Anyone searching for this usually does not want a vending machine. Something is wrong on site: people drive off in the middle of the day, the new shift finds nothing, or the canteen runs three hours a day while the building is open for twelve. Here are the five common ways to provide food, and what each one solves.
Anyone who has brought no food and finds nothing on site leaves the premises. Do the sum yourself: driving, waiting, driving back. On most business parks you lose half an hour rather than fifteen minutes, and rarely does only one person go.
A second cost appears on no invoice. Whoever finds nothing does not eat, or eats whatever happens to be in the machine, and you only see that in the afternoon of a shift. What drives the visible cost of a smart fridge is covered under what a smart fridge costs.
Which fits depends on the number of people, the hours they are on site and what is nearby.
| Solution | Solves | Costs you | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Own canteen | A proper hot meal at fixed times | Staff, space, fixed opening hours | Large sites with one clear lunchtime |
| Caterer or sandwich service | Fresh food without your own kitchen | Daily ordering, fixed delivery time, waste | Offices with predictable attendance |
| Meal vouchers or a meal allowance | Spending power, not supply | An amount per working day per employee | Sites with real shops close by |
| Traditional snack machine | The afternoon dip | Little, but it does not solve lunch | An extra, never the basis |
| Smart fridge | Proper meals at any hour | Purchase, rental or lease, plus restocking | Sites with no canteen or long hours |
The last row is what we make, so read it with that in mind. If your people eat a hot meal together at fixed times and your kitchen is running, a canteen is simply better, and we will say so. What meal vouchers do and do not solve, and when you are better off having meals delivered, is covered separately.
Pasta, curries, soups and salads that replace a lunch or a shift meal. They are heated up on site.
For anyone doing physical work or training after work. Enough protein not to be hungry again straight after the break.
Possible in the range, so a mixed team is not left half outside the solution.
If you mainly want to focus on healthy and high-protein food, see also healthy eating at work.
Rules on eating areas, drinking water and meals differ from country to country. In many places an employer must provide somewhere suitable to eat and access to drinking water, while meals themselves are not required. Check the exact obligations with your health and safety adviser, occupational health service or employment adviser; they can also depend on your sector.
It varies widely, because you are really choosing who pays for which part. A canteen costs staff, space and fixed hours. Meal vouchers cost per working day per employee. With a fridge you buy, rent or lease, you pay for the unit and the restocking, and employees pay for their own meal, possibly with a subsidy from you.
Below fifty people it depends entirely on the hours and the surroundings. Forty people on shifts or on a site with no shops get more out of it than a hundred people on office hours on a high street. That is why the site check also asks about hours and what is nearby.
That can stay as it is; the lunchbox does not need replacing. The fridge covers the days it goes wrong: forgotten lunch, a long day, a shift stepping in, a new colleague who does not know the area. That is usually a smaller share of days than people think, but they are the days someone leaves the site.
Yes. In mixed teams that is often exactly why an earlier solution did not work: if part of the team cannot take anything from it, it never becomes anyone’s habit. Halal, kosher, vegetarian and vegan are part of the possible ranges, alongside fresh meals and high-protein meal preps.
Eight short questions about your site: how many people, which hours, what is there now and what is nearby. We call you back with our answer, even if it is “it does not pay for you”.
Takes about 90 seconds · no obligation · no contact details until the last step