{"id":25469,"date":"2020-11-19T16:11:29","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T21:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-gordon-food-service-canada.pantheonsite.io\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/"},"modified":"2025-07-01T10:58:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T14:58:18","slug":"unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/","title":{"rendered":"Unwrap Profits with Holiday Gift Boxes and Meal Kits"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Send your brand home for the holidays with stocking stuffers and meal convenience.<\/h2>\n<p>Restaurants have adjusted plans and menus throughout 2020, and the holiday season will be no different. Instead of big dine-in crowds and catering events, operators this year are looking for a new approach. Gift boxes and meal kits could be the solution.<\/p>\n<p>Gordon Food Service Culinary Specialists suggest these sales-building ideas for operators looking for an edge during the typically busy year-end holiday season.<\/p>\n<h3>Gift boxes<\/h3>\n<p>The gift of food is always in style, says Chef Bobby Viel. \u201cGift boxes are an opportunity for the operator to create something craveable for people to enjoy,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd it can be food to be enjoyed over an entire weekend.\u201d Suggestions include foods contained in jars, tins or bags:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fruits and roasted nuts<\/li>\n<li>Jellies, jams, spices, infused oils and salami<\/li>\n<li>Cheese, spreads and sauces<\/li>\n<li>Crackers and breads<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>With any holiday box, don\u2019t forget the power of marketing, says Chef Rachel Mazur. \u201cAlways think about the brand aspect and make sure you have your name on product labels,\u201d she says. Other ideas include tucking in a holiday card, a menu, or a discount coupon for a future visit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To enhance the appeal, make sure each box looks like a gift, using a festive liner inside and a ribbon, bow and gift tag outside to make it special.<\/p>\n<h3>Meal kits<\/h3>\n<p>A lesson learned during Mother\u2019s Day and Easter is that meal kits and family meals provide convenience for customers and keep your restaurant top of mind. These meals can take a couple of forms:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Meal kits.<\/strong> Provide a complete dinner\u2014turkey, ham, pasta, etc.\u2014ready to serve or to heat and eat. This also works for your house specialties\u2014seasonal vegetarian entrees, salads, taco bars, etc. Market this idea as a way to add holiday convenience.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deconstructed meals.<\/strong> Provide all of the ingredients with instructions on how to create the meal at home. Market this idea as a way for families to enjoy the holiday in the kitchen and at the table.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Neither of these ideas are limited to the holidays. They are a great way to connect with customers who love your food but are not comfortable eating with a crowd. Taking a page from the Blue Apron playbook is how one Maine operator stayed in the game during the pandemic, Viel recalls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey took some of their best baked items and sold their recipes separately, creating clever point-of-sale material, cooking &nbsp;instructions and a branded box,\u201d he says. \u201cThey even made some videos\u2014if you purchased the recipe box, you would find a special link that showed how to make the recipe.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Send your brand home for the holidays with stocking stuffers and meal convenience. Restaurants have adjusted plans and menus throughout 2020, and the holiday season will be no different. Instead of big dine-in crowds and catering events, operators this year are looking for a new approach. Gift boxes and meal kits could be the solution. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":26753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122,112,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catering-small-business","category-restaurant-bars","category-running-your-business"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.9 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Unwrap Profits with Holiday Gift Boxes and Meal Kits | Gordon Food Service<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unwrap Profits with Holiday Gift Boxes and Meal Kits\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Send your brand home for the holidays with stocking stuffers and meal convenience. Restaurants have adjusted plans and menus throughout 2020, and the holiday season will be no different. Instead of big dine-in crowds and catering events, operators this year are looking for a new approach. Gift boxes and meal kits could be the solution. [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gordon Food Service\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GordonFoodService\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-19T21:11:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-01T14:58:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Holiday-Gift-Box-Meal-Kit-Idea-Center-760x400_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"760\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cody Rivers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cody.rivers@gfs.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GFSDelivers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cody Rivers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Unwrap Profits with Holiday Gift Boxes and Meal Kits | Gordon Food Service","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Unwrap Profits with Holiday Gift Boxes and Meal Kits","og_description":"Send your brand home for the holidays with stocking stuffers and meal convenience. Restaurants have adjusted plans and menus throughout 2020, and the holiday season will be no different. Instead of big dine-in crowds and catering events, operators this year are looking for a new approach. Gift boxes and meal kits could be the solution. [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/","og_site_name":"Gordon Food Service","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GordonFoodService\/","article_published_time":"2020-11-19T21:11:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-01T14:58:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":760,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Holiday-Gift-Box-Meal-Kit-Idea-Center-760x400_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cody Rivers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cody.rivers@gfs.com","twitter_site":"@GFSDelivers","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cody Rivers","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/"},"author":{"name":"Cody Rivers","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#\/schema\/person\/ac2dd585b10d08ce15daca230d897374"},"headline":"Unwrap Profits with Holiday Gift Boxes and Meal Kits","datePublished":"2020-11-19T21:11:29+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T14:58:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/"},"wordCount":454,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Holiday-Gift-Box-Meal-Kit-Idea-Center-760x400_1.jpg","articleSection":["Catering &amp; Small Business","Restaurant &amp; Bars","Running Your Business"],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":["WebPage","CollectionPage"],"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/","url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/","name":"Unwrap Profits with Holiday Gift Boxes and Meal Kits | Gordon Food Service","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Holiday-Gift-Box-Meal-Kit-Idea-Center-760x400_1.jpg","datePublished":"2020-11-19T21:11:29+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-01T14:58:18+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Holiday-Gift-Box-Meal-Kit-Idea-Center-760x400_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Holiday-Gift-Box-Meal-Kit-Idea-Center-760x400_1.jpg","width":760,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/ideas\/unwrap-profits-with-holiday-gift-boxes-and-meal-kits\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Unwrap Profits with Holiday Gift Boxes and Meal Kits"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#website","url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/","name":"Gordon Food Service","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-CA"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#organization","name":"Gordon Food Service","url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GFS-EN-Logo-og-image.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GFS-EN-Logo-og-image.png","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Gordon Food Service"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GordonFoodService\/","https:\/\/x.com\/GFSDelivers","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/gordonfoodservice\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/gordon-food-service\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#\/schema\/person\/ac2dd585b10d08ce15daca230d897374","name":"Cody Rivers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-CA","@id":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9b81a7281ffd8fc2d52ce39faf1be6f131db67bdc3ed5914928324e202f21f7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/a9b81a7281ffd8fc2d52ce39faf1be6f131db67bdc3ed5914928324e202f21f7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cody Rivers"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/cody.rivers@gfs.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38518,"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25469\/revisions\/38518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gfs.ca\/en-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}