Nashville is home to great food and a friendly, social culture built on Southern hospitality. For companies to stay ahead in the city’s competitive market, they need to leverage these assets.
By implementing a corporate lunch delivery program, companies can use Nashville’s stellar local restaurant scene to build an office culture that keeps employees engaged and productive. This approach supports talent attraction and retention that can help businesses grow and thrive in the long-term.
Keep reading for a quick rundown of how office meal delivery can benefit your Nashville company, and how to do it right.
With employee meal delivery, you can have food from local restaurants dropped off right in your office each day. Employees all order for themselves, so everyone gets exactly what they want. Ideally, everything will be dropped off at the same time in one unobtrusive delivery, allowing employees to quickly grab their meals, giving them more time to enjoy their breaks. Individual ordering also cuts down on food waste, making it an especially sustainable workplace food solution.
Corporate lunch delivery can help address a number of unique challenges that Nashville companies face. Workplace food programs make it easier to navigate the city’s competitive talent market, ambitious corporate landscape, and highly social culture. Here’s how:
According to the US Census Bureau, Nashville’s population has grown by over 30,000 in the past five years. This growth helped the city’s economy recover after the pandemic, but it has also created an incredibly competitive talent landscape. Nashville hosts major players in multiple industries, and they’re all competing for the same pool of candidates.
This has made it increasingly important for companies to offer competitive benefits and perks to keep and attract qualified employees. According to the Economist, 70% of US workers would leave their current jobs for better benefits and lower salaries. Small steps can go a long way towards retaining your best employees, even when new offers come along.
Providing food in the workplace isn’t just a part of startup culture anymore, it’s a valuable engagement and retention lever. Office food delivery programs provide immediately visible convenience that makes employees feel seen, appreciated, and cared for.
Leaving the office for lunch can eat up valuable time, especially in Nashville. The city is largely car-dependent, doesn’t have a robust public transit system, and the recent population boom has led to significant problems with traffic flow.
Whether they choose to walk or drive to find lunch, employees also lose time traveling to and from the restaurant, not to mention the time they’ll spend waiting in line. If they want to make it back on time, they’ll have to rush through the experience and lose the opportunity to relax and reset that their breaks are supposed to provide. If they do try to take that time to themselves, they’ll inevitably return late.
By starting a corporate lunch delivery program, you can eliminate this inconvenience. Employees can quickly grab their food before going to enjoy their breaks. There’s no pressure, and no rushing. They can take the time to enjoy their meals and unwind, coming back refreshed, energized, and ready to do their best work.
Nashville’s southern tradition and hospitality have shaped the city’s culture, creating a warm, friendly environment. Nashvillians value community and connection, and if they’re not feeling that in the workplace, they’re likely to begin to disconnect from the company’s mission.
With corporate lunch delivery, everything is dropped off at the same time. By encouraging employees to eat lunch at the same time, you give them the chance to interact outside of professional contexts. They gather, share a meal, and get to know each other better.
Not only does this improve office morale, it also helps facilitate cross-team collaboration. Employees become more comfortable sharing ideas and proposing new projects. They come up with creative solutions together and have more open lines of communication, making everything run smoother.
Although corporate lunch delivery can enhance the workplace experience for both employees and employers, it needs to be coordinated thoughtfully in order to deliver the best possible results. Here are a few things to keep in mind when looking for a workplace food partner.
When implementing a food delivery program, it’s important to consider the operational details. All of your employees should get to enjoy the convenience of workplace food. A good partner won’t put strain on your administrative team. Instead, vendor coordination, delivery logistics, and menu selection will all be handled for them.
Look for a lunch delivery partner with well-established routines and procedures and a solid track record. They should have pre-existing relationships with vendors and a high on-time delivery rate.
But a fully-managed program shouldn’t leave you completely in the dark, either. There should be an open line of communication that allows you to address concerns and make changes as needed. Billing should be streamlined and simple, and there should never be any surprises that put strain on your budget.
With such a rich food scene, Nashville employees have high standards when it comes to workplace food. They won’t be impressed by bland, generic food choices. To appeal to their tastes with your corporate lunch delivery program, you need to offer them the flavors they enjoy outside of the office.
The best way to do this is by working with a workplace food partner that recognizes and celebrates the city’s unique food scene. They should have pre-existing relationships with local restaurants. This allows you to bring in the quality, chef-crafted dishes your employees expect without limiting them to the same menu items over and over again.
By bringing in meals from locally owned restaurants, employees can enjoy everything the city has to offer.
Nashville’s corporate landscape is incredibly diverse, with businesses of all sizes across a wide range of industries. They’re all going to have different needs, and a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work.
A good workplace food partner will work with you to tailor the program to your office. They should be able to accommodate a company with 500 employees, one with 50, and everything in between.
Flexibility is also key here. If you’re running a hybrid office, you need to be able to adjust operations day-to-day. If you don’t have anyone in on Fridays, you shouldn’t have to pay for a food program you’re not using. Instead, you should look for a food partner that allows you to customize your program to work with your company’s rhythms.
Even with fully in-person work schedules, the modern workplace is always evolving, and you shouldn’t be stuck having to re-establish your entire lunch delivery program every time something shifts. Instead, a workplace food program needs to be able to grow and change with you.
There are so many great restaurants in Nashville that it’s hard to narrow it down to just a handful of options, but here are some that stand out. The best part? They’re all part of Fooda’s network of over 4,500 local restaurants, making it easy to bring them into your workplace.
Salsarita’s serves fresh, authentic Tex-Mex and Mexican cuisine, including tacos, burritos, bowls, and more. They also have plenty of build-your-own options that allow you to customize to your heart’s content.
Although they specialize in delicious, innovative subs, Bazooka has much more to offer. Their nachos, quesadillas, salads, smoothies, and desserts make for a well-rounded menu packed with simple-yet-delicious flavors. Their more unique dishes, including their hot chicken salad and brisket beef quesadilla, show their Nashville roots in a way that feels truly local.
Carol Ann’s serves all things soul food, including smothered pork chops, fried catfish, meatloaf, and more. While their wings, tenders, and fries are their signature dishes, they also have a rotating menu with different specials every day, ensuring you always have fresh options to choose from.
With award-winning gourmet pies made with only the freshest ingredients, BoomBozz’s extensive menu is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser. While they have classics like margarita and all-meats pizzas, their more experimental dishes are where they really shine. Be sure to try their fire roasted chicken, portobello bello, or tuscan chicken varieties. If you’re not in the mood for pizza, you can always sample their wings or calzones instead.
Fooda makes it easy to bring great local food into the workplace. Our delivery program is designed to be effective, authentic, easy to manage, and flexible. Here’s how it works:
Ready to work with Fooda in your Nashville office? Chat with one or our sales representatives to get started.
What food is Nashville known for?
Nashville is primarily known for its Southern comfort foods, including hot fried chicken, meat-and-three platters, and classic sides. The city is also home to a diverse selection of international cuisines, including Asian, South and Central American, African, and Middle Eastern options.
How do I find reliable corporate lunch delivery?
To source reliable corporate lunch delivery, examine your available options and look at their on-time delivery rates. This will give you a good idea of how often you can expect to see delays with any given partner.
How do I start a corporate lunch delivery program in Nashville?
The first step to launching an employee meal delivery program in Nashville is to select a service model and partner. To pick the best option, determine what features are most important to you, and vet all of your options based on that criteria. Your delivery partner you go with should be able to guide you through the rest of the process.
How long does it take to implement a corporate lunch delivery program?
Corporate lunch delivery program implementation timelines can vary based on provider, but well-established partners, like Fooda, can get your program up and running in a matter of weeks.
How much does a corporate lunch delivery program cost in Nashville?
The cost of an office food delivery program in Nashville depends on a few factors, mainly the number of employees you’re feeding and how you plan to subsidize their meals. Nashville’s lunch prices are roughly on par with the national average, which the Fooda Price Index found to be upwards of $14 per meal. If you want to fully subsidize employee meals, you can plan to pay about $15 per person per day. If that’s outside your budget, you can also opt for partial subsidies, but keep in mind that the higher subsidy you offer, the higher participation and ROI you’ll see.
