How many people have access to a canteen at work ? If so is it full hot food prepared or vending machines ?

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_justtheonce_@reddit

We have a canteen. Can get a full English for like £2.50, it's beautiful. Food isn't anything to write home about. But cheap food is better than no food. We do also have vending machines as the canteen is only open certain times of the day.

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themcsame@reddit

Not at my place. Have been to two other sites within the same company that have a full-on, staffed canteen.

Ours used to have one years back, but was axed to cut costs...

I suspect you'll find that'll probably happen in most places. New building gets built, no expenses spared, staffed canteen, etc... After a while it becomes cost cutting time and suddenly it's just a seating area with a vending machine or two.

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MahatmaAndhi@reddit

We have a canteen. There's a salad bar and a hot food option. The hot food has a vegan dish, a meat variation or a jacket potato. It's about £7.50 with a can of pop. Not bad for London. Usually things like lamb kofta with rice and a side of greens.

I'm on a diet though, so I tend to just bring my own lunch.

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citruspers2929@reddit

I get 3 meals for free at work if I want it! (Boarding school teacher)

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peterchekhov@reddit

Used to before Covid, then when Covid happened they used that as an excuse to close it.

Pity really, I used to have lunch there, especially good when it was raining outside or winter, the food was cheaper as there was no rent to pay and overheads/profit low.

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TheNotSpecialOne@reddit

Yup, I work for a big did conglomerate so get free food/ snacks. The canteen gives free lunch but portions are comically small. I hardly go in to the office now though

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HorrorAccomplished78@reddit

I used to have full roast every day if I wanted for 7pence. That was in 1972 to 1979. All went downhill though. I finished up in a factory with just a coffee machine and no food.

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NixKTM@reddit

Yes, its run by Sodexo, food is pretty poor quality, talking to a delivery driver one day he said the food they use in their canteens in factories is the same food they deliver to prisons i.e. cheap and nasty

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5h0D10n@reddit

Subsidised resturant with breakfast, hot food, sandwich / salad options, snacks, fruit and free full sized coffee machine. You can have a 3 course meal for about a fiver 😁

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Rhubarb-Eater@reddit

Theoretically we can go to the public canteen, but it stops serving at 2pm and I’ve never yet managed to have my break that early 😅

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tomgrouch@reddit

Previously worked for Tesco Canteen provided cereal, bread (for toast), jam, peanut butter, beans, spaghetti hoops, soup, pot noodles, instant pasta, tea, coffee, milk and hot chocolate. Plus various other things that would have been wasted. Microwave, toaster and kettles

Some stores were better than others, but they all provided that at minimum.

Now work for the Ambulance Service. They don't even provide tea and coffee

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NortonBurns@reddit

I work in the film/TV industry. Basic standard is to get full breakfast & lunch, free. Snacks in between.
Quality & variety depend on production budget, but it's a square meal just about every time.

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Downtown-Ad9409@reddit

I work for Tesco and we have a subsidised canteen. Can get a full English in the morning for £1.40, they even do chips if you fancied those with your fried eggs more. 40p for the chips. Lunch menu consists of a snack meal for £1.75 (nuggets and wedges, pasty and chips etc) Or an à la carte option for £3.50 which could be a full roast, Chinese meal with spring onions and prawn crackers, or a dinner kebab with pitta chips and salad etc. I can’t complain.

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Timely_Egg_6827@reddit

That sounds really good

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horseradish_smoothie@reddit

Have a smallish canteen at work open for cooked breakfast and lunch. There's a sandwich / crisps / drinks section with honesty till out of hours.

Haven't used it for years as the prices have been creeping up and there's a greggs and tesco express next door.

Had a full on social club / bar at our old location and they did food. Nothing like scampi and chips and two pints of larger on a Friday afternoon in the sun.

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Aggravating_Cloud657@reddit

We have tap water ( but we are soon to have a water dispenser in the office which is very exciting)

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FornyHucker22@reddit

Asda warehouse had a very good canteen when I worked an agency job years ago. selection of cooked options and deserts

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Reesy@reddit

Yeah I have a big canteen in my workplace, it's really nice too. Fresh hot food made every day.

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Proper_North_5382@reddit

I work in a school. We have a canteen for Lower School (Year 9 to 11, it's still the 3-Tier system here) and Sixth Form has their own canteen. It's all "freshly" prepared food.

We have to pay for our food and they've recently added "staff" tax on, kids get their food tax free. We do get one meal allowance per Lunch duty we're doing a week so that's not too bad. For most, that's one free meal a week, I somehow ended up with two lunch duties so I get two free meals a week.

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Nameisnotmine@reddit

We have a canteen and discounted meals for staff I never go due to my dietary restrictions

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dapperdan8@reddit

Previous job had a subsidised canteen. It was decent quality, could get a full English for £3-4. Current site has nice free vend coffee machines but that’s it. Lack of canteen is a common complaint. Luckily it’s next to a retail park either supermarkets and restaurants. Both jobs engineering / manufacturing based.

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highrouleur@reddit

We've got a mess room (room with tables and a standard oven with 4 hobs, plus a microwave, and crockery and cutlery) .

We generally cook for ourselves, either buying stuff from a nearby little sainsburys or reheating stuff brought from home. There is an onsite cafe that does decent breakfast rolls or things like kofte wraps that are a nice occasional treat. We've also vending machines that no one uses that have pot noodles and a couple of manky sandwiches that I wouldn't want to guess the best before dates on, because as I said no one uses them so I think they get refreshed

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trippykitsy@reddit

We borrow a room from our partner company. Theres a kitchen with not nearly enough mugs and there isn't any milk unless we take it from one of the other floors.

We have our own office which is extremely cramped and has the same problem with not enough mugs.

No hot food. From the borrowed office a cafe is about a four minutes walk and Tesco is a five minute drive, but from the main office you have to walk a good ten minutes to get to a shop.

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da316@reddit

Used to work for arsenal fc and the canteen there was by far the best part of the job. Heavily subsidised so was dirt cheap. Full roast dinner around about £3 permanent salad and sushi bars. Could get a fry up or sarnie in the morning if you wanted too.

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ambergriswoldo@reddit

Aboutb15 or so years ago I worked at a call centre with a pretty good canteen - fresh hot meals or decent packet sandwiches. We’d get 1 free meal voucher each shift but the food was so cheap (like £2) that we’d often all go in on our days off to eat there too.

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catfordbeerclub@reddit

We have a cafe that's open to the public, but is discounted for staff. Only one meat and vegan/vegetarian option available each day. Can be a bit hit or miss

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spiderplant94@reddit

NHS hospital - there is a canteen (and it's pretty good TBF), for patients and staff but we get a 10% discount.

Serves hot food, and salads.

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Distinct-Lion4658@reddit

At my companys main office they have massive canteen serving prepared meals (including discounted options, part of some healthy eating program), a salad bar, pre-made grab and go like sandwiches, dedicated jacket potato section with toppings like chilli.

There's also a small corner shop style shop where you can get snacks, drinks and meal deals.

Also 2 Costas and a Starbucks.

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aIexm@reddit

I work in events within a large-ish organisation and get hot prepared food from Tuesday to Thursdays, and count myself incredibly lucky- whenever we get contractors in they almost don’t believe us even while heading downstairs to the canteen.

Last time I had anything similar was working in retail in the 00s and everything was heavily subsidised. Steak and dauphinois potatoes for a couple of quid.

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Timely_Egg_6827@reddit

Canteen - cheap hot breakfast (about £3 for 5 items) and porridge/bakery options, choice of two hot lunches plus a sandwich bar and 2 soups (about £5 to £10 depending on options). Canteen is cheap for London, staff very nice and been there ages (contract is company renews catering contract but staff are our's and attend away-days etc) and food is very good if eclectic and sometimes themed.

Free unlimited coffee, tea and Cadburys hot chocolate. Canteeen is a massive perk and one reason I don't WFH more.

My partner works for a council and they have a great canteen. £5 for massive helpings. He's vegan and they will prepare special food for him with warning. He came home with big tub of curry from them before Xmas holidays.

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these_metal_hands@reddit

Subsidised canteen. Freshly cooked meals, breakfast and lunch. Also pizzas, baked potatoes, salad bar, deli station and prepackaged sandwitches.

It's pretty good stuff, for the most part.

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courage_the_dog@reddit

I'm in Civil service and we have a canteen with subsidised meals, around £4-5 for a chicken curry for example. Then there are salad and pasta bars, sandwiches, soups etc..

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bmjwilson@reddit

I work in a well known fast food restaurant. We get free meals on our breaks from the ordering of food served by the restaurant.

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EvilTaffyapple@reddit

We have a canteen - free breakfast and lunch.

It has a salad bar, plus multiple hot food options.

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