long shot. In fact, it can easily become your reality thanks to an influx of meal delivery subscription services.

How we chose

Since there are so many options to choose from these days, for this list we’ve narrowed down your choices to the least labor intensive and the most satisfying.

These recommendations are highly rated subscription services that offer well-balanced and nutritious meals for you and your growing family.

The 8 best meal delivery services for new parents

Best for well-rounded meals

Gobble

• Price: starting at $67.96/week
• Number of meal options: 2 to 5 per week
• Diets: gluten-free, dairy-free, low carb, and vegetarian

Some meal subscription kits still leave you chopping and grating enough for you to feel like your kitchen is the set of “Top Chef.”

With Gobble, every ingredient comes diced, peeled, puréed, seasoned, and measured in individual portions so there’s literally nothing left for you to do but heat it up.

Each week you can choose three meals (breakfast, lunch, or dinner) from their menu of options, and every recipe (including gluten-free, dairy-free, low carb, and vegetarian) is crafted to be table-ready in 15 minutes.

Best for homestyle meals

What a Crock

• Price: starting at $65.99
• Number of meal options: 6 to 30 portions delivered at the frequency of your choice
• Diets: gluten-free, low calorie, low carb, dairy-free, and vegetarian

As a new parent, cooking a meal all day is the last thing you want — unless, of course, you have a slow cooker.

What a Crock takes the ease of a slow cooker to the next level by doing all the prep work for you. Except, you know, putting the food in the pot itself.

They deliver homestyle meals that come ready to be thrown in the slow cooker, including favorites like chicken pot pie, jambalaya, and cheesy chicken. You can customize the pricing, too, based on how many people and how many meals per week you’d like to get.

Best for your fitness plan

Trifecta

• Price: starting at $99/week
• Number of meal options: 5 to 28 per week
• Diets: gluten-free, soy-free, dairy-free, paleo, keto, vegetarian, vegan

If your menu preferences are a bit more narrow or you’re focusing on your macronutrient intake as part of your postpartum fitness routine, you might want to consider Trifecta.

They deliver fresh, never frozen food that’s designed to complement your fitness or weight loss goals, so every meal is intentionally minimalistic.

Trifecta meals are all organic, soy-free, gluten-free, and dairy-free, and they cater to just about every style of eating out there, from paleo and keto, to vegetarian and vegan. Plus, their customizable à la carte section operates pretty much like an online grocery store, so you can be choosy when it comes to what you get.

Best for breakfast or lunch

Daily Harvest

• Price: $6.99/cup for 24 cups a month
• Number of meal options: 9 to 24 items
• Diets: gluten-free, high protein, keto, low cal, low carb, low sugar, paleo, and vegan

The great thing about Cup O’Noodles is that it’s ready to go in minutes — all you need to do is add water. The bad thing? They aren’t really packed with a lot of nutrients and are often loaded with more sodium than the recommended daily upper limit.

Daily Harvest takes the same easy-to-fill cup concept but adds clean, nutrient-dense ingredients designed to make you feel energized throughout the day. They deliver soups, oat bowls, smoothies, and more in pre-portioned bowls.

Choose how many items you want to be sent on the regular (and how often) and boom — delicious food arrives at your doorstep.

Best for produce

Misfits Market Mischief Box

• Price: starts at $22
• Number of meal options: delivery boxes come in small or large sizes
• Diets: choose from organic or non-organic produce

While this isn’t a meal delivery service, it’s worth mentioning as new parents might find it tough getting to the grocery store as often as they did pre-baby.

Misfits Market makes it easy to have fresh fruits and veggies at the ready — delivering 100 percent organic produce at up to 40 percent less than grocery store prices.

Each box includes a mix of 12 different kinds of fruits and veggies, from mangoes, apples, and peaches, to kale, zucchini, and eggplant. They’re called “misfits” because they source produce that, while perfectly fine to eat, doesn’t meet the beauty standards of most grocery stores. So not only are you getting quality produce, you’re helping eliminate food waste.

Best for a quick meal

Freshly

• Price: starting at $46 per box for 4 meals
• Number of meal options: 4 to 12 meals per week
• Diets: gluten-free, dairy-free, peanut-free, plant-based, low-calorie, and low-carb

With Freshly, order healthy and fuss-free meals to be delivered to your door on a weekly basis. Meals come frozen and all you have to do is pop them in the microwave for about 3 minutes. Yes, seriously.

The best part about Freshly is that these aren’t your average microwaved meals — they’re meals you’d actually want to eat after an exhausting day, like beef chili, steak with peppercorn sauce, and chicken teriyaki.

Most meals are gluten-free and created with a food philosophy centered on less sugar, less processing, and more nutrients.

Best for baby

Tiny Organics

• Price: starting at $4.66/meal in a box of 24
• Number of meal options: choose between a 12 or 24 pack of meals
• Diets: organic and free of all Big-8 allergens

If you thought feeding yourself a well-rounded meal was challenging enough, just wait until you have to do it for your little one (around 6 months). While for starters they’ll stick mostly to purées, before you know it, they’ll be interested in some of what you’re having too.

That’s where Tiny Organics comes in handy. They deliver food for your little eater that’s 100% organic, plant-based, and free of all Big-8 allergens with a 6-month shelf life when stored in the freezer as directed. All you have to do is select a meal plan that’s suited to your child’s developmental milestones.

Best for the whole family

Nurture Life

• Price: $7.99-$9.49/meal, minimum order of $39
• Number of meal options: 6 to 15 meals per order
• Diets: gluten-free, vegan, vegetarian, soy-free, dairy-free, and egg-free

Although it might seem far away, your little one will eventually start joining you for meals at the table. When they do, you might want a meal delivery subscription that can feed the whole fam.

In addition to adult meals, Nurture Life delivers fresh, never frozen, veggie-forward meals that your child will (hopefully) like, made specifically for their age range — babies (10 months–24 months), toddlers (1–4 years), younger kids (5–10 years), and older kids (11–18 years).

They’re on the pricier end, but the meals for kids are meant to be just as appetizing as the adult offerings. After all, how often do you look at a toddler’s meal and think that looks good?

A comparison of the best meal delivery services for new parents

How to choose

From dietary needs to time constraints, there seems to be a meal delivery option out there for almost everyone. Choosing the right delivery service for you and your family depends on what you are looking for.

If you’re someone who enjoys meal prep and cooking, you’ll probably want to look for options that provide kits with fresh ingredients and fun recipes to spice up your meals. If you’re short on time, a quicker heat-and-serve option is probably best for you.

There are lower-cost options, but pricer services typically provide higher-quality ingredients. And of course, if you’re looking to feed the younger members of your family, a service that includes baby food or toddler food options is a good place to start.

Frequently asked questions

What is the average cost for a meal delivery service?

While the range widely varies, the going rate for a meal delivery service is between $8.99 and $12.99 per meal.

What is the easiest home meal delivery?

Freshly and Daily Harvest are among the easiest options out there. Freshly requires a quick spin in the microwave and Daily Harvest just needs a quick addition of hot water.

Will meal delivery services save me money?

While delivery meal services will typically save you time on everything from grocery shopping to meal planning and prep, they likely won’t save you much money. In most cases, it may be more affordable to go the old-fashioned route, but if you’re looking for convenience (especially after baby’s arrival), a meal delivery service might be right for you. However, meal delivery services may be cheaper than getting takeout, so it depends more on how you’d like to spend your money.

Takeaway

If you’re short on time or just growing bored of your same home-cooked meals, a delivery service can be a great go-to option. These meal kits are especially helpful if you have dietary restrictions or budgetary concerns.

Above all, if you’ve just returned home with your newborn, meal kit delivery services can easily take the stress out of worrying about food shopping and meal prep.

There are many customizable services that allow you to skip deliveries or pause or cancel your membership at any time, so you can give them a try and see how they work for you.