Free food at work

[Ultralight]

I was amazed when I looked back at all the free food at my work. Lots of bagels, schmears, pretzels, chips, fruit plates, pizzas, etc. get circulated through my workplace for free. Sometimes you have to show up at a retirement party or attend an optional meeting or just walk up to the break room. But the stuff is here.

I have been trying to take full advantage of this in order to save a few bucks on lunches.

Anybody else have free lunch ideas or experiences?

[mschrisgo2]

Hmm, my experience was that I put on "several" extra pounds "eating lunch" from the free food at work... and it was really difficult to break that habit!

[Ultralight]

Hmm, my experience was that I put on "several" extra pounds "eating lunch" from the free food at work... and it was really difficult to break that habit!

Did you have first and second lunch? I mean, did the free food augment your lunch or replace it?

[bae]

Anybody else have free lunch ideas or experiences?

I can have free breakfast, lunch, and dinner at work, usually high-quality home-cooked meals. The only problem is if the alarm goes off, the entire kitchen gets automatically shut down, to keep us from burning down the station when we run off to respond :-)

[freshstart]

the free food at work was usually something an employee had made. At big meetings, a few times a year, we got bagels. Then we got a new CEO and they actually announced that, as a cost savings measure, there would no more food provided at meetings. As if anyone cared about quarterly bagels!

[Ultralight]

I can have free breakfast, lunch, and dinner at work, usually high-quality home-cooked meals. The only problem is if the alarm goes off, the entire kitchen gets automatically shut down, to keep us from burning down the station when we run off to respond :-)

Sweet set-up!

[ApatheticNoMore]

There are free bagels and cream cheese several times a week. There's free fruit some days as well but it goes so fast odds are against getting any, good luck with the fruit, it sounds better than it is considering competition is so fierce. So mostly bagels and cream cheese. It's not the healthiest. Oh there's some free soda I think but soda is one thing I manage to avoid. Free tea and coffee, I do take advantage of the tea. Vending machine is cheap, subsidized I think, but it's junk. Sometimes there is other food left over from someone's meeting or in a meeting, it's pretty tasty, hard to resist. Occasionally someone brings in chocolates, can't resist those either, no don't even ask me to, can not be done. Then a few times a year there is a free lunch or something, I don't turn that down.

But mostly I avoid the free food at work, because I'm trying not to subsist on bagels and cream cheese here.

[Ultralight]

There are free bagels and cream cheese several times a week. There's free fruit some days as well but it goes so fast odds are against getting any, good luck with the fruit, it sounds better than it is considering competition is so fierce. So mostly bagels and cream cheese. It's not the healthiest. Oh there's some free soda I think but soda is one thing I manage to avoid. Free tea and coffee, I do take advantage of the tea. Vending machine is cheap, subsidized I think, but it's junk. Sometimes there is other food left over from someone's meeting or in a meeting, it's pretty tasty, hard to resist. Occasionally chocolates, can't resist those either, no don't even ask me to, can not be done. Then a few times a year there is a free lunch or something, I don't turn that down.

But mostly I avoid the free food at work, because I'm trying not to subsist on bagels and cream cheese here.

For me, I LOOOOOOOVE bagels. Which I hate to admit! So it is hard for me to turn one down, or two...

[pinkytoe]

Yes, once the semester starts at the university where I work, there is free food in abundance. For whatever reason, grad students here require food at every lecture and guest seminar. Feeding them has become an expected thing. It used to be unhealthy stuff like pizza but now mostly comes from Whole Foods or similar. My department has a lot of events with really good fare. I can count on free lunch or breakfast several times a week. Yesterday was roasted squash and mozzarella sandwiches with salad.

[Ultralight]

Yes, once the semester starts at the university where I work, there is free food in abundance. For whatever reason, grad students here require food at every lecture and guest seminar. Feeding them has become an expected thing. It used to be unhealthy stuff like pizza but now mostly comes from Whole Foods or similar. My department has a lot of events with really good fare. I can count on free lunch or breakfast several times a week. Yesterday was roasted squash and mozzarella sandwiches with salad.

Sounds amazing!

[CathyA]

I can have free breakfast, lunch, and dinner at work, usually high-quality home-cooked meals. The only problem is if the alarm goes off, the entire kitchen gets automatically shut down, to keep us from burning down the station when we run off to respond :-)

Man, I sure wouldn't want to have my tummy so full of great food, and then go work like hell. I fear it wouldn't stay down.....or I'd get really sick in the heat. :(

[bae]

Man, I sure wouldn't want to have my tummy so full of great food, and then go work like hell. I fear it wouldn't stay down.....or I'd get really sick in the heat. :(

Correct you are. You need to sort of pace yourself :-)

[bae]

Yes, once the semester starts at the university where I work, there is free food in abundance. For whatever reason, grad students here require food at every lecture and guest seminar. Feeding them has become an expected thing.

My daughter tells me that at her University, there is a "free food app" which provides real-time updates on where the extra seminar/lecture/... food is. The undergrads swarm like locusts when the word goes out.

[jp1]

My daughter tells me that at her University, there is a "free food app" which provides real-time updates on where the extra seminar/lecture/... food is. The undergrads swarm like locusts when the word goes out.

That sounds about like my office. The receptionist sends out an email any time there's leftover meeting food. If one doesn't jump up and run to wherever the food is the instant the email arrives one doesn't get food. (Unless a wilted piece or two of garnishing lettuce counts as food.)

[pinkytoe]

receptionist sends out an email
Exactly the same here. And it's almost always the same staff members (myself included) so we have to laugh.

[SteveinMN]

At work the "free" food usually was so carb-/fat-/sugar-laden and highly-processed that I passed it by -- unless I was having a really bad day.