The Ultimate Express Checkout: Five Healthy-Food Delivery Services in Philly

Five ways to stock up on good-for-you food—without ever leaving your house.


If grocery shopping feels more grueling gau­ntlet than peaceful retail experience, I’m with you: the lines, broken carts, misplaced shopping lists, the lines. Happily, with home-delivery services like Peapod and FreshDirect—which made a big splash when it came to Philly last fall—stocking your pantry is easier than ever. These five other options for healthy home-delivered ­groceries, prepared foods, snacks and more will keep you out of the checkout line for good.

Chef-Prepared
Conshohocken-based Real Food Works partners with chefs at local restaurants to make packaged, ready-to-eat (and seriously tasty) meals that contain no processed ingredients, are low in sodium, and feature lots of veggies and whole grains. Get five or 10 meals delivered to your doorstep each week ($9 delivery charge); opt for 15 weekly meals and delivery’s free. Realfoodworks.com.

Farm-Fresh
Harvest Local Foods is like having the farmers’ market come to you. The Lansdowne-based service sources and delivers fresh fruits and veggies from more than 60 local farms, plus meat and dairy items from area producers. Delivery fees range from $5 to $10.

Personal Touch
If you swear by 365, the cult-fave Whole Foods house brand, listen up: The South Street Whole Foods now offers a free weekday grocery-­d­e­livery service for Center City dwellers. Phone in an order, and a personal shopper will fill your bags (a maximum of four, with a $30 minimum order). A bike courier meets you at home with your goods.

Organic-Only
If you like the community-supported agriculture idea—in which you buy “shares” of a farm’s seasonal crop and get weekly deliveries of what’s been harvested—but want more flexibility, try Door to Door Organics. You get boxes of organic produce from local farms, just like with a CSA, but can swap out up to five items each week for your preferred fruits and veggies (read: no more beets!). Everything’s delivered to you—for no extra charge.

Snack Happy
The FruitGuys’ new office-delivery SmileSnack subscription ($17.75 a box; free delivery for most areas) provides a week’s worth of fresh, natural snacks—whole fruits like pears and oranges, plus trail mix and granola—that you can keep in your desk. Way better than the vending machine.