Episode summary
Why Food is Becoming the New Center of the Office | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · 8 min · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec · Guests: Matt Miller, Alexis Christoforous, Nihad Rahman
Summary
Food is presented as a core workplace service rather than a perk, and the guest argues that companies are increasingly treating meals as a productivity tool, a culture-building tool, and a way to keep employees onsite. The guest says food has become “the highest ROI investment” employers can make because it boosts morale, helps people collaborate, and keeps workdays moving when lunch breaks are short and schedules are tight.
The conversation centers on ezCater’s model: a technology platform that connects employers with 125,000 restaurants across the U.S. and helps organizations manage procurement, budgets, and ordering at scale. The guest says the value is in making workplace food structured and asset-light, especially for employers that do not want to run kitchens themselves or deal with chaotic multi-vendor logistics.
The guest also says the business is built for more than office workers alone, pointing to warehouses, distribution centers, universities, labs, and sports teams on the road. The guest says the biggest current trend is individualized packaged food delivered at scale, and notes that despite post-COVID office softness, many jobs still require people to be physically present at work.
Key takeaways
- The guest says workplace food is now a must-have, not a nice-to-have, because it can boost morale, productivity, and culture.
- ezCater connects employers to 125,000 restaurants and embeds with procurement and expense systems to manage food programs at scale.
- The guest says the company serves workplaces beyond offices, including warehouses, distribution centers, universities, labs, and sports teams.
- The guest says the biggest trend in business catering is individualized packaged food delivered at scale at a price point that matters.
- The guest says business catering survived COVID and is now thriving even as return-to-office demand has cooled.
Notable quotes
“food, workplace food is becoming no longer a nice to have, but a musthave um to bring in the kind of workforce that you need”
“food is the highest ROI investment that they can make for their employees. It boosts morale, productivity”
“We connect them with 125,000 restaurants across the US and we build meal programs for them”
“there's no chief food officer, right? So, but but but there's a way you want to do it”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts, radio, news. — You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio. — Uh, one of the other benefits that we have working here at Bloomberg is a ton of food. If you've been to our food court uh, up on the sixth floor, you know that we have as many snacks as you could possibly eat.
There is fruit tossed in there though, to be fair. lot of fresh fruit, delicious yogurts, and a food, workplace food is becoming no longer a nice to have, but a musthave um to bring in the kind of workforce that you need. And our next guest is in charge of doing that on a B2B level.
Nihad Ramen joins us, CEO of Easy Cater. Um great to have you in here, also a fellow uh Westchester um resident. Uh talk to us about your business.
I mean, how many um businesses, how many universities, how many organizations are you bringing food to every day at lunch?
Yeah, but the highest level, Matt, we help organizations feed their people at their workplaces. And workplaces can be office buildings, warehouses, distribution centers, universities, labs, even sports teams when they're on the on the road. And food is, you said it so well, food is so central to to the workday, to the workplace culture.
You know, I I'm often reminded what our customers often remind us. They say food is the highest ROI investment that they can make for their employees. It boosts morale, productivity.
It helps you build culture, bring people together, and oh, by the way, food at the workplace is deceptively complex. I mean, imagine if you were standing at a factory floor having to feed 300 workers in a 20-minute lunch break.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- workplace food programs
- hybrid work
- employee productivity
- restaurant ordering platforms
- decentralized vendor spend
Companies and tickers mentioned
- ezCater
Watch the episode
Watch “Why Food is Becoming the New Center of the Office | Bloomberg Businessweek” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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