A Semi-brief History of the Workplace Cafeteria
A wise employer once said, “Feed them, and they will work.”
All right, maybe no one has made that exact statement just yet, but there is a direct correlation between food and productivity — people do need to eat if they want to do good work. At some point in the twentieth century, employers caught on to that idea and began building cafeterias in their workplaces. When this happened precisely is difficult to pin down, but the idea picked up steam when J.C. Hall of Hallmark noticed that his employees had only expensive local restaurants to eat at during their lunch breaks. In 1923, Hallmark opened its employee cafeteria.
It turned out employees liked having a place where they could eat on the company dime. Grabbing a meal at the company cafeteria didn’t just save them money, either; taking breakfast, lunch, or occasionally dinner in the cafeteria saved them the time they would have spent cooking at home. Employers liked it, too, in part because it kept employees in the building.
Other companies followed Hallmark’s lead, adding cafeterias to their buildings. What wasn’t to love? They kept employees fed, happy, and on the property. The trend likely hit its peak in the mid-2000s, when big tech companies turned their workplace cafeterias into luxury experiences complete with themed menus, banana cheesecakes, and sushi chefs.
Changing Workplace Dining Trends
We can’t talk about the way the workplace cafeteria has changed without bringing up the COVID-19 pandemic and roughly half the country abruptly switching to remote work. Maintaining a cooking staff and a fully-stocked kitchen and eating area has always been expensive, but huge chunks of staff either not coming into the office at all or only visiting sporadically quickly turned many cafeterias into, well, money pits.
As of 2025, a good chunk of the workforce has returned to the office, but many are still remote and still others are working a hybrid schedule — maybe two or three days in the office instead of an entire week. Keeping a cafeteria open five days a week, eight hours a day for reduced and shifting workforce numbers quickly became a matter of diminishing returns. On top of that, many businesses have downsized their facility footprint by moving to smaller buildings. This reduced overhead, but also led to less space to operate a full-scale cafeteria.
In truth, a massive shift in how workplace dining works has been on the horizon for a long time. As early as 2007, experts were raising doubts about the company cafeteria, pointing to increasing costs. Automation and computerized menu services may have reduced the need for service staff, but someone still needed to cook and serve the food, as well as clean up afterward.
Meals as an Employee Benefit
Realistically, even before the pandemic very few businesses could afford the kind of cafeteria scale the tech companies provide, and as the cost of living increases, so too will the costs of running any kind of food service. (It’s no wonder employees really like meal perks: research indicates that employee satisfaction jumps when free food is involved.)
So it makes sense to roll at least some employee meals into a company benefits package. Not having to cook and pack a meal (or spend their breaks scouting for an affordable restaurant) can be a huge weight removed from employees’ shoulders, to say nothing of the money they’ll end up saving. Besides, happy employees are more productive employees.
The message is clear: food is clearly still a draw for potential and current employees, and wise employers will find new ways to provide meals as benefits. So, how can corporations design employee meal programs that keep everyone happy amidst all this reduced space and shifting schedules?
The Increasing Value of Office Catering
Restaurant delivery services have long been a staple of modern life; you open an app, click the meal you want, and it’s delivered to you — usually within the hour. Eating in had never been so delicious.
Scaling that service to meet the needs of a business captures much of that convenience (and tastiness) for office workers. It allows businesses to offer meals as a perk without the massive associated costs and space of a cafeteria; beyond that, the variety available far eclipses what a few on-staff cooks could whip up on a daily basis. Setting up and cleaning up tend to be easier, too.
While it’s an intriguing solution, office catering presents some challenges. Office administrators ordering for groups will need to know their colleagues’ dietary restrictions and preferences; they’ll also have to know who is in the office, who is working from home, and who is fully remote (and how to look after them, too) every single day. Beyond that, there are budgets to consider; bringing food in may be less costly than running a cafeteria, but it is usually not cheap.
The New Office Cafeteria: A Gathering Place
The order is placed, the food has arrived, and the office smells wonderful… but where, exactly, are employees meant to chow down?
As we mentioned earlier, the post-pandemic downsizing has led to smaller workplace cafeterias. Happily, many companies have maintained at least a kitchen and a separate break area where staff can kick back and relax — and not eat at their desks.
Maintaining some sort of place for employees to eat makes sense from a productivity angle, as workers who take lunch breaks tend to be more engaged than those who don’t. Getting away from immediate work can serve as a mental and emotional reset, giving employees an energy boost and new clarity before they get back to the job.
These break areas often end up serving multiple uses in a busy workplace. They can be commandeered for meetings if extra space is needed, but can also host events like company happy hours, trivia sessions, or ice cream socials. Some businesses have looked toward more colorful solutions, turning their cafeteria spaces into showcases for local artists — some may even show off employee artwork!
Beyond that, having a space for employees to just hang out and chat with their coworkers can have an incredible impact on overall morale. Many of us spend upwards of 40 hours a week with our colleagues; building camaraderie and trust with them often leads to better collaboration and contributes heavily to job satisfaction and worker retention.
Cafeterias Pose New Challenges in the Hybrid Workforce
While they provide a place to sit and eat, most workplace cafeterias are somewhat limited in what they can offer employees. They’re producing vast quantities of food for large groups of people, which generally means their menu options are limited and may even be repetitive — for example, a set selection of meals for every day of the week.
Cafeteria chefs may not always be able to take dietary limitations into consideration, meaning some employees may need to look elsewhere for meals. The costs of running a cafeteria — as we discussed above — often mean keeping it open for limited hours that don’t always align with employee needs. Hybrid employees or those on flexible schedules may not be able to take lunch (or even be at the office) when the cafeteria is open.
It’s hardly fair to just deny them food when their other colleagues are benefiting from the cafeteria. In some cases, businesses have turned to catering to fill the gaps a typical cafeteria might leave. Hybrid employees and those with dietary specifications can benefit from this kind of supplementation: they still get the perk of eating on company dime (and time) even if the company cafeteria isn’t open while they’re working or otherwise meeting their needs.
The Future of the Cafeteria
While the size, appearance, and services the workplace cafeteria offers may shift with the times, it’s likely not about to disappear completely. You can still find the large, full-service company cafeterias, but they might offer limited operations — open every three days, for example, and only for a couple of hours at a time.
The current office cafeteria is often more of a gathering place, referred to as “the kitchen” (even if there’s not a fridge) or “the break room.” Workers still hang out and eat their meals there, even if those meals aren’t made on the premises. It’s still a solid contributor to office morale and productivity and will likely continue to do that long into the future.