The 7 Top Meal Stipend Platforms for Global Teams

The days of offering only healthcare, retirement, and a competitive salary as employee benefits are over. To attract and retain top talent, additional perks are a necessity. Lifestyle spending accounts, childcare, and gym memberships rank at the top of this list, but one often overlooked perk stands out: meal stipends.

Implementing a meal allowance program is one thing, but streamlining the process can feel downright unmanageable. To quell your employees' hunger pangs with minimal effort, choosing one of the top meal stipend platforms is a must.

From business-focused food delivery services to dedicated programs, these meal stipend solutions give you everything you need to feed your staff without the hassle.

The Top 7 Meal Stipend Platforms

The top meal stipend platforms seamlessly blend ease of use for employees with task automation for employers. When you’re searching for the right platform, look for options that give employees:

• Quick accessibility
• Wide variety of meal options (takeout and grocery stores) for all dietary needs, as well as snacking options such as smoothies, and access to vitamins and supplements
• Convenience - think easy payment options

From an employer’s perspective, the best meal benefit platforms offer:

• Customization, such as the ability to limit when and where the money is spent
• Easy reimbursement options for companies that choose the expense/reimbursement route
• Reporting, data insights, and tracking of where employees buy their meals
• All-in-one interface to streamline the creation, sending, and usage of cards
• Cost controls to meet budgetary requirements

If you can meet most of these requirements, plus any subjective features, you’re sure to find something that works for your needs. Let’s take a look at a few of the top meal stipend platforms available today.

1. Hoppier

For a simplified approach to meal stipend programs, Hoppier is a solid choice. Hoppier offers digital gift cards that you can send to recipients in over 60 countries, making it ideal for fully distributed companies or those with a global reach.

But Hoppier is more than a digital gift card company, especially for your meal stipend program. To keep you organized and efficient, Hoppier lets you create a program dedicated entirely to your meal stipends. Once you create an account, set a program name, choose your company colors and logo to reinforce your brand, and set a spending limit or denomination and start date for each card.

Next, select which vendors your employees can shop at. You can leave this open-ended so employees can purchase anywhere they like, or select food vendors that match your healthy food and wellness initiatives. You can also choose an expiration date if it suits your meal stipend needs.

Next, add your employees to the program. Simply upload a CSV file with their email addresses and send an invitation - or instant link - to provide access to the digital card. Hoppier offers templates to include with each email, outlining how employees can use their funds. And that's it! With these steps, Hoppier makes it easy to administer and monitor your meal stipend program.

Another bonus of the Hoppier meal stipend platform for global teams is that any unused money left on the gift card after expiration goes directly into your account. There's no waste, and you can roll those funds back into meal vouchers or stipends in the next week, month, or quarter.

2. Edenred

Edenred is a France-based digital platform specializing in employee benefits and payment solutions. Within their suite of offerings, Edenred’s “Ticket Restaurant” is a top choice for global meal stipend programs.

Like Hoppier, Edenred provides hard copy or digital gift cards that employees can use to buy lunch and snacks. Administrators can set spending limits, reload the card in weekly or monthly increments, choose where team members can use the card, and manage the program online through Edenred’s secure platform.

Edenred offers this service in 35 countries, including Europe, North America, South America, and Asia, giving you an easy way to implement your meal allowance program effectively.

From the sales floor

“Edenred is strong where it’s strong: continental Europe, with statutory meal-benefit tax caps baked into the product so employees never get a surprise tax bill. If you’re a European company whose top requirement is that compliance layer, they earn the shortlist. Where they stop being useful is the moment your team spans continents and you want one dashboard instead of a patchwork.”

Nicholas Galipeau, sales at Hoppier

3. Pluxee

It makes sense that one of the world’s largest food services companies would also have one of the top meal stipend platforms, and that’s one thing that Sodexo excels at. Formerly known as the Sodexo Meal Pass, the Pluxee card is a physical prepaid card with a PIN that allows staff to purchase meals, snacks, and beverages at any Sodexo-approved restaurant or food outlet. Employers can choose the expiration date, and each card lasts for three years before employees need a new one.

For employers looking to expand their perks, the Sodexo 2-in-1 card extends usage beyond meals to help employees pay for everyday expenses, such as public transit, fuel, home office upgrades, or even professional development.

Another potential benefit of the Pluxee card is its integration with Uber Eats, which delivers groceries and meals in any country where Uber Eats is available. For remote workers or a globally distributed staff, it’s an excellent option.

4. Swile

Swile is another major player in the employee benefits space, but their meal voucher program earns its rightful place as one of the top meal stipend platforms - and with a slogan of “the meal voucher reinvented,” it’s certainly worth a look.

Whether your employees are eating out, eating in, having food delivered in-office, or grocery shopping, the Swile Mastercard makes purchasing a cinch. Employers can send the card to each employee’s home at no cost, reload it in real time, or change the stipend amount with one click.

Perhaps the most interesting part of Swile’s stipend platform is the end-user experience. Team members can use the Swile app to change their PIN, lock and unlock their card if it’s lost or stolen, order a new card, and even track spending.

For an all-in-one approach, few other top meal stipend platforms can match Swile.

From the sales floor

“Swile came up in exactly two enterprise conversations, both European. The card experience is slick, but it’s built for France and Western Europe. Outside that region it rarely enters the conversation.”

Nicholas Galipeau, sales at Hoppier

5. Grubhub for Business

For global and remote teams, Grubhub is one of the most popular ways to get food delivered. The company has taken note. Grubhub for Business is an employer-friendly meal stipend platform that can feed employees worldwide with zero sign-up or corporate transaction fees.

Unlike some meal stipends, where unused money on a card or voucher goes to waste, Grubhub for Business charges only for what your employees spend. It also has several other notable features, including tax-exempt ordering options, more local restaurants than any other delivery service, and even an option to provide Grubhub+ to your employees - meaning $0 fees if employees want to order in after work.

6. Sharebite

Sharebite is a newer entrant in the meal voucher space, but it’s already one of the most revered by employees and employers alike. With the Sharebite Visa card, employees can order food at any of the 4,000 restaurants or grocery stores in their network. You can also order food for large groups and simply pick it up or have it delivered. Plus, all spending goes into the Sharebite platform, providing insights and tracking of your employees’ eating habits.

The Sharebite app is another strong feature of this top meal stipend platform. Through the Sharebite app, you can review menus, customize orders, and track expenses. Thanks to this handy app, no one needs to obsess over how much money they’re spending, track expenses manually, or save receipts. It’s all stored in one convenient place.

Beyond their platform, app, and Visa card, Sharebite is the only meal voucher platform that instantly makes a donation for each meal purchased. Working with Feeding America and City Harvest, Sharebite donates one meal to combat hunger throughout the United States.

7. Meal Kit Platforms

A healthy meal for your employees is a necessity to boost morale and physical wellness. However, ordering lunch with a food stipend can create unhealthy habits or cause workers to unknowingly consume a ton of calories. Moreover, finding gluten-free meals, vegan meals, or lunches that cater to dietary restrictions can seem difficult.

The only true way to know what goes into a meal is to cook it yourself. Although they aren’t top meal stipend platforms for businesses and employees, meal kit companies are a superb option for feeding your team.

Meal kits let employees skip grocery delivery or shopping and still enjoy the joy of cooking. Each kit includes a standard portion size, pre-measured ingredients, and an easy-to-follow recipe, making meal planning and prep a cinch. These kits are especially ideal for remote workers, who can whip up a healthy meal from the comfort of their own home without relying on the extra fees and tips associated with meal delivery services.

Some of the most popular meal kit platforms also have up to 40 delicious meal selections a month, as well as meal stipend options for businesses, including:

• HelloFresh
• Blue Apron
• Home Chef
• Purple Carrot (vegan)
• Green Chef
• Marley Spoon
• EveryPlate
• Dinnerly

With prices up to 70% lower than dining out (albeit more expensive than going to the grocery store), you and your team can also put more money back in your pocket - and feel good doing it.

The Competitor Nobody Lists: Doing It Yourself

Here’s what the platform comparisons miss. On real sales calls, the alternative companies are actually weighing is rarely another platform - it’s DIY: buying DoorDash, Uber Eats, Amazon, or Starbucks gift cards directly and emailing them out.

DIY breaks in predictable ways. Starbucks cards sound like a meal benefit until you remember not everyone works near one, the food menu is thin, and nothing gets delivered. Delivery-app cards lock you into one catalog - restaurants sign exclusives, so the spot your team loves may not be on the app you picked. And the moment you have a teammate abroad, you’re researching what the DoorDash of Ireland or Singapore is, one country at a time.

From the sales floor

“My favorite customers are the ones who tried the DIY route first - a stack of Uber Eats codes, some Starbucks cards. Once you’ve lived that patchwork, Hoppier is obvious: one dashboard, and because cards run on the Visa network, people aren’t limited to one app’s catalog - they can spend at any local restaurant, in any country, including the small places that aren’t on any delivery app. Add unused funds coming back and it stops being a comparison.”

Nicholas Galipeau, sales at Hoppier

Sending lunch for meetings and events rather than a recurring benefit? See our comparison of the top platforms for team lunch programs. For non-food benefits, start with the top employee stipend platforms.

Nourish Your Team With the Best Meal Stipend Platforms

When you give your team healthy food, you improve work-life balance, lessen financial burdens, and bolster the employee experience. Few other perks offer these benefits, turning even a basic meal stipend program into a solid return on investment.

Like employee stipend or swag platforms, the right option for your meal stipends comes down to preference. But with a cost-effective meal allowance platform that checks all or most of your boxes, you can ensure your employees eat right throughout the workday. It’s an appreciative gesture that’s sure to give a hearty boost to employee engagement and your company culture.