Employee appreciation week: lunch and catering ideas for every day

Most employee appreciation lunch ideas I see online assume you can cater five days in a row and nobody upstairs will ask why. In the offices I deliver to around Richardson and Plano, the budget is real, the week is short, and the person planning it is doing it between two other jobs. So here is the plan I give those planners: one hot lunch that everyone remembers, four small gestures that cost almost nothing, and a way to reach the people who are never in the building.

The short answer: spend the catering budget on one hot lunch on the day the most people are in the office, and fill the other four days with small gestures that do not need a caterer. Two big tamales per person feeds that main lunch for $10 a head, and a dozen tamales sent home with each team on Friday reaches the shifts and remote people the lunch missed.

I have catered appreciation weeks for a clinic, a school district office, a warehouse team and a software company that had never met half its own staff in person. The ones that worked did less, better. The ones that struggled tried to feed people every day and ended with a fridge full of sandwich trays and a manager who never wants to see a catering invoice again.

The rule before the ideas: one big lunch, four small gestures

Catering five lunches in a week does not feel five times as generous. By Wednesday it feels like a cafeteria. The gesture that lands is the one people did not expect and can talk about later, and that needs contrast: one day where the counter is full of hot food and the rest of the week where the appreciation shows up in other ways.

The money argument is just as strong. Five caterers, five deliveries, five invoices, five chances for something to be late. One lunch done well, with the leftovers going home in foil, costs a fraction of that and takes one online order to arrange. If leadership wants to do more, add a second hot lunch for the night shift or the second location rather than a fourth tray for the same room.

Pick the day by attendance, not by the calendar. If Tuesday is the day everyone is in, Tuesday is appreciation day, even if the official week says Friday. I am closed Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, which for most offices is one less decision to make.

Employee appreciation lunch ideas, day by day

Monday: the announcement and the coffee

Start the week by telling people it is happening. A note from the department head, a printed sign on the break-room door, and a coffee run or a box of pastries from wherever is closest. The point of Monday is anticipation. Say what day the big lunch is and what is coming, so nobody brings a sad container of leftovers that day.

Tuesday: the hot lunch everyone remembers

This is where the budget goes. Two big tamales per person, pork in red salsa and chicken breast in green tomatillo salsa, on the counter with a small card by each. Have the managers serve the line for the first fifteen minutes; that costs nothing and changes the whole feel of the room. One office reviewer on Google put it best when she wrote that everyone there looks forward to tamale day. Offices that want to keep that feeling going monthly can read how office Tamale Day works and place the same order each month.

Wednesday: the long lunch hour

No catering. Instead, give everyone an extra thirty minutes at lunch and mean it. Pair it with something small on the counter, like a bowl of fruit or the good chips. Wednesday is the day people go out together, which is its own kind of appreciation and one you do not have to organize.

Thursday: the handwritten thing

A card on each desk with one specific sentence about something that person actually did. Not “thanks for all you do.” Something like “you fixed the invoicing mess in March and nobody noticed but me.” This takes a manager an hour and is the part of the week people keep. My kitchen is closed on Thursdays, so I could not feed you that day even if you asked, and I think that is fine.

Friday: the take-home dozen

Send a dozen tamales home with each team, department or shift, at $60 a dozen, with the team’s name written on each box. It reaches the people who were on the road Tuesday, the night crew, the front desk that could not leave, and the families at home who hear about the office and never see it. I wrote about how these travel and how to label them in tamale gift boxes for corporate gifts.

How to size and price the main lunch

Every tamal works out to $5, at $30 a half dozen or $60 a dozen, whether you order one dozen or thirty, so the arithmetic is honest. Two per person is a full lunch. Order in whole dozens and round up, because appreciation week is the one week nobody skips the free lunch.

The delivery fee is shown at checkout in our online store, on top of the tamale cost above. Add a dozen per team for Friday and place it as a second order with its own date, so the whole week is two checkouts. Both tamales and their prices are on the menu page, and the corporate and office catering page covers ordering for offices.

Making it feel like appreciation, not just lunch

• Leadership serves. The people who sign the checks stand behind the pans with the serving spoons for the first wave. It is the single most effective thing on this list and it is free.
• Ask first. A one-line poll a week ahead, pork or chicken, tells you the split and tells the staff that someone asked. Most offices come back close to even.
• Label everything. A card by each box: chicken in green salsa, pork in red salsa. Add a line that the masa is gluten-free corn, since that answers the question a few people will not ask out loud. My kitchen is not a certified gluten-free facility, so say that too.
• Reach the people who are not there. Night shift, warehouse, second location, remote. A dozen with their names on it, or a separate order delivered to their site. I described the shift version in catering for night shift and warehouse teams.
• Feed the presenter last and the receptionist first. Whoever cannot leave their post gets a plate carried to them before the line opens.

None of that changes the food. It changes what the food means, which is the whole point of the week.

Small things that make the lunch land

Plan for the food to arrive about thirty minutes before people eat, not thirty minutes before the meeting, so the pans are on the counter and the plates are out when the first person walks in. Put napkins at every seat if the lunch is in a room; it tells people they are meant to sit and enjoy it.

Announce it the way you would announce a guest, not a delivery. “Lunch is from a family kitchen in Plano, made from scratch” is a sentence people repeat. Then let the counter do the talking. A lid coming off a pan of tamales in husks, steam rising, someone saying “oh, real tamales” from across the room. I have watched that moment more times than I can count and it never gets old.

And keep the leftovers. Lids back on, pans in the fridge, labels still attached. Tamales reheat beautifully the next day, which means Tuesday’s appreciation lunch quietly becomes Wednesday’s free lunch for whoever gets in early.

When to book it

For a single office lunch, a week of notice is comfortable and a few days is usually fine. For a whole appreciation week with take-home dozens for several teams, two weeks gives you time to collect the counts and the pork-or-chicken split for each team. If your week falls anywhere near Thanksgiving or Christmas, order as early as you can; those weeks fill first in my kitchen, and the holiday tamales page covers the season.

Every part of the week goes through our online store: pick chicken or pork, a half dozen or a dozen, delivery or pickup, and the date ahead, then pay online. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. Only confirmed orders will be delivered as requested. The same plan works for a school office too; I wrote a version for that in teacher appreciation lunch ideas.

Ready to plan your appreciation week?

Pick the day everyone is in, count the people on site and the teams that should get a take-home dozen, and use the table above. Two tamales per person on the day, chicken in green salsa and pork in red salsa, and a dozen per team on Friday, all from Maggie’s kitchen in Plano. Order online for your employee appreciation week, or call or text (469) 888-8398 with a question first.

Frequently asked questions

What are good employee appreciation lunch ideas on a budget?

Spend on one hot lunch on the best-attended day rather than five mediocre ones. Two big tamales per person, split between pork and chicken, costs about $10 a head and feels like an occasion. Fill the other days with a coffee run, a longer lunch hour, handwritten notes and a take-home dozen per team on Friday, which reaches the people the lunch missed.

How many tamales should I order for an appreciation lunch of 40 people?

Two per person is a full lunch, so forty people need eighty tamales. Round up to seven dozen, which is eighty-four tamales for $420 plus the delivery fee shown at checkout, and the spares cover the people who wander over from another department. Split the order between pork in red salsa and chicken in green tomatillo salsa, and label a plate for anyone who cannot leave their desk.

Can you deliver to more than one location during appreciation week?

Yes, as long as each site is in our delivery area. Many companies have a main office and a warehouse, clinic or second site; place a separate order in our online store for each address, with its own count and date, and each delivery fee is shown at checkout. Kitchen hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9 AM to 2 PM, and I deliver across Allen, McKinney, Fairview, Frisco, The Colony, Plano, Murphy, Carrollton, Addison, Richardson and Far North Dallas.

What about staff who work nights or from home?

A dozen tamales with the team or person’s name on the box travels well and reheats easily, so a take-home dozen on Friday reaches night crews and remote staff who come in that day. For a night shift on site, set their share aside in the fridge with a note on how to reheat it. Either way, count those people in the plan, because they notice most when they are left out.

Are tamales a safe choice for an office with dietary restrictions?

Every tamal I make uses gluten-free corn masa, with pork or chicken breast in salsa and no flour in the filling, which covers the most common request. The kitchen is not a certified gluten-free facility, so someone with celiac disease should know that. Questions about ingredients? Call or text (469) 888-8398 before you order.

How far ahead should I book catering for appreciation week?

A week ahead is comfortable for a single office lunch, and two weeks is better when the plan includes take-home dozens for several teams or deliveries to more than one site. If the week falls near Thanksgiving or Christmas, order as early as you can, since those weeks fill first. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day.