Healthy Food at the Front Door

A growing trend is the ringing of a doorbell heralding the arrival of healthy food. In addition to the convenience and time savings, having a grocery delivery van make roundtrips to and from multiple customers’ doorsteps generates far less emissions than traditional shopping. Home deliveries of local and organic fresh fruits and vegetables have customers clamoring for more.

After serving most of the New York metro area for more than a decade, online grocer FreshDirect (FreshDirect.com) began delivering in the Philadelphia metro area in October 2012 and expanded to other parts of Pennsylvania, plus New Jersey and Delaware, last fall. “Our hyper-local, farm-to-fork food systems result in healthy relationships between consumers, food and farmers,” says David McInerney, co-founder of FreshDirect. The company also supports hunger organizations and provides nutritional counseling.

Planet Organics (PlanetOrganics.com) serves the San Francisco Bay area. Beginning last fall, Instacart partnered with Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Costco to begin delivering food to homes in 13 neighborhoods in Chicago. Beginning in Colorado, where it’s based, Door to Door Organics (DoorToDoorOrganics.com) now provides its service in Michigan, plus metro areas of Kansas City, Chicago and New York. Green BEAN Delivery (GreenBeanDelivery.com), based in Indianapolis, now also delivers organic and sustainable foods in Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio; Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky; and most recently, St. Louis, Missouri.

Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks (FreshPicks.com) taps into 100-plus farmers within a day’s drive of its Niles, Illinois, center, to serve the Chicago and Milwaukee metro areas. “We’re able to concentrate on reaching people of all incomes and get deep into the communities,” says co-owner Shelly Herman. The eight-year-old company also partners with community groups, food pantries and schools.

Going a step further, other companies are delivering prepared healthy meals. In one example, Power Supply (MyPowerSupply.com) recently partnered with Mindful Chef to foster this connection with 50 yoga and other fitness facilities, as well as other businesses in the Washington, D.C., metro area.