ezCater is reinventing the lunch hour with new food benefit

The employee break room is going to look vastly different in a post COVID-19 world.

Pre-COVID, more than a third of employers offered free meals, snacks and drinks, according to the Society of Human Resource Management. This popular benefit was highly valued by employees too: 48% of employees said company perks like free snacks are an important consideration when choosing a new job, according to Peapod, a grocery delivery service.

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Not only does free food boost happiness, but it keeps employees productive and engaged, says Diane Swint, head of marketplace at ezCater, a corporate catering platform. As employers retool their workplace for the post-COVID era, finding safe ways to continue these perks is high priority.

“The closest way to get to your employees’ hearts is through their stomach,” Swint says. “It really helps to show your employees that they matter and that you’re willing to help them out by keeping them safe and making sure their food is safe.”

Read more: Food for thought: Nutrition programs spike employee productivity

In response to COVID, ezCater launched Relish, which provides individually packaged meals from local restaurants. Employers can decide how much of the meal to pay for, reducing costs and waste.

“It takes all the guesswork about who's coming into the office and who's not,” Swint says. “However many people coming into the office can just order their food on the way in and employers can choose their subsidy. There’s no food or money wasted.”

The meals are also a way to encourage more employees to come back and collaborate in an in-person environment. While the majority of employers plan to implement a hybrid work model, free lunch can foster a sense of community, Swint says.

“With all the hybrid policies, the time you're going to be in the office is pretty limited. So why not make it easy to eat safely at the office and make sure that collaboration is happening with people when they are in the office,” she says. “Free lunch brings teams back together to learn how to reacclimate to the office environment.”

Swint says 33% of their employer clients have increased their food budgets for 2021. Investing in these benefits now will have a positive impact going forward.

“Employers may be spending more but they’re finding it’s paying off in dividends because of that in-person collaboration,” she says. “When employees go back to the office, they’re there to collaborate and they’re there to be highly productive. Bringing food in a way that’s customized and safe is a smart thing to do.”