The office is airy. It's bright. The ceilings soar. Industrial light fixtures hang from exposed metal girders. A white reception desk topped with brushed steel rises from spotless wood flooring. In the waiting area, two enormous, deep leather chairs promise to make any wait time incurred feel like a trip to the spa. A state of the art kitchen stands towards the back opposite a play area where two calculatedly disheveled young men engage in a casual game of ping-pong. A similarly styled colleague sways gently in a nearby wicker swing observing the afternoon match. The clack of fingertips tapping on computer keys wafts through the doorway of a large open room filled with round desks, monitors and multitudes of 'team members' staring intently at screens. Welcome to the new age work world where all the comforts of home are at your fingertips, including your meals.
Free meals make employees happy. And happiness translates into increased productivity. Healthy food choices matter too. "Many studies show that eating healthier foods leads to more activity, more concentration, more energy and better overall health," says Glassdoor spokesman Scott Dobroski. "Racing to the nearby deli can also eat up time that might otherwise be spent chatting business with colleagues over in-house cuisine."
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| Typical donation from 1st year (2009) of our 1st tech company ever: Zynga. |
All this in-house meal service makes for a Food Runners bonanza in the form of leftovers upon leftovers upon leftovers -- day in, day out. From well established megasaurs like
Twitter,
Zynga and
Cisco Meraki, who serve in state-of-the-art corporate cafeterias, to smaller firms like
Open DNS (described above)
Udemy,
Zephyr Health,
ZenPayroll,
Sauce Labs and
Venmo just to name a few, who order in catered meals on a regular basis.
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| Typical Cisco/Maraki donation |
"We held a mini-hackathon yesterday and it was impossible to know how many people would show up," stated the office manager at a sleek SOMA start-up. Result:75 individually wrapped sandwiches donated to Food Runners.
"We order catered lunch daily," explains MR from a start up on the other side of Market. "There are 47 people in the office and we order for all 47 everyday. But then people get called to away to lunch meetings or are on a diet or just don't care for the meal du jour. I'm so glad that Food Runners can get the excess food to where it's needed." Result: 3-5 trays of meal o' day donated to Food Runners.
"I prepare lunch every day for a number equivalent to 90% of our total workforce," remarks the head chef at a corporate cafeteria of a large, well-known company. "There is no way of knowing in advance how many employees will eat in-house on a given day and how many will go out. I can't be caught without, so there are always leftovers." Leftovers indeed. Result: an average of 10-20 trays (equivalent to 50-100 meals) donated to Food Runners daily, M-F.
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| 20 trays looks like this! |
Starting at around 1:30 every weekday afternoon, the tech company pick up requests flood in fast and furious. These requests are in addition to the already established standing pick up orders at firms like
NerdWallet,
Crowdtilt,
Heroku and many more. All in all, Food Runners is picking up and delivering an average of 500-750 meals from tech companies on a daily basis. Wow! And the food... the food is gurrrrrr-REAT!!! When San Francisco's tech companies call Food Runners, they are shining stars in taking good care of their community. Food Runners recipients like
City Team, who serves free dinner, Tu-Sat to anyone who shows up at their doorstep located in the heart of the 6th Street corridor, loves it when a Food Runners pulls up laden with tech company leftovers. Food Runners and San Francisco's tech companies: a partnership made in heaven!
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| Food Runners Cargo Bike Full of Tech Company Donations |
Does your company serve in-house meals? What's happening to the leftovers? A simple phone call to
415-929-1866 will keep your company's food out of the garbage and into the mouths of San Franciscans in need. It is estimated that 197,000 people in San Francisco struggle each day to feed themselves and their families. Food Runners is part of the solution. Tell everyone you know.
