Grazing launches ‘Desk Dine’ service for post-lockdown need for office catering

Grazing Catering has announced the launch of ‘Desk Dine’ – a new catering service designed specifically to meet post-lockdown social distancing guidelines.

The service, which will sit alongside the caterer’s existing business operations, will help to keep London-based office staff safely in their workplace ‘bubbles’ by offering a minimal-risk catering delivery service.

The move follows the Prime Minister’s latest announcement on Sunday evening, suggesting that staff can return to some workplaces in the next few weeks.

Companies will be able to place food orders for their workforce on an ad-hoc or daily basis, all cooked off-site and delivered in safe and single drops – reducing multiple courier visits and the need for staff to leave the building during the working day.

With employers keen to minimise risk of illness and infection, the service will provide a practical solution for multi-tenanted buildings, reducing lift traffic created by staff all heading out to buy individual lunches and reducing contact with building security, loading bay, post-room and reception staff – all of whom have direct contact with external guests to buildings.

Cooked and prepared in a dedicated Central London production kitchen, which, inline with guidance from health and safety experts, has been reconfigured to allow all chefs and staff to work within safe 2m work zones.

To provide maximum flexibility, customers can place order through a new online proprietary platform, desktop or mobile site developed by the Grazing team and third-party ordering apps.

The service is being made available for small groups and teams, to whole offices. Initially, it will be available for breakfast and lunch, with plans to launch a dinner option in due course.

With maximum flexibility in mind, allowing customers to order what they want at any given time, the service has been designed to scale with businesses as offices gradually come back to work.

Sam Hurst, chief executive, Grazing, said: “Employers will want to do all they can to keep their staff safe and minimise any potential risk to their wellbeing. This idea that they will need to create Covid secure workplaces, or safe ‘work bubbles’, is going to be a major step in helping us all to transition back to as close to the normality that we once knew.

“We understand that these are testing times for so many businesses and offices across London. That’s why we’ve developed a flexible service for companies to be able to utilise during the initial post-lockdown period.

“Food is a great motivator and very emotive and can still be used to bring teams and whole offices together for ‘lunch and learn’, lunchtime socials, all-hands meetings etc. Through our ‘Desk Dine’ service, they can provide individual meals for people to enjoy safely at their desks, whilst joining others in the office for a Zoom or Teams catch-up.”