A few months ago, we wrote a blog post about how providing your employees some nice perks — such as daily or occasional meals and snacks — boosts morale, improves productivity and helps with retention. We all know that these past several months of juggling remote working with parenting and caring for other family members have left many employees stressed and exhausted. Now that some will be returning to the office with the recent loosening of Bay Area COVID-19 restrictions, there is no better time than now to welcome them back with a catered event!
How to Easily and Safely Host a Welcome Back Event In or Out of the Office
Like many businesses, our team here at Off the Grid has had to adjust our service offerings in recent months. We were already well-positioned to organize, prepare and deliver mobile food experiences using our partner network of 320+ food trucks and restaurants — so it wasn’t a far leap to create new programs to help employers feed their homebound employees during the pandemic. We created OTG @ Home offering as a way for employers to show their love to remote workers. We also leveraged our expertise and proudly provided relief to food insecure Bay Area residents and wildfire-affected communities. We’ve become experts at providing services and meals that follow COVID-19 specific safety protocols.
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Choose a Meal / Time of Day:
Now that some employees are heading back to the office, we’ve got some great ideas for how to welcome them back with safe, delicious snacks or meals. With a few clicks or a quick phone call, we can arrange just about any welcome back event you have in mind!
Breakfast Ideas: Many nutrition experts say eating a good breakfast is one of the best things we can do for our energy and alertness, so what better way to kick off the first day back than with a delicious breakfast? Fuel your employees with breakfast burritos, bagels with a schmear, healthy refreshing Açai bowls, doughnuts or fruit-loaded smoothies — and of course, a gourmet coffee bar! And you don’t have to worry about your remote workers feeling left out — we can arrange to have breakfast delivered to their homes.
Lunch Ideas: If you’ve ever watched the blockbuster film Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner, one of its most memorable quotes is, “If you build it, he will come.” Well, if you can imagine a cuisine or meal, we can most likely make it happen! BBQ is always a lunchtime fave, but if sandwiches are a better bet, we can delight your employees with gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, sliders, burgers or cheesesteaks. For a more international flare, offer your employees Asian Fusion, Latin American, Indian, Korean, French, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Thai or even Russian cuisine.
Afternoon Snack / Happy Hour Ideas: What better way to take a break or end the workday with spicy chicken wings? Or if something sweet sounds better, a gelato, smoothie or dessert bar will brighten anyone’s afternoon. We can even arrange a fabulous celebratory Happy Hour with innovative alcoholic and nonalcoholic cocktails.
Dinner: Instead of your employees having to scramble to make dinner when they arrive home after their first day back, send them home with full bellies. Celebrate the end of the first day with a savory meal — just a few to consider: comfort food, fried chicken, Italian, tamales or Mediterranean.
Consider a Themed Event
Whether you’re showing your love to remote workers, in-office or both, change things up a bit and choose a theme for your free meal perk. Our Off the Grid team has always supported small businesses, and we made a special effort to support Black-owned businesses as the pandemic ramped up. You can show your support with a “Black-owned Businesses” theme, and Black-owned restaurants and food trucks will prepare all the meals.
A few other theme ideas:
– San Francisco Female Chefs: businesses run by female owners and chefs
– Best of Bay Area BBQ: no explanation needed!
– Exploring Asia: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Filipino, Indian, Nepalese, Thai food trucks or meals
– Around the World in One Day: Food from four continents: North America, South America, Europe & Asia
– Latin Fiesta: cuisine from Argentina, Peru, Mexico, Chile & Cuba
– Island Spirit: Caribbean & Cuban food
– Best of Bay Area Sushi: no explanation needed!
– Try Something New: select from our eclectic selection of cuisines your employees might not know, such as Nepalese, Russian, Singaporean, Portuguese or Guatemalan
– Celebrate Diversity: meals from BIPOC-owned (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) businesses
As you can see, if you can dream it, we can build it! We can organize a catered event for any size group — and have meals prepared and delivered safely. Our army of food trucks will park outside your place of business whenever you want them there. Food trucks are one of the safest ways to prepare and serve food during a pandemic because they require far fewer employees to run, reduce customer contact, and park far enough apart to adhere to social distancing.
Holidays at Home
If arranging a welcome back event doesn’t work for you now, consider our Holidays at Home service offering. We can help you create a magical and memorable way for you and your employees to celebrate the holidays from your respective homes, with an at-home delivered experience.
Contact us to learn more here.
