Hearth Display Launched a Meal Planning Feature and Now I Use It Every Day
One of Hearth Display’s most requested features was recently launched: Hearth Display finally launched its integrated meal planning feature on May 14, 2025. I’ve been using it for a month now, and it fits in well with the set of features I regularly use to organize my family.
Hearth Display is a family management tool that helps parents manage their calendars, schedules, and to-do lists. It seemed only natural that the tool’s services would include meal planning, but the feature wasn’t officially available for more than a year after the product’s launch. When I first installed my Hearth , I did what many other new Hearth owners have done: I Googled “Hearth Display meal planning” to see if I missed the feature, but all I found were comments and forums with other users lamenting the lack of a meal planning option, as well as Reddit threads offering various clunky workarounds . For those debating whether to buy Hearth Display or Skylight Calendar to manage their family , the integrated meal planner was a selling point for Skylight.
But now Hearth Display has a new dedicated tab called Meals (refresh the app if you don’t see it; your Hearth should update automatically). The Meals tab serves two obvious purposes: first, you can organize family meals for the week and plan your grocery shopping accordingly; and second, everyone can learn what to expect at meals by checking out the menu themselves. It’s another small step toward learning independence, which is one of my favorite benefits of having a digital family planner. When someone has a family question—“What time is workout?” or “What’s for dinner?”—they get to find the answer themselves.
How My Family Uses Hearth’s Meal Planning Feature
Hearth’s meal planning feature has categories for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, though I only use the dinner category. Writing down every meal would be too tedious to be useful, but my family gets used to brainstorming their weekend dinner suggestions to plan for the week ahead.
Similar to to-do lists and calendar events, the meal planning feature allows users to assign a task to a specific family member’s profile, including color-coding meals if needed. I typically assign each meal a broader “Family” label, but I see a future where I more carefully assign each meal to whoever is cooking that day. After planning my dinners for the week, I go to the grocery list and add what I need .
Other meal planning features include adding an extra recipe link and notes for each meal.