My Top 4 {Food} Subscription Boxes // Brownies and Zucchini

My Top 4 (Food) Subscription Boxes

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Kelly

If you read my Project Life posts, you know that I currently get a few different subscription monthly boxes, and have gotten several others in the past. Since the time of year for gift giving (and wish list making) is here, I thought I’d share with you my top five favorite subscription boxes! Today I will sharing all food related boxes. (I shared my favorite non-food boxes a couple of weeks ago. In case you missed it, you can find it here.)

A quick note before I get into all of the boxes: some of these are affiliate links. I love these boxes, and I wouldn’t share them with you if I didn’t. If you subscribe through my links, I will get a small perk (and for some of them, you do too!), but if you’d prefer not to use my link, that’s cool too.

Naturebox – healthy snacks delivered to you! Each box includes 5 full sized snacks, for $19.95 per month including free shipping. The Naturebox snacks are all their own brand and are carefully sourced and nutritionist approved. They also work with WhyHunger to donate their snacks to those in need. I don’t currently subscribe to Naturebox, but I have in the past, and I got another taste of their snacks at the Healthy Living Summit a couple of months ago.

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Things I love about Naturebox:

The snacks are unique! It isn’t all just granola, dried fruit, and nuts – which are what I often think of when I think “healthy” snacks. And even when it is granola, or dried fruit, or nuts, they are flavored in a unique way.
You really get a lot of bang for your buck! 5 full sized packages of snacks is a pretty good deal for about $20.
The people behind Naturebox are SO nice and really care about their products and customers. I got to meet some of them at the BlogHer conference last summer and they were all so upbeat and enthusiastic.

Things I don’t love about Naturebox:

Even though there are a wide variety of things in each box, it just isn’t enough of what I personally would eat to be really worth a subscription. Now, there are some things that I do really love from the boxes, but I’m just too picky for it to be worth getting every month.

Bestowed – a box full of healthy products curated by nationally recognized nutrition expert, author, and entrepreneur, Heather Bauer. Heather is a Registered Dietitian (RD) and a New York State Certified Dietitian-Nutritionist (CDN). (University of Wisconsin alum!) The box is $19 per month, including free shipping. I don’t currently subscribe to Bestowed Box, but I have gotten a sample of one in the past.

Things I love about Bestowed:

The products are top notch quality. They have a list of some of the brands on their website that they have included in previous boxes, and all of them are name brands that I know are great quality and recognize.
The person making decisions on the products in the box is actually a registered dietitian and nutritionist. It is someone with actual, factual, knowledge deciding what products I am about to eat. This gives me more confidence that there are going to be great products in the box.

Things I don’t love about Bestowed:

Sometimes the products are too out there for me. I can handle a granola bar, or some kind of healthy chips, but things like hemp other random grains and seeds are a little too out there for my picky self to try right off the bat. I know that is kind of the point of getting a box like this, to try new things, but if it isn’t going to get eaten it isn’t really worth me ordering,

Love with Food – organic, all-natural, snacks. Each box has a different theme for different holidays and times of the year. For every box sold, they donate a meal to food banks such as the Feeding America Network and Share Our Strength – No Kid Hungry. The box is $12 per month plus $2 shipping. I don’t currently subscribe to Love with Food, but have a few times in the past. (I’ve gotten groupon type deals for the box a few times in the past year)

Things I love about Love with Food:

Everything in the box is a snack-type item. No supplements, or mixes, or other random things.
Not all of the food is “healthy.” There is a good mix of healthy snacks, and delicious not-as-healthy treats. In the past I have gotten Go-Go Squeez applesauce packets, Nature’s Bakery Fig Bars, chocolate covered fortune cookies, jelly, and caramel, among many other things.

Things I don’t love about Love with Food:

You have to pay for shipping…unless you get more than a monthly subscription. I think this is the only box I’ve ever ordered that I’ve had to pay shipping on.
I’ve gotten the same (or very similar) thing in more than one box. I suppose this is a positive thing if you like the item, but that isn’t always the case. Also, I really like the surprise of these boxes so getting something that I’ve gotten before is a bit of a letdown.

Kona Kase – eight nutritional products aimed to help you fuel peak performance. Each box is $15, including free shipping. I don’t currently subscribe to Kona Kase, but we got a sample box as part of our Swag at the Healthy Living Summit last September.

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Things I love about Kona Kase:

The items in the box are unique compared to other food boxes that I’ve gotten.
The box includes a variety of items useful to active people – gels, granola, protein bars, supplements, etc.
Each box includes an inspirational quote. (That happens to be the perfect 4×6 size to fit into a project life page)

Things I don’t love about Kona Kase:

The gels and supplements don’t really interest me. Even if I was at that level of running that I needed to fuel more, I think I would try to find something that was a little more real food that squirting some gel in my mouth. However, if you are super active an looking to try different things to see what works for you, this might be a good option.

Special shout out to a box that just launched (and I have not yet tried) but I think it is going to be a good one: Greatist Parcel. If you aren’t familiar with Greatist, it is a site filled with different health and wellness articles and information. The information focuses on making health sustainable and reasonable, with the assumption that we aren’t always perfect, but we can make small changes to make ourselves better. Anyways, they just launched the Greatist Parcel, their monthly subscription box. It isn’t super clear to me what kind of items it will include, but they are all picked out by the people at Greatist. It actually says it is powered by Conscious Box, which is another subscription box I have gotten in the past, so I’m curious to see how it will differ from that box. For each Parcel sold, they also donate 1% of the proceeds to various nonprofits.