Staying Stocked: What Is an Office Pantry?

For as long as there have been offices, food and beverage services of some kind have been needed to keep workers fueled up and performing at their best. Sometimes, that has meant little more than a basic coffee machine and a few snacks left out on a table. In other cases, it’s a full cafeteria with staff and a functioning kitchen.

Let’s take a look at how the concept of an office pantry plays into the operations of many modern businesses. Adding an office pantry to your facility with the help of the experts at InReach is an excellent way to serve your people, improve performance, and hopefully stay ahead of the competition.

What Is an Office Pantry?

For a simple definition, you can think of an office pantry as a designated space where employees can access beverages, snacks, and even meals. This may be referred to as simply a “breakroom,” but a proper office pantry has more to offer than just a place to sit down and get away from a desk for a while.

An Office Pantry Can Deliver Many Benefits

An office pantry is about more than just offering the best office snacks, although that’s certainly nice. There are many other benefits that will make this type of feature more than worth the investment required. Consider:

• Improved Employee Engagement: At the heart of the matter, this is what it’s all about. Good office pantry services will lead to a space that is enjoyable for employees to spend some time when they aren’t busy at their desks or in meetings. Not only will they be able to get some food and a drink, but they’ll also wind up running into workers from other departments, forming relationships, and simply feeling better about working for the organization. Any positive experiences that can be fostered in your building are going to go a long way toward making sure employees give their best effort and want to stick around for the long run.
• Cost Savings: Having pantry services in your office can wind up saving money for both employees and the employer. From the employee’s perspective, an office pantry is a convenient and affordable way to get food that they would otherwise have to drive to reach—and then pay for when they get to the destination. This way, they save on gas and food spending, get the snacks and drinks they need to make it through the day, and can get back to work. For an employer, investing in an office pantry makes sense because it cuts down on wasted time throughout the day. If the time that your employees would have spent seeking out food is now spent being more productive and working toward important objectives, this endeavor will be a huge win in the long run.
• Health and Wellness Boost: In many offices, the food options that are available are less than healthy choices. There is nothing wrong with having a few fun treats around, but having healthy food to fuel your teams is a better option for everyone involved. A good office pantry that is filled with fresh foods like fruit and other healthy snacks is an excellent way to help everyone stay on track. From employees who are already health-conscious to those who would like to make some progress personally in that area, you’ll be pleasing everyone at the same time.

Examining the Options

One of the many great things about office pantries is how they can be completely customized to perfectly match the needs of any office. Whether your office has people with specific dietary restrictions or you happen to have taste preferences in one direction or another, the pantry can be set up to make sure as many people as possible can partake.

As a starting point, you’ll want to include a beverage station that has some fundamental choices for daily consumption. Of course, most offices run on coffee, so that one is going to be non-negotiable. Additionally, tea is popular, and it’s an easy and affordable offering to add. There should also be clean, cool water available for everyone to stay hydrated throughout the work day.

Beyond those beverage basics, you might also choose to add things like sodas and juices. Non coffee drinkers will appreciate having plenty of options to pick from, including some that provide a bit of a caffeine buzz to stay sharp throughout the day. 

As far as snacks go, the sky is the limit. Many office pantries are stocked nicely with a range of healthy options such as nuts, granola bars, and yogurt. Also, fresh fruit and vegetables are excellent choices and will be greatly appreciated by many employees. This is a big break from what they are probably used to getting out of a standard vending machine, after all. Of course, there is still room to feature some fan favorites like candy bars and cookies – as with the caffeinated drinks, these snacks are another way to deal with the midday crash. 

Finally, it’s important to note that complete meals can also be created with an office pantry setup. Pre-made sandwiches, packaged salads, and dressings are excellent in this application. If you’d like to offer hot food, meal kits that can be placed in a microwave to be heated up are popular and come in many different types of cuisine.

It’s entirely up to you and the leadership in your organization to determine what mix of foods will be offered in the pantry. Working closely with the employees themselves to find out what they would like to have available and what they could go without will also be a big help. You don’t need to stress too much at the start about getting it just right; you can take feedback along the way and make tweaks to the inventory in the pantry to make sure it’s dialed in to match employees’ needs and desires.

Some Important Design Considerations

Beyond the food that makes up the pantry, there are also considerations regarding the design of the space itself. Where is it going to be located, and how big will it be? In some offices, those answers are obvious—but not in all cases. You’ll want to spend some time carefully thinking through design decisions and getting help from a team like the one at InReach before the project goes into action. We work directly with clients to customize pantry designs, include branding elements, choose finished and furniture, and more.

The starting point for your design process is your available budget for the job. If you have a small budget, you might be forced to do little more than convert an existing break room into a more functional office pantry. That’s still a worthwhile project, but it won’t take on the same scope or scale as a job that has more money available. With a larger budget, you can do some remodeling and create an appealing, welcoming space that is open, bright, and comfortable.

There is also the matter of accessibility to consider to make sure all employees can use the space equally. If you have employees with mobility limitations, for instance, remember to keep that in mind during the design phase. In fact, that’s important even if you don’t have such employees currently, as you might in the future and must comply with regulations.

Finally, talk to your employees about what they want from this kind of space. Do they want some entertainment like music or a television mounted on the wall? Or would they prefer a quiet, calm area where they can go to have some peace for a short break during an otherwise hectic day? Get as many ideas as possible from the people who will be using the space and come up with a design that checks these boxes.

Start on Your Big Upgrade Today

What are the benefits of office pantries? There are too many to count. The closer you look at how an office pantry works and the many benefits it can deliver, the more obvious it becomes that this is a feature you should be including in your operational plan. With the help of InReach, an industry leader in this space, you’ll be able to easily and affordably develop an office pantry that serves your needs and fits your budget. We can also host quarterly events like tastings, pop-ups, cultural celebrations, and more. Take a moment now to get in touch and learn more. Keep employees happy and productive with delicious food options right in your office pantry!