How to set up a monthly office lunch program in one email

A monthly office lunch program sounds like a project, and it is not. It is one decision about a date, a headcount and a budget, written down once and repeated every month. I have fed a lot of these from my kitchen in Plano, and the ones that last all started the same way: somebody decided to stop planning lunch from scratch every single time and wrote it down once.

The short answer: To start a monthly office lunch program, pick a recurring day, count the people who are usually in, set a per-person budget, and make one person responsible for placing the same order each month. At Maggie’s, two big tamales per person is a full lunch, so 30 people is five dozen at $60 per dozen, or $300 in total, ordered in our online store for delivery or pickup and paid online.

Below is the plan itself, the sizing math I use, and the handful of decisions that separate a program that runs for years from one that quietly dies after the third month.

Why one owner beats a lunch committee

Every office I feed that has a lunch that works has one person who owns it. Not a committee, not a rotating volunteer, not a poll every month. One person, one caterer, one recurring calendar event. The poll is where lunch programs go to die: twelve people vote, nobody wins, and the office manager ends up ordering sandwiches again because it is Tuesday and the meeting is at noon.

A repeat order fixes that in three ways. The order is already written: the same dozens, the same split, the same address with your suite and loading dock. The headcount only needs a nudge, not a rebuild. And the paperwork looks the same every month, so accounting stops asking questions. My office catering and Tamale Day page describes how offices order from my kitchen, but the mechanics are the same for any caterer worth keeping.

One office reviewer wrote that everyone there looks forward to tamale day. I did not pay for that sentence. It is simply what happens when lunch arrives on the same day every month and people can plan around it.

The one-page plan that sets it up

Here is the plan I wish every office manager wrote down. Copy it, change the numbers, and keep it where the next person can find it. It takes four minutes to write and it saves you an hour every month afterward.

Monthly office lunch, Plano office. Owner: Dana at the front desk.

Day: first Wednesday of each month, food at the office between 11:30 and 11:45 AM.
Headcount: usually 28, sometimes 35 on all-hands days. Check the count the Monday before.
Budget: about $10 per person, so two tamales each.
Split: half pork in red salsa, half chicken in green salsa to start.
Dietary: two people avoid gluten, one does not eat pork.
Delivery: Suite 210, visitor parking is on the north side.
Ordering: Maggie’s online store, delivery, paid online on the company card, placed no later than noon the Tuesday before.
Records: forward the order confirmation to our accounts payable inbox with our PO number.

That is the entire program. Notice what the plan does: it sets a day, a time, a number, a budget, a split, the exceptions and the payment path. Every question that would otherwise bounce around the office is answered once. The ordering line follows my kitchen’s rule: Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. Only confirmed orders will be delivered as requested. I wrote a longer piece on how to write a catering request, and this plan is that advice in its shortest form.

If your office avoids gluten in any real numbers, write it into the plan too. My tamales are made with gluten-free corn masa, and knowing early lets you plan the split so nobody is left out.

How to size a monthly office lunch program

Two tamales per person is lunch. Mine are big; reviewers use the word huge, and they mean it. Three is dinner. One or two is right if someone is bringing a salad or sandwiches. I size every office order at two per person, rounded up to whole dozens, because the extra few are what save you on the day three people bring a visitor.

The per-person cost lands at $10 for the tamales themselves, which is why this works as a monthly line item instead of a quarterly treat. If you want to check my math for a bigger or smaller group, the guide on how many tamales per person to order goes through offices, parties and the kids question.

Pick a day and protect it

The first Wednesday of the month is my most requested day, and for a reason: attendance mid-week is the steadiest, it lands before the mid-month crunch, and nobody has a standing Wednesday dentist appointment. Payday Friday is the second favorite. The day of the monthly all-hands is the smartest, because people stay in the room after the meeting and the conversation you actually wanted happens over a plate.

Whichever day you pick, do three things. Put it on the shared calendar as a recurring event with the delivery time in the title. Tell remote staff, because they will plan office days around it; I have been told this by more than one office manager. And do not move it for a single busy month. A program that moves is a program that stops.

My kitchen is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9 AM to 2 PM and closed Sunday, Monday and Thursday, so a Thursday lunch program would need a different caterer. I would rather tell you that now than after you have printed the calendar.

Rotate the menu without breaking the routine

The routine is the day; the menu can move. The offices that keep a monthly order going for a long time change something small each month so it never feels like a rerun. A few ways to do that:

• Shift the split. Start half pork, half chicken. After two deliveries you will know your ratio. One accounting office near Plano is now most of the way to chicken; a construction office in Richardson is nearly all pork. Neither surprised me once I had met them.
• Turn one month into the party. The delivery before the holidays becomes the office holiday lunch: the same order plus a few extra dozen.
• Swap delivery for pickup now and then. If someone drives past our Plano kitchen on the way in, choose pickup in the online store; the address and pickup time come with the order confirmation.

Both tamales on the tamale menu cost the same, $30 a half dozen and $60 a dozen, so rotating the split never surprises accounting.

Receipts, headcount changes and the month you skip

Decide the paperwork from the start. Each order is paid online when it is placed, so the record accounting sees is that month’s order confirmation. Forward it to the same inbox, with the same reference, every time, so nobody has to relearn it. If accounting wants a W-9 or a specific reference, call or text me at (469) 888-8398 before the first order; the article on office catering receipts, invoices and W-9s lists what they usually ask for.

Headcount will change. The rule that works is a count two or three business days before each delivery, from the same person, with a number, and then the order for that number rather than last month’s. I would rather you order a dozen less than throw food away on Wednesday. Small swings are absorbed by the rounding; big swings, like a company meeting that doubles the room, just need an earlier order.

And yes, you can skip a month. Each month is its own order, so a skipped month is simply an order you do not place. The weeks before Thanksgiving and Christmas fill first in my kitchen, so if your program lands in that stretch, place those two orders early rather than late.

Ready to start your monthly lunch?

Write the plan above with your real numbers, or just the day and the headcount if that is all you have, and place the first order in our online store: chicken or pork, a half dozen or a dozen, delivery or pickup, paid online. Maggie’s delivers chicken and pork tamales to offices in Richardson, Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney and Dallas. Order for the office and the first delivery can be on the calendar before your next all-hands.

Frequently asked questions

How do I start a monthly office lunch program?

Pick one recurring day, count the people usually in the office, decide a per-person budget, and write down the day, delivery time, headcount, budget, dietary exceptions, delivery instructions and who pays. Make one person responsible for checking the headcount a few days before and placing the order in our online store each month. That is the whole program; the first delivery tells you what to adjust.

How much does a monthly office lunch cost per person?

With tamales the food cost is easy to predict: a dozen is $60 and a half dozen is $30, and two big tamales make a full lunch, so about $10 per person. A 30-person office is five dozen, or $300 a month. The delivery fee is shown at checkout in our online store, so the total you pay is the number on the order confirmation.

What day of the month works best for an office lunch?

The first Wednesday is the most common request I get, because mid-week attendance is steady and it lands before the mid-month rush. Payday Friday is the next favorite, and the day of the monthly all-hands is the smartest choice since people stay and talk over the food. My kitchen is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 9 AM to 2 PM, and is closed Sunday, Monday and Thursday.

Can the headcount change from month to month?

Yes, and it will. Check the number two or three business days before each delivery with the same contact person, then place that month’s order for that number. Small swings are covered by rounding up to whole dozens; a big swing, like an all-hands that doubles the room, just needs an earlier order. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. Only confirmed orders will be delivered as requested.

How do we pay for a monthly office lunch?

Each month’s order is paid online in our online store when it is placed, and the order confirmation is the record. Forward it to the same accounts payable inbox with the same reference every month, which is what accounting departments ask for. If your team needs a W-9 or a particular reference, call or text (469) 888-8398 before the first order. That keeps the program off the expense-report pile.

What if some of the office cannot eat gluten or pork?

Write it into the plan and set the split around it. Every tamal I make uses gluten-free corn masa. For people who skip pork, the chicken tamales in green tomatillo salsa are made with chicken breast, so order enough chicken to cover them with a few to spare.