Free food at work

[Austin Allegro]

I work in a small office that has catered meetings once or twice a week. It's surprising how much food is left over. I don't mean plate clearings, I mean stuff that is not even put out for people to eat and binned instead.

I got friendly with the lady who organises the lunches and she now lets me know when there's stuff left over and even wraps it up for me! I get quite a lot of 'wedding buffet' stuff like vol-au-vents, quiche, chicken legs etc, all for free - so it pays to check if the same thing happens at your office.

Of course I get the inevitable '!!!!!' comments and 'don't we pay you enough then' etc etc but I don't care!

[MATH]

Well done Austin, Mrs MATH regularly hosts these kinds of meetings and makes sure she has 'first bagzies' on the left-overs. Being Leicester these meetings always have a good selection on Indian food. - Our favourite

[Queenie]

That's a great tip, Austin.

Wouldn't work at my dh's place of work, but I'm sure there are others on here who could also benefit.

[Lucie]

Mu OH used to run a health club attached to a hotel with a very adventurous chef. The health club kitchen was obviously not as busy as this guy was used to, so in his "spare" time he used to experiment with new recipes. I was forever going to pick him up from work & finding him just sitting down to a plateful of something new in his capacity of "official taster". As if by magic a second plateful would usually appear infront of me too, it was fab!

[Bogof_Babe]

Oh the good old days. Many's the free feast we used to have after meetings in the office. We got used to the sandwiches being a little dried out - free is free after all! Some of the little pastry savouries were delish, but the best of all were the chicken goujons which were often still quite warm, and went like, well like warm chicken goujons .

There was always a big plate of fruit too, and none of the meeting delegates ever seemed to take this, except maybe a few grapes, so we were kept well supplied with bananas, apples and oranges.

Once we were helping clear up, and there was masses of tempting stuff left, when to our dismay the Personnel Manager came in to chivvy us up, piled the serving platters into the back of her car (the meeting was in a different building) and disappeared, leaving us weeping into the empty coffee cups .

[Queenie]

I can now eat my words


Went to the fridge this morning and a white plastic tub had materialised
Dh had planted it there in the wee hours.

Seems there was something on at work and the food was going to be thrown away. He bagged a tupperware full of CHEESES!!

Oh and the bonus ... I've got a "free" plastic container too

Still won't be a "reliable" source though This is the first time in 14yrs LOL

[Edinburghlass]

Very funny thread here where this topic was covered back in August 2003 by Tim, the Board Guide for the Gambling Board.

Its always nice to read the old threads again

[Queenie]

PMSL!!!!

Brilliant!

[gravitytolls]

my 14 yr old son did work experience for Tesco Metro in March. Connexions arranged it for him, and the paperwork claimed he would have full access to the staff canteen and subsidised meals.

When he arrived, he was told he needed a card which he had toput credit on to use the canteen, which would take toolong to arrive as he was there for only 2 weeks.

So for 2 weeks, it cost me £2 a day to buy him lunch from another source.

I did figure that they would proabbly make up for this at th end of work experience, but he didn't even get so much as a thank you, never mind anything else.

[Trollydolly]

I work for an airline that gives food to there passengers WHAT?? AT NO EXTRA CHARGE?? I hear u cry!

Yep an no extra charge you can have fresh filled croissants or tasty sandwiches. They are changing these choices next month to chicken salads and fruit etc (more healthy options) BUT we have at least 25 meals left after every flight!, I do 4 flights a day!!!!

So i will never starve!! We are allowed to take whats left home with us! I should start selling them at £1 each to offices on my way home!!! lol Corrr that would be £100 a day!! Bloomin eck! I really might start doing that lol


NB I WILL NOT DO THAT AS HEALTH AND SAFETY LAWS WOULD NOT ALLOW IT BUT IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA IF LEGAL

[Glad]

Originally Posted by Edinburghlass

Very funny thread here where this topic was covered back in August 2003 by Tim, the Board Guide for the Gambling Board.

Its always nice to read the old threads again

as soon as I read this thread it reminded me of Tim's
it's one of Martin's favourites and linked from Chat tips Gold too

[nabowla]

I've recently started doing the same thing. I organise some very posh receptions for work from time to time - last week I came home with half a dozen large pieces of poached salmon, half a dozen chicken breasts marinated in something-or-other, lots of ratatouille, some really yummy cheese, a full bottle of wine (opened but not touched) and a bit of salad. I'd also given some leftovers to the security staff for lunch (they were v. grateful).

I get around accusations of being a cheapskate by simply saying that it would be criminal to throw away huge amounts of food at a time when the 'Stop Poverty' campaign is working so hard to improve the lot of people who are a lot worse off than us (I actually believe this........but I'm trying to save money too!). As soon as I said this, eveyone thought that it was a great idea to take leftovers home rather than throwing it in the bin, which is what used to happen. I now have a reputation for being a socially conscious, caring person and have saved lots of money on my weekly shopping bill!!!

[filigree]

My brother had a summer job at a wholefood cafe and brought home yummy leftovers almost every day, Mum was broke and very grateful for the free food which was often enough to provide an evening meal. Poor brother was a bit miffed - he already had a free wholefood lunch and spend all day cooking brown rice etc, I think he was desperate for a chicken nugget after a few weeks!

When I worked as a committee secretary I used to "tax" the lunch trolley before the meeting so I didn't have curly sandwiches With several meetings a week and freebie biscuits I hardly ever had to buy my own lunch.

Is it my imagination, or does free food taste nicer than the stuff you pay for?

[squeaky]

Scrumped APPLES!!! YUM

[crana999]

if you are a student you can go to an endless succession of free lunches. the only down side is you have to listen to them going on about God.

[Pink.]

Originally Posted by Edinburghlass

Very funny thread here where this topic was covered back in August 2003 by Tim, the Board Guide for the Gambling Board.

Its always nice to read the old threads again

I hadn't read Tim's thread before...........spent a large part of this afternoon crying with laughter!

Thanks for the pointer Edinburghlass.

Pink