The 10 Best Sustainable Meal Subscription Services

The market for meal kits and meal delivery services has become a bit oversaturated, making choosing the right one more difficult than it used to be. So to make things easier, we rounded up 15 of the best of them, featuring a mix of meal kit subscriptions (boxes of pre-portioned ingredients so you can cook fresh meals) and meal delivery services (prepared meals that require little to no preparation). Not only do all the brands listed below share sustainability practices on their websites, but they also all offer vegan meal plans, which are inherently much gentler on the planet than meals centered around animal products.

The 10 winners of this Green Matters Approved contest are listed below. Read more about our Green Matters Approved contests here.

Small company LeafSide is a 100 percent plant-based, unprocessed, and shelf-stable meal delivery company. Just add water to enjoy each meal, each of which is created following the nutrition guidelines of prominent plant-based physician Dr. Michael Greger. LeafSide's mission is to provide affordable, convenient, healthy, unprocessed, and eco-friendly food. Meals include the Creamy Potato Leek Soup and Goji Peach Paradise Sweet-Bowl.

Sunbasket offers traditional meal kits so you can cook your own meals, as well as fresh and ready meals that can be heated up in a few minutes. The company makes meals for all different lifestyles, including vegan, vegetarian, and Mediterranean; produce is mostly organic; and the website has clear instructions on how to recycle and compost all packaging. Plus, Sunbasket donates food to various nonprofits feeding people in need.

Thistle makes "plant-forward" prepared meals that are all 100 percent gluten-free and dairy-free. Thistle's food is organic whenever possible, and the company offers a vegan meal plan, noting on the website that eating more plants is the most impactful thing we can do for the environment. In addition to making breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, Thistle also offers snacks, juices, and desserts.

Daily Harvest is a fully plant-based and gluten-free frozen meal service, and the company is a big advocate for an organic and regenerative food system. Daily Harvest's offerings include frozen smoothies, pasta dishes, breakfast bowls, flatbreads, snacks, and more. The company's meals are all free of added sugar and nuts, and Daily Harvest also offers meal plans for those who want to eat a Whole30, Mediterranean, or gut-friendly diet.

Methodology, which brands itself as the "ultimate luxury nutrition program" (with prices to reflect that), offers a zero-waste food delivery service. The company has a commitment to zero food waste, and sends out most of its fresh meals in proprietary glass jars, and some in some in proprietary plastic containers. All meals are free of dairy, gluten, and refined sugar, the company offers a vegan meal plan, and Methodology grows most of its ingredients in greenhouses.

Mosaic Foods is a fully vegetarian frozen meal service that also offers many vegan meals. All of Mosaic Foods' packaging is either made with post-consumer recycled fiber and/or is curbside recyclable, and almost all the packaging is made of paper, with very minimal plastic. The company's frozen meal offerings include smoothies, pizzas, veggie bowls, oat bowls, and soups.

Sprinly's 100 percent vegan meals are premade and fresh, and can be heated up in three minutes or less. The website has clear guidelines on how to recycle and compost all packaging, and Sprinly partners with mission-driven nonprofits to donate organic produce to people in need. All food is free of artificial preservatives and refined sugar, and meals are designed "for omnivores, vegans, and everyone in between" to enjoy.

Owned by HelloFresh, Green Chef advertises itself as the first USDA organic meal kit company. Green Chef's meal kits are sent out with premeasured ingredients, which the company says helps reduce food waste for home chefs. Green Chef offers a plant-based meal plan, and the company uses 100 percent renewable electricity at its offices and manufacturing facilities.

Hungryroot offers a meal plan of ready-to-eat meals, which the website recommends to customers after they fill out a quiz. The company offers all kinds of meals, including plant-based meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And to bulk up your order, Hungryroot also sells various fresh grocery items, pantry goods, and snacks.

Backed by Martha Stewart — and featuring some of her best recipes — Marley Spoon is a meal kit that offers over 100 recipe choices every week. Meals can typically be cooked in 20 minutes or less, and Marley Spoon offers plans for all kinds of diets, including vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, and gluten-free. The company has a sustainability report posted on its website with info on its sustainability pillars ingredient sourcing, climate action efforts, and more.