Meal Delivery Services Gaining Traction in Denver

It has become easier than ever to have a home-cooked meal delivered right to your house or office. In fact, more and more people in Denver and nationally are opting for food delivery services to incorporate fresh food into busy lifestyles rather than exerting the time, money, and energy on going out to eat, much less to cook.

SupperBell, a well-received meal delivery service, does not intend to replace restaurant dining by any means. Rather, according to Denver restauranteur Frank Bonnano, who recently joined the SupperBell team, the new dining option will function as Denver's biggest and most encompassing kitchen delivering restaurant-worthy meals all over the city. Bonanno will officially step into the role of culinary director and launch his new menu for SupperBell today. Meals will be chef-driven, affordable, healthy, and made with the finest ingredients.

An online system and mobile app for SupperBell allows patrons to choose from a variety of options and specify delivery times. Meals come in compostable containers with chef-recommended heating instructions to ensure the best possible at-home dining experience. Beginning in September, Bonanno and the team at SupperBell will invite local chefs to create their own menus to be featured on a rotating basis.

In a related area of the market, Blue Apron, a national meal delivery service, was recently valued at $2 billion and growing rapidly. Blue Apron delivers farm-fresh ingredients portioned out in bags complete with a recipe. On the positive side, this process is a spinoff of the CSA model that can benefit farmers and introduce people to new varieties of produce and how to cook with them, all while being wildly convenient. On the other hand, it removes the personal connection that comes from selecting ingredients and interacting perhaps with those who produce it.

There are other services that provide the logistical connection between restaurants and hungry customers, including Postmates and UberLunch. Creating the mechanism in which to link any restaurant to any person in a given area may seem like a no-brainer, but Postmates, for example, does not have explicit permission from the restaurants providing the food, and this is starting to generate some serious backlash.

The convenience of said food delivery programs is undeniable, and fits very well into growing, tech-savvy Denver. The expanding demographic of young professionals will certainly have modern, convenient food delivery options at its fingertips, but will this create a generation of capable yet lazy people who can neither cook or grow their own food? What is the price of convenience and it is worth it?