Survey sites offer a lot of rewards, making them some of the best choices for people to make a little side money to help them afford entertainment each month.

In addition to earning cash, Amazon gift cards, or even merchandise, you can usually opt for one of several gift cards.

It’s common for survey sites to offer at least a few restaurant or food gift cards that can help you afford your monthly groceries or an occasional dinner out.

Either way, it helps you keep your budget on track.

If you’re looking to use survey sites to help you pay for food, then you’ve come to the right place.

This article talks about the types of gift cards you can commonly find through survey sites and what panels offer them.

Taking Online Surveys for Free Food

When we talk about taking surveys for food, we’re talking about using your points or accumulated cash earnings to cash out for a food-related gift card.

Most survey sites nowadays offer at least one or two food options for their rewards along with favorites like PayPal cash, checks, or iTunes gift cards.

Getting food gift cards can be a great way to save up for special occasions, like date night, celebrating someone’s birthday, or taking the kids out for a treat.

They can also help you afford your daily lunches for work or allow you to grab an occasional breakfast out before you head to work for the day.

Eating out can get expensive, so having a few gift cards in hand can help you save a little bit of money while still treating yourself once in a while.

And survey sites are a fun way to earn them!

You’ll usually only spend a few minutes on each survey and, if you use these sites regularly, you can keep stacking your points to earn gift cards month after month.

Some sites don’t offer as many rewards as others, but most have at least a few options to choose from.

Others have full catalogs of reward options that include a wide range of some of the most popular restaurant gift cards.

Just be aware that, if you choose a physical gift card, it could take a few weeks to arrive.

Electronic cards are a quicker option, but not all restaurants offer this type yet.

You can always read through a site’s FAQ or help section before requesting a payment to see about how long you should expect to wait to get your card.

In addition to restaurant-specific gift cards, there are some other rewards that can get you free food, too, if you’re using the right survey sites.

Keep reading to find out how.

How to Get Free Restaurant Gift Cards

If you’re looking for a free Starbucks gift card survey or a survey site that’ll reward you with gift cards to your other favorite restaurants – whether it’s fast food or a sit-down spot – you shouldn’t find it very challenging to do so.

These sites exist all over the web.

Starbucks is definitely a leading reward for survey sites, probably because of the pure popularity of the coffee chain, but you can also find gift card rewards to places like Applebee’s, Burger King, Tim Horton’s, Chili’s, and Buffalo Wild Wings.

Some survey sites even offer a Restaurant.com gift card that lets you pick where you want to go to eat and use your money there.

Restaurant gift cards are the most straightforward way to get rewarded with some free food.

Just pick the card for the place you want and wait for it to arrive in the mail.

Here are a few panels where you can find restaurant specific or Restaurant.com gift cards:

• MyPoints – Applebee’s, Longhorn Steakhouse, Boston Market, TGI Friday’s, Omaha Steaks, and several more
• MySoapBox – Olive Garden, Starbucks, Red Lobster
• PrizeRebel – Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Restaurant.com, Chipotle, Burger King, plus several more
• Swagbucks – Outback Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse, Panera Bread, The Cheesecake Factory, Red Robin, and more
• Tellwut – Starbucks, Subway, Domino’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and more
• Toluna – On the Border, The Cheesecake Factory, Chili’s, Starbucks

Where to Find Grocery Store Gift Cards

Another way to earn free food with surveys is through gift cards to your favorite grocery stores!

Whole Foods and Kroger’s are two gift cards I’ve seen frequently as rewards on survey panels, but a few random ones pop up sometimes, too, that might be more specific to your location.

These cards are great when you need a little help each month buying groceries (who doesn’t?) or want to have the option to spend your card on some other non-food items, too, like shampoo or toothpaste.

Where to find grocery store gift cards:

• InstaGC – Whole Foods
• PrizeRebel – Whole Foods
• Product Testing USA – Whole Foods

Get Food from Pharmacies

Pharmacy gift cards are rewards that most people wouldn’t think of when they want to buy food but think about your local pharmacies – they usually have at least a few food choices available.

Pharmacies can be really helpful when you don’t have time to get to the grocery store or money for a big shopping trip.

Instead, you can head to CVS or Walgreens and pick up a few essentials that you might need to get you through the week or the next couple of days.

They’re also handy when you just need one or two ingredients you might not have to make dinner tonight and need to grab them quickly.

They even have snacks and lunch meats you can buy to pack lunches for the kids for school!

Several survey panels offer gift cards for popular chain pharmacies, with CVS being among the most common rewards.

Here’s where to find pharmacy gift cards:

• LifePoints Panel – CVS
• PrizeRebel – CVS
• Tellwut – CVS
• Valued Opinions – CVS

Survey Panels That Give You Walmart or Target Gift Cards

Walmart and Target are two places for which you’ll commonly find gift cards as rewards on survey sites.

Most of these stores have food sections where you can stock up on snacks, pantry items, and even some meats and refrigerated or frozen goodies, so gift cards to these places can come in handy for grocery shopping or quick fill-in trips.

Plus, if you don’t necessarily need the cash this month for food but could use it for other household items, you can still use your gift cards to help out with that!

Walmart and Target are known to have just about everything you could need for your home, so you definitely have a lot of options at your fingertips when you have gift cards for either store.

Where to get Walmart and Target rewards:

• MySoapBox
• Points2Shop
• PrizeRebel
• Swagbucks
• Tellwut
• Toluna
• Valued Opinions
• YouGov

Earning Gift Cards for Wholesale Clubs

Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale are two wholesale clubs you’ll sometimes find rewards for in survey panels.

These clubs require an annual membership, but members are eligible to save a lot of money on products you can buy in bulk from the stores.

If you have a large family – or at least a large freezer to store bulk items in – then these clubs can put a lot of cash back in your pocket while grocery shopping.

These gift cards can really come in handy during your large grocery trips.

Earn wholesale club rewards here:

• Points2Shop – Sam’s Club/Walmart
• PrizeRebel – Sam’s Club
• Swagbucks – Sam’s Club

Get Amazon Gift Cards to Buy Food With

Over the years, Amazon has been delving into the food industry, too, with its services like Prime Pantry and Amazon Fresh.

Prime Pantry lets you shop for household and grocery items, fill up a box with them, and pay just one low shipping price to get everything delivered to your home.

Amazon Fresh is a newer service that’s available in select cities that allows you to have fresh groceries you order on Amazon delivered to your doorstep.

You are allowed to use your Amazon gift cards with either service, as well as regular Amazon purchases, so taking surveys for Amazon gift codes or gift cards can definitely be worth your effort.

Survey sites that offer Amazon gift cards

• Branded Surveys
• MySoapBox
• Opinion Outpost
• PrizeRebel
• Swagbucks
• Tellwut
• Toluna
• Valued Opinions

Other Ways to Get Free Food from Surveys

If you get a little creative, you can even find some other ways to get free food from your survey-taking hobby.

One way is by getting PayPal cash, which is a reward that most survey sites offer nowadays.

PayPal is great because you can use it for whatever you need to.

Just link a bank account or a debit card to your account and transfer your cash over to use for what you need, including food at a restaurant or a trip to the grocery store.

You can also opt for a VISA prepaid gift card at a lot of survey panels.

Again, this is a card that you can use however you want – it works just like cash.

Another option is a Tango gift card.

Tango lets you use your gift card to purchase a gift card from its huge catalog of partnered retailers.

So, say you have a $25 Tango gift card.

You can use that to look through the catalog of available cards and purchase, say, a $25 Starbucks card instead.

A few survey sites are using Tango because it’s a great way for people to choose exactly what they want for rewards.

Panels that offer other ways to earn food rewards:

• Branded Surveys – VISA Prepaid, PayPal
• MySoapBox – Tango
• OneOpinion – VISA prepaid cards
• Opinion Outpost – PayPal
• Pinecone Research – PayPal, VISA prepaid cards
• PrizeRebel – PayPal, VISA prepaid cards
• Survey Junkie – PayPal
• Tellwut – Tango
• Toluna – PayPal
• YouGov – VISA Prepaid

Don’t Forget to Take Customer Satisfaction Surveys!

Sometimes, you can even earn rewards – like cash! – just for being a loyal customer with a grocery store or restaurant.

Several places offer customer satisfaction surveys that you can take after you’re done shopping or dining.

These surveys are usually online or over the phone and take just a few minutes to complete.

You’ll answer some questions about your visit and enter your basic information (name, email address, mailing address, phone number) so the company has a way to contact you if you win.

Usually, restaurants and stores offer $100 or more to winners, who are usually people who took the survey and their names got randomly drawn as winners.

Although you won’t be guaranteed a prize for taking a survey, spending just a few minutes after each shopping trip or dining experience can boost your chances of raking in some cash just for taking surveys.

You can usually find these surveys on the back of your receipt or printed on a separate piece of receipt paper when the cashier or waiter hands you your receipt.

Surveys That Give You Free Stuff, Like Food! Final Thoughts

Getting free food by taking surveys is completely possible.

Restaurant gift cards, grocery store gift cards, and even Amazon and PayPal cash can all get you one step closer to saving on your food bill each month.

As with any survey reward, though, just remember that you may need to wait a few weeks to get mailed gift cards.

If at all possible, try to choose electronic gift codes when given the choice.

They’re much faster to process and receive, so they can get you saving money faster!

Keep your survey panel profile updated on each site, too, to make sure you’re getting relevant survey invites according to your demographics.

This simple step can help you maximize your earnings on each survey site you’re a member of.

Know someone who loves dining out or wants to save money on shopping trips?

Be sure to share this post with them so they’ll know where to go!