With meal kits in Canada becoming more and more popular, I thought that I would give my two cents on both their quality and if they are worth the cash.
If you’re not sure what meal kits are, the basic idea is that you skip the grocery store, and a company delivers all the ingredients for specific meals to your door each week. You cook ‘em up in the comfort of your own home (30 minutes or less) and *voila*… tasty food at half the price of delivery and you never have to get out of your PJs.
The good news is that after trying the top three meal kits (Hello Fresh, Chefs Plate, and Goodfood) and then talking to a friend who picks up his Miss Fresh subscription from Sobey’s, I can safely say that the good in these meal kits is legit. You can tell that a nutritionist is involved in the planning of the meals and that freshness isn’t just a buzzword for these folks.
Now, I’m not saying that meal kits are the answer for everyone. Let’s be right up front with the fact that you could just go online, look at the recipe cards, and then go to the grocery store and buy all of the stuff yourself – and save roughly 50%.
BUT – how many of us are actually going to do that? Instead, most of my friends are going to do one of two things:
1) Go out to eat and spend way more on unhealthier food.
2) Go to the grocery store, buy too many groceries, and then throw half of them away (probably the healthiest stuff, because it expires the quickest and wasn’t as easy to turn into a meal).
Apparently my friends aren’t the only ones. With young Canadians spending more and more money at restaurants, many people don’t realize all the money they spend on booze and taxes when they eat at a restaurant as opposed to making a meal at home.
Even I get caught up in trying to get value when going to eat!
Let’s take a look at what meal kits you can get depending on where you live.
Meal Kits In Toronto
Starting in the centre of the Canadian universe, I figured we’d begin with Toronto meal kits. One of the best parts about living in Toronto is the culinary options that we get to enjoy! We obviously get the big four meal kit delivery services I listed at the top, but in addition, there are some cool smaller ones that we can try.
For example, Fresh City Farms was on Dragon’s Den and it’s claiming the freshest product corner as they try to grow as much of their food locally as possible. Fresh City is only available in the GTA!
There is also Prepd, which despite it’s weird name is actually the cheapest meal kit in Canada as far as I can tell.
Meal Kits in Montreal
If you live in Quebec and are interested in Montreal meal kits you might be surprised to find out that both Goodfood and Miss Fresh are both products of La Belle Province.
Obviously they both make great options and are kind of a way to support local jobs/entrepreneurs as well!
Additionally, Canada’s biggest meal kit providers, Hello Fresh and Chefs Plate also deliver to all Montreal addresses, and most of rural Quebec as well.
The other meal kit company in Montreal is COOK It – which is another Dragon’s Den company. I don’t know much about their food boxes because I wasn’t able to track down anyone who orders from them, but their website looks like the company is quite a bit smaller than the other four options.
Meal Kits In Vancouver
Everyone that I know in Vancouver is all about being healthy. That’s probably why all of the Vancouver meal kits that I looked at wanted to emphasize that they were the healthiest one of the bunch.
The four major meal kits can of course all be found in Vancouver (although only Hello Fresh delivers to all of the suburbs from what I’ve heard). Additionally, there are many smaller, more niche meal kit delivery services available.
I’m not sure how many of these companies will survive (looking at their websites, some of them appear to be two-person startups) but it’s nice to have plenty of options to choose from anyway! FUUD, Eat Your Cake, The Good Stuff, Fresh Prep, and 2 Guys With Knives all operate solely out of Vancouver. Must be something in the air out there that makes people want to start food companies!
Are Meal Kits Worth It?
Meal kits fit roughly halfway between going out to eat and buying your own groceries when looking at all-in costs.
If you are the type of disciplined grocery shopper who can plan a month of meals ahead of time, buys in bulk, and clips coupons – then you’re probably not going to save any cash on meal kits. You might appreciate the convenience of having some groceries delivered to your door, but clearly you’ve got a system that is working for you.
If you end up ordering takeout meals, or going out to each a bunch of times each week instead of cooking at home, then meal kits are probably going to make your life better in two ways.
1) They’re going to save you major cash.
2) You’ll probably eat a lot healthier.
If you want more info on what food subscription boxes are available all across the country, check out Meal Kits Canada for a ton of in-depth reviews and comparisons.