I feel silly writing this up, but it's draft amnesty week. Caveat: I’ve been a visitor to several EA offices but haven’t worked regularly in any of them, and maybe I'm overly nostalgic about reheated felafel.

Some EA offices have catered lunch or lunch cooked on the premises every day. This is nice, but not every workplace can afford it. 

5+ years ago when everything in EA was lower-budget, the main way EA offices did lunch was to provide sandwich / wrap ingredients. Ops staff would order the groceries, and would put out the spread about 15 minutes before lunchtime and microwave some of the foods. There was a designated time to show up, often 1 pm. 

This method works pretty well for a crowd because you don’t all have to wait for the microwave. It was pretty flexible for different tastes and diets. People who wanted to bring their own food or buy food could still do that, of course.

Standard items I remember:

  • Tortillas
  • Bread
  • Microwave packages of rice
  • Hummus
  • Refried beans
  • Shredded cheese
  • Cherry tomatoes
  • Pre-washed spinach, arugula, or salad mix
  • Avocados
     

Other stuff I found on old grocery receipt emails:

  • Naan
  • Focaccia
  • Olive bread
  • Guacamole
  • Salsa
  • Packaged falafel
  • Quorn meat substitutes of various kinds
  • Marinated tofu
  • Chips / crisps
  • Broccoli florets
  • Sugar snap peas
  • Tabbouli
  • Pasta salad
  • Sprouts
  • Olives
  • Spinach and feta packets (basically mini spanakopita)
  • Various fruits
  • Various frozen meals

This sort of lids for cans makes it easy to put away the half can of beans afterwards.

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Great post. I have always thought that accessible nutritious food would be a very effective altruism project in any place, but particularly I think about it in developed countries. Making it easy and affordable is the key, people mostly take the path of least resistance, and currently that leads to a fast food chain… 

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