The Importance of Eating Meals at Work

Many office managers, and company CEOs are now seeing that there is a direct relation between performance, attendance, and productivity when the employees remain in the office building and eat their lunches. There is also data that proves that when companies provide a free meal to their employees they get more productivity, even greater attendance, and they get projects that are completed in less time.
When the people in the office leave for work, or eat their lunch at their desk, they are not having fellowship with the other members of the office. This allows people to be distant and to not connect with one another. They do not have any vested interest in the other office members, so they are not able to work with the other employees as easily.

Employees who eat at work eat in teams

When the employees have a cafeteria that they can go to inside their building, they often gather in small groups to eat their meals. The employees share family stories, they get to know one another, and they develop a sense of trust among each other. These people are more likely to participate in projects and meet their deadlines because they are vested in the lives of the other team members and they wish to make the other members of the team proud, or to help each other out.
When companies provide a free lunch for their employees they have almost a 100% attendance in their lunch program. The people employed by the company feel appreciated by their bosses and they tend to work harder for those bosses. The workers want to provide the highest quality work that they can because they feel that the employer appreciates their efforts. These free meals make people feel like they are being treated with kindness.

Work is discussed over lunch, helping meet deadlines

The free lunches allow the team members from different departments to get some valuable face time with each other and discuss ideas, problems, and solutions. They can discuss their deadlines and what tasks must be completed to meet those deadlines. They feel more like a team because they do see each other, and share something in common with the other people in the group.
Office temperaments are better in offices that have employees who eat lunch together in the building. People are slower to anger and more likely to try and understand the point of view of the other workers when they share a meal together.
You can do things like use Copper project management software to help team members connect on an intellectual level, and share the documentation regarding the project, but when you provide the team members the opportunity to break bread together and discuss the project in a relaxed atmosphere you get a greater amount of productivity from each participant.
A lot of companies are starting to include free lunch meals for their employees. Some have free breakfast rolls and coffee in a break room, and some provide free afternoon snacks in a break room. All of these companies report greater productivity from their employees.