Most of us are familiar with the typical cafeteria meals of our childhood…greasy fries or tater tots, cardboard pizza, half-frozen chicken nuggets, and flavorless vegetables cooked into submission. But times have changed. Several companies specialize in providing healthy, nutritious school lunches to schools across the country. These school lunch delivery services supply high-quality, real food every day.
School lunch delivery services offer alternatives to mass-produced school meals. While every lunch service provider is unique, many companies offer 100% wholesome and fresh; some use locally sourced ingredients provided by area growers and producers. They don’t add any hormones, pesticides, or antibiotics and often tailor the meals to the child’s allergy requirements and specifications.
These services are key to serving healthy school lunches with a wide variety of options for kids to choose from.
How do school lunch delivery services work?
Planning healthy meals for the week or month in advance comes with many benefits. Depending on the delivery service your student’s school contracts with, parents and students can either choose and order meals from the available choices, or schools may work with the service to place orders online or on an app. The school may offer students one or two options or more choice options if pre-ordered in advance.
Everyday Food Options
Food options that appeal to students ranging from older students to younger ones are plentiful and offer various everyday food options to choose from. Choices ranging from California rolls to tikka masala to street tacos to vegetarian burritos are sure to appeal to little tastebuds. Many school lunch delivery services work to feature produce from local farmers or food from local providers. This gives help to both the providers and families. So, what are some of the top school lunch delivery services for 2023?
Reviewing the Top 10 School Lunch Delivery Services
1. Revolution Foods
The Vision
Revolution Foods was founded in 2006 by two moms who were aiming to shake up and change lunchtime in America’s lunchrooms. The company now provides more than 1.5 million meals per week to students ranging from kindergarten to 12th. Every meal they provide does not contain any nitrates or nitrites, MSG, artificial colors or flavors, high-fructose corn syrup, or artificial sweeteners.
What They Offer
The Revolution Foods menu features whole-grain pancakes with chicken sausages, chicken taco trio, firecracker chicken, and noodles.
Where to Find It
Revolutions Foods help get a nourishing and unique lunch to kids in California, Colorado, Louisiana, Texas, Tennessee, New England, and the mid-Atlantic states.
How to Order/Cost
Revolution Foods works directly with schools that participate in the National School Lunch Program. They are available to students who qualify at little to no cost.
2. Chefables
The Vision
School lunch delivery service, Chefables, was originally founded to get meals for the smallest eaters in childcare centers. The service provides meals for kids as young as age one but ranging up to eighth grade. They offer lunch meals and snacks made from scratch.
What They Offer
Choices for kids include sides like grilled asparagus and fresh strawberries. Entrée offerings include roasted chicken chow mein and homemade turkey burgers on a filling whole-grain roll.
Where to Find It
Chefables is available in the San Francisco Bay Area.
How to Order
Parents can order lunch online or on a smartphone and build a meal with sides, entrees, and snacks. Meals are delivered to schools before lunchtime.
Cost
Meals are low-cost or free for students who qualify for the National School Lunch Program. If ordering separate from the program, entrees average about $5, and sides start at $1.
3. Smart Lunches
The Vision
Smart Lunches provides more than 200 camps, childcare centers, and schools with healthier meals than typical cafeteria offerings. One to two percent of lunch sales is given back to the schools. The company also further contributes to the community by giving a portion of its proceeds to local food banks.
What They Offer
Lunch menu items include Southwestern salad with chicken, Mediterranean chicken wraps, and some vegetarian options.
Where to Find It
Smart Lunches can currently be found on the East Coast and in Chicago. Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., and Philadelphia are all areas where meals from Smart Lunches are available.
How to Order
Families can place their student’s lunch orders on a smartphone or online. Selections change daily, but there include five side items and six entrees. Lunches are delivered directly to the school.
Cost
The average cost of a Smart Lunches meal is $6.50.
4. Red Rabbit
The Vision
School lunch delivery service, Red Rabbit, was created in 2005 in Harlem. It serves more than 20,000 students in elementary and middle schools spread throughout New York City. All meals are dense with nutrients children need and are scratch-made in the Harlem kitchen.
What They Offer
Red Rabbit’s menu offerings range from fruit parfaits to hand-pulled turkey sandwiches with their homemade barbecue sauce, a new take on a kids’ favorite, cauliflower mac ‘n cheese. Nothing is processed, fried, or frozen, and all meat products come from local sources. All menu items are designed to be nutrient-dense to provide ultimate nutrition for a child in each meal.
Where to Find It
Red Rabbit currently serves lunch to children in all boroughs of New York City, except Staten Island.
How to Order/Cost
Students who qualify for the National School Lunch Program can receive meals for little to no cost. For schools that don’t apply for federal reimbursement, menu items cost an average of $5.
5. Choicelunch
The Vision
A husband and wife team founded the school lunch delivery service, Choicelunch, because of their vision to provide kids with school lunches that are freshly prepared, not factory-made. With a catering background, the founders created a menu that features various choices, delivered in specially designed meal boxes made of potato starch absent GMOs. They also use baggies made from corn instead of plastic. This is due to the company’s commitment to reducing its environmental footprint.
What They Offer
Choicelunch’s offerings range from healthy, kid-friendly versions of pizza and mac and cheese and choices for the young foodies that include sushi rolls and chicken tikka masala.
Where to Find It
Choicelunch is currently available in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
How to Order
Parents can order via the online ordering system or place one with the mobile app or online where pictures of each entrée are available. Ordering is convenient. Families can place an order last minute or months in advance.
Cost
The average cost per meal is $5.75.
6. Nurture Life
The Vision
The lunch delivery service, Nurture Life, focuses on balanced nutrition. Meals are designed by dieticians and are full of veggies, whole grains, and proteins. All meals contain clean and real ingredients, including a full serving of vegetables. All meals are fresh and not frozen and are nutritionally balanced.
What They Offer
The healthy selections from Nurture Life include delicious meals like cheeseburger mac ‘n cheese with butternut squash, pesto and cheese ravioli, and chicken biryani.
Where to Find It
Nurture Life is a subscription service that offers well-balanced meals specially designed by pediatric dieticians. They are easy to prepare and can be frozen. Nurture Life delivers meals weekly that can then be packed in student lunch boxes and bags. They are not a good choice for students with food allergies.
How to Order
Meals can be ordered online or on a mobile phone and are delivered to the home weekly.
Cost
Nurture Life’s meal prices range from $7 to $13 per meal. Each order must be a minimum of $39. Shipping is $8 for orders under $59 and free for orders above that amount.
7. Organic Kids LA
The Vision
Organic Kids LA was founded in 2011 by a mom who made homemade baby food and sold it to other moms and then the public at a farmer’s market after seeing a need for it. The lunch delivery company now provides kids with something to eat at four area camps: elementary, middle, and high schools. Organic Kids LA uses grass-fed meats, free-roaming chickens, and organic produce. All of these are available daily for distribution.
What They Offer
A huge range of choices for kids is available. Some options include turkey sloppy joe’s, spaghetti Bolognese, Vietnamese spring rolls, and other varied options kids may like. Sides of rice, edamame, sweet potato chips, and other fresh fruits and vegetables are healthy meal accompaniments. There is also a daily salad offering, or parents and students can build their own bento box with over 40 choices to add.
Where to Find It
Organic Kids LA is available for delivery in the Los Angeles area.
How to Order
Parents can load their online accounts with ‘credits’ to customize and purchase lunches online or on an app. They deliver the cuisine for kids to school sites in reusable boxes. The company then picks the boxes up after lunch that day and cleans them for reuse.
Cost
The cost of lunches from Organic Kids LA is available in three sizes. Small lunches are $6.50. The medium size is $7.25. High cost is $8. Add-ons, including healthy snacks and cold juices, are available for an additional cost.
8. Yumble
The Vision
Yumble does not deliver lunches to school but delivers them to the family home. They are ready to eat and packed fresh. Yumble is also convenient because the meals can be stored in the refrigerator and just taken out and popped in a lunch bag or lunchbox, and the student is ready to head off to school.
What They Offer
Gluten and vegetarian options are available on the menu and feature healthy versions of kid-favorite chicken nuggets, cheesy pasta, and mac and cheese, to name a few.
Where to Find It
Yumble is currently available on the east coast.
How to Order
Families can sign up to get six, 12, or 24 meals per week. The meal delivery service brings lunch right to your own front door on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, or Fridays.
Cost
The average cost per meal is $6.99 and up.
9. The LunchMaster
The Vision
The LunchMaster focuses on providing healthy meals every day that are made from scratch and are chock-full of nutrients that provide students with the energy they need throughout the day.
What They Offer
Children and parents can choose from menu options that will please kids and include cold and hot entrees, veggie and fruit-laden sides, and vegetarian and gluten-free choices. A Registered Dietician has all been created to make sure dishes are made with fresh, local ingredients.
Where to Find It
Healthy meal delivery from The LunchMaster is available in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley of California.
How to Order
Schools can register with The LunchMaster and receive a code that families can use. Family members can then log in online or on the company’s app and order meals to the school.
Cost
The average cost for an entrée for kids, fresh vegetable side, fresh fruit side, snack, and a cold drink is generally below $6 per meal.
10. Wholesome Food Services
The Vision
Wholesome Food Services was founded in 2010 by volunteer parents who advocated for healthy and nutritious school lunches. This lunch service operates a bit differently than other school lunch delivery companies. They don’t make meals in a kitchen. Instead, they partner with popular local restaurants, including Jamba Juice, Noodles & Company, Chick-fil-A, California Pizza Kitchen, and Jersey Mike’s, as well as other partner restaurants to bring kid-preferred options to schools.
What They Offer
Wholesome Food Services has options that feature various items like restaurant favorites, spaghetti and meatballs, pizza and salad, and so many more choices.
Where to Find It
Wholesome Food Services serves Colorado, Chicago, and Dallas and will be expanding to other areas.
How to Order
Parents can order delivery online in advance through the lunch service. Partner restaurants then receive the orders and prepare the meals, picked up and individually labeled for students. Parents can also include a note with the meal.
Cost
The healthy meals cost an average of $4 and up.
