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Comment by octocode | Hacker News Reader

I disagree with pretty much everything in this article. I've never been happier than when I worked for a company that provided free, daily, healthy lunches. We were never coerced into working through dinner.

Now I have to food prep dinner and lunch. I'm making 4x the portions just so we each have enough to eat for leftovers. I spend way more of my personal time cooking and doing groceries and not with my family or working on my projects. Food waste has skyrocketed since everything is bought in bulk, and sometimes not all of it gets used. It's created way more dishes too, in meal prep and tupperwares.

Sometimes we ate out the night before, or there are just no leftovers. I can either get unhealthy fast food, wait an hour to get served at a healthy place, or spend even more of my limited personal time preparing a meal for the next day.

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I'm curious. It seems like the before after in this situation seems to have more to do with not having a family / having a family, than working somewhere that has food perks / doesn't have food perks.

Unless the the corporation is paying for your entire families food budget, prep, cleaning etc, I think what you have just described is exactly the point of the article: being single and having all (or most) household chores done for you is really attractive and great, having a family and needing to do this yourself for multiple people sucks and is hard.

Ergo, these perks prolong the time spent single and enjoying the perks.

We both lost cafeteria breakfast/lunch when we got new jobs after moving.

Making dinner used to be really easy, just grab some fresh ingredients on the way home and throw together something small and healthy.

Now it's a whole performance. We're constantly trying to make bulk meals, and store the rest for breakfast/lunch. We've gone from preparing 2 servings of food per day to 6 or more. We needed to buy larger kitchen appliances and equipment just to cook/store it all. There are 3x more groceries (We shop on foot and bought one of those little carts) and 3x more dishes. It doesn't seem like much but I've lost at least 30 mins a day, but probably a lot more on average. The food I am eating is, on average, less healthy, less diverse, and less tasty (I am no professional chef).

This article just seemed to resolve to a point that free lunch was a corporate tool to discourage "family formation", and I ultimately disagree. I think a lot of working parents would love to not have to worry about preparing their own lunch meal on top of their families.

I just don't see the connection of "free food == single life", and the article doesn't really establish one. At worst I'd still end up with the same amount of time, and at best it has given me more free time to spend with my family.

I'm unfamiliar with life in America, but why don't you just eat at a cheap no-frills restaurant instead of buying groceries and spending time to cook all of that food? Are those restaurants not available within walking distance, or too expensive, or don't have good salads / fish / meat / whatever?

Cheap no-frills restaurants are typically unhealthy in America. Think Mcdonalds. Also being a bit of a drive is not an issue.

Most of the US doesn't have a dining out culture like in some other parts of the world, like Singapore, Vietnam etc

It depends - when I worked in Novato there was only one mediocre cafe (which was slow) and one restaurant (which was a bit too upscale) within walking distance. There were a few more options within short driving distance, but it was kind of a hassle.

I don't mean to be condescending, but it rather seems like you haven't learnt how to cook. In my home, we have the culture of simply cooking our own meals since it's much cheaper than eating out. Generally, one meal (one pack of meat) will last us (me and my wife) for 3-4 lunches. Nothing gets wasted, everything gets eaten. There are no 'leftovers', we cook simply for multiple portions.

Sounds to me like you need to learn to cook in bulk; your unhappiness simply sounds like lack of cooking experience.

Free, healthy, and delicious food makes people happy.

I am puzzled as to how offering perks that make people happy, except in extreme examples, are a bad thing — even if it does result in a net benefit to the employer.

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