The Most Innovative Corporate Cafeterias

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Not all seek outside help running their cafeterias. Take Hallmark Cards, for example. The Kansas City (Mo.) company has been providing meals for its employees since 1923, says Sally Luck, director of corporate services. Between the Crown Room, a traditional cafeteria that Luck describes as "a place to be seen in the company," to a smaller, trendier, and less formal café full of takeaway options, there's seating for almost 600 diners. And those seats are in demand: Luck boasts of an 80% participation rate for Hallmark's employee cafeteria, meaning that four meals are dished up each day for every five workers in the building. "That's one of the indications for us that self-operating is still a good idea," she says. Healthy options are a hit, and a half-dozen Hallmark chefs are culinary school graduates with restaurant experience.

Holistic Health

Companies that offer meals as a benefit are acknowledging that there's more to their employees' lives than what happens during the workday, says Maisie Greenawalt, Bon Appetit's director of communications and strategic initiatives. "They are looking at their employees in a more holistic way and realizing that the success of the employee at work is related to a number of factors, [including] work/life balance, health, and connection to community," Greenawalt says.

And the focus on healthy choices is increasing, according to Ira Cohn, president of Aramark's business and industry group. Aramark operates about 1,400 cafés for 500 corporate clients, including "a large percentage of the Fortune 500," and employee health is at the forefront of many of those managers' minds. "They'd like us to be part of the process of helping their employees eat healthy and just be educated about better health," Cohn says.

Still, quality is king. That's especially true in New York City, where Hearst opened a café in its new state-of-the-art office tower last year. Not only are food options plentiful in the surrounding neighborhood, but there's a Whole Foods Market (WFMI) a few blocks away. So Hearst brought in Restaurant Associates, another Compass Group company, to run a cafeteria that would feature, among other things, an organic salad bar and a pair of sushi chefs. Says operations director Lou Nowikas, "We're a creative company, and we wanted our food service to be creative."

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Catts is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.