If you’re looking to create a healthier lifestyle through an organic plant-based diet, produce delivery services offer all that you can buy in your local farmer’s market from the comfort of your own home. Plus, many of them are a great way to reduce food waste through rescued produce and pantry staples.
The ability to cook more meals at home is an amazing opportunity to ditch a sugar and fat-fueled diet and fuel your body with fruits and vegetables. Here is a curated list of the best produce delivery services available.
Our Picks for the Top Produce Subscription Boxes
Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.
- Best All Organic – Farmbox Direct
- Best Sustainable Option – Imperfect Foods
- Best for Fruits – The FruitGuys
- Best for Reducing Food Waste – Misfits Market
- Best for Local Produce – Cropswap
- Best for Rescued Produce – Hungry Harvest
- Most Customizable – Farm Fresh to You
- Best Seasonal Produce – Farmer Jones Farm at The Chef’s Garden
- Most Affordable – The Produce Box
How to Choose a Produce Delivery Service
There are several factors to consider before committing to a subscription box for fresh fruit and veggies. Here are the most relevant:
- Selection – Having access to an ever-changing selection of fruits and vegetables makes the difference when you want to keep your cooking interesting. Simply visit their site, browse the menu, select your favorite fresh produce to include in your box, and you can order in just a few clicks.
- Delivery options – It’s important to consider delivery times and areas of service, as some of these brands only serve certain regions. In some locations, you can get your produce in an hour or schedule them for the next day or later in the week. As the pandemic has made buying groceries significantly more stressful, home delivery options are even more popular.
- Packaging – Cutting and chopping fruits and vegetables is among the the least favorite activities home cooks need to do. That’s why some delivery services send fruits and vegetables already chopped or ready to eat. While this is convenient, it is important to check if the packaging they use is recyclable, biodegradable, or compostable.
- Sourcing – Another factor to keep in mind is if the service connects customers with local farmers. Eating local from sustainable, organic, and regenerative farms is a great way to get fresh food while doing your part for the environment and supporting your local economy.
- Organic produce – Organic agriculture has several distinctively different characteristics from commercial agriculture such as soil quality, animal raising practices, pest and weed control, and the use of pesticides and herbicides. If a product is organic and non-GMO, it provides benefits to your health, food safety, and the environment.
- Price – Some services offer free delivery with additional memberships, and most require a minimum order. Remember to keep in mind that it is all about the convenience it brings to your daily life and the ability to eat more sustainably.
The Best Produce Delivery Services
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Farmbox Direct
Farmbox Direct produce is delivered in biodegradable/recyclable packaging, and includes only local, seasonal produce. They offer things like apples, eggplant, kale, spinach stir-fry mix, baby carrots, cabbage, potatoes, lettuce mix, collard greens, and lots more. You can also order Farmbox Direct as a gift for your loved ones.
Why buy: These organic boxes can be combined with eggs, milk, and flowers. Free shipping to the entire continental U.S. Subscription model where you can customize your schedule up to three months in advance.
Imperfect Foods
Your one-stop shop for fruit and vegetable home delivery that can help reduce food waste. At affordable prices, this service has six different delivery options with convenient weekly or bi-weekly plans. Actively helping to reduce food waste by including perfectly good food that usually gets rejected by grocery stores for “cosmetic imperfections.”
Why buy: Imperfect Foods offers fantastic produce and other groceries at affordable prices. With this service, you can easily help reduce food waste and enjoy sustainable groceries from home.
The FruitGuys
The FruitGuys delivers the freshest fruits and vegetables sourced from local farmers with a harvest-to-table philosophy. They offer farm fresh fruit delivery services for business or families, as well as direct hunger relief. Their Food Works Fund helps provide fresh fruits and vegetables to food banks, charities, and school meal distribution sites in local communities.
Why buy: The FruitGuys is a certified B corp, and they deliver fresh all fruit boxes and seasonal produce nationwide Monday through Friday in most areas.
Misfits Market
Misfits Market tailors each box to each individual customer with organic produce and sustainably sourced pantry staples delivered to your door. Misfits Market is working hard against food waste, selecting high-quality food that superficial grocery stores would instead let go to waste. Their packaging is also eco-friendly, with recyclable boxes and insulation, and compostable plant-based bags.
Why buy: Not only can Misfits Market help you fight food waste, their boxes can help you save up to 40% off grocery store prices
Cropswap
Cropswap is an app that connects you directly to local farmers and growers. You can browse hundreds of local growers to make a one-time purchase or subscribe weekly; after placing the order it is possible to track your shipment from the moment it’s harvested until it is delivered, using a convenient, well-designed app. Plus, the growers keep 100% of the delivery fee.
Why buy: Cropswap is an easy way to connect to produce that is picked at peak ripeness and locally-grown while supporting local, sustainable agriculture.
Hungry Harvest
Hungry Harvest rescues flavorful organic fruits and vegetables from going to waste and delivers them to your door. You can easily customize your box according to your needs with additional rescued grocery staples. And every box delivered saves at least 10 pounds of food from going to waste.
Why buy: You can choose from a variety of different produce box sizes and customize as needed. Plus, Hungry Harvest is helping to end hunger with reduced cost Produce in a SNAP markets and donations to local organizations.
Farm Fresh to You
Farm Fresh to You is a premier source for farm-to-table produce delivery that is 100% certified-organic. They deliver to both northern and southern California. Each box complements your experience with recipes, news, and valuable tips on how to improve your diet.
Why buy: This is a produce box for those serious about organic fruits and vegetables. You can also add other farm-fresh products like eggs, milk, honey, and jams.
Farmer Jones Farm at The Chef’s Garden
The Chef’s Garden is famous for supplying fresh vegetables to world-renowned chefs and restaurants. Now you can get the same restaurant-quality veggies delivered to your home through their Farmer Jones Farm brand. You can pick and choose from a variety of produce box subscriptions, including fresh seasonal options.
Why buy: The high-quality produce from Farmer Jones Farm may be a bit pricier than some other boxes, but it’s well-known for being fresh, delicious, nutrient-dense, and grown using regenerative farming practices.
The Produce Box
Based in North Carolina, The Produce Box directly benefits local farmers by sourcing from small farms. It is a weekly produce delivery that lets you choose from several different options, including an all organic box option. They also prioritize helping you get to know the farmers who raise and harvest your produce, creating a stronger incentive to eat local.
Why buy: While they only serve areas of North Carolina currently, The Produce Box offers one of the most affordable produce subscriptions. Plus, by connecting customers to local farmers and farms, they are reducing the emissions it takes to deliver fresh produce.
How Does a Produce Delivery Service Work?
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Instead of heading to the store every week, sit back and relax. Online shopping has become ubiquitous in recent years, so it’s no wonder that fresh produce is now an option.
Here is how easy it can be: first, you pick your box style, you can choose (and change) the size and type of produce box that works for you; there is typically an option to customize it according to your needs. Some will even have an opportunity to add and remove products from your delivery and create a “never send” list.
After that, you can review how often your goods will arrive. The most popular are weekly or biweekly deliveries. Of course, you also want to see if the service is available in your area.
Finally, you hit the subscribe button and wait for your produce. Some produce subscriptions services work with local farmers who hand pick the fruits and veggies that are in your box, while others focus on rescuing produce that would otherwise go to waste. Once packaged, the produce is then delivered to your door.
How Much Does a Produce Box Delivery Service Cost?
Price varies according to the delivery service and your needs. A regular 11- to 13-pound box of conventional produce is around $16-20. Now, if we are talking about all organic produce, it’s slightly more expensive. Small boxes range from $40 to $44, medium boxes are around $55, and large ones about $60 or more. Some services charge a subscription fee while others just charge you for each delivery.
Why Should You Consider a Produce Delivery Service?
Subscribing to a produce delivery service will undoubtedly bring many benefits to your life, and it will not take long to see the effects. We are big fans of these produce delivery services because besides being healthy and practical, you will be supporting local farmers who practice ecologically and economically sustainable agriculture, including Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs).
Other produce delivery services are helping to reduce food waste, specifically when you choose ones that focus on rescuing produce that wouldn’t otherwise be sold.
Choose a produce subscription service to enjoy fresher seasonal fruits and vegetables, to eat more locally-grown produce, and to reduce food waste. Not to mention the added convenience of having fresh produce delivered to your door.
Sarita Vanegas is a writer based in Medellín, Columbia, where she covers environmentally-friendly products, natural health, and plant-based remedies. A former Baselang teacher, she is also passionate about learning languages and exploring other cultures.