What if companies helped stock their employees’ fridges—not just the break room?

For years, workplace food benefits have largely meant catered lunches, pizza parties, birthday cupcakes, or snacks in the break room.

Those things can be fun. But what if an employee wellness benefit could have an impact beyond the workday—supporting employees and their families while also putting company dollars back into the local community?

That’s the idea behind The Produce Box’s Workforce Engagement Programs.

We partner with companies to connect their employees with fresh food from North Carolina farms and food makers through Produce Box distributions, workplace farmers markets, educational Lunch & Learns, employee home-delivery benefits, and customized wellness programming.

Because we believe businesses can be an important bridge between local farms and local families.

A Different Kind of Employee Wellness Benefit

Employee wellness is about more than what happens during working hours. The food employees have access to at home affects their everyday lives, and employers have a unique opportunity to make healthy, local food a little easier to access.

Through our employer-sponsored Produce Box program, companies purchase seasonal produce boxes for their workforce. The Produce Box sources the food, packs the boxes, and delivers them directly to the workplace for employees to pick up.

Programs can happen annually, quarterly, seasonally, or more frequently depending on an employer’s goals. Each box can include fresh local and regional produce along with information about who grew the food and practical ideas for using it.

Instead of another branded giveaway, employees leave work with something useful: fresh food for the week ahead.

And because employees across the organization receive the same seasonal box, the program can create a shared experience—a simple point of connection across departments, roles, and shifts.

Particularly Well-Suited for Manufacturing, Distribution and Shift-Based Workforces

Many traditional employee wellness benefits are easiest to access for employees who work behind a computer.

A lunchtime webinar, flexible gym benefit, or wellness app may work well for some teams while being harder to engage with for employees working on a manufacturing floor, in a warehouse, at a distribution center, or across multiple shifts.

Produce Box distributions are intentionally simple.

We deliver boxes to the workplace. Employees pick them up before heading home.

There is no app they have to download, appointment they have to schedule, or program they have to complete before they receive the benefit.

That makes employer-sponsored food programs especially compelling for HR, benefits, and employee engagement teams looking for a tangible workforce wellness benefit that can reach employees across job functions.

And the model can scale.

We work with businesses of all sizes, from smaller teams looking for a meaningful seasonal or holiday employee appreciation program to a partner providing nearly 2,000 Produce Boxes per quarter to manufacturing employees across the Carolinas.

Employee Wellness That Reaches the Family, Too

One of the things we love most about fresh food is that its impact doesn’t necessarily stop with the employee who receives it.

It can become dinner that night, fruit packed into a child’s lunch, vegetables incorporated into meals throughout the week, or simply an opportunity for a family to try something they may not have purchased otherwise.

In a recent survey of our corporate workforce program, nearly 1,000 employees reported that they and their families ate more fresh fruits and vegetables because of the Produce Boxes.

For employers interested in measuring their investment, we also incorporate employee surveys and impact reporting to help companies understand how programs are supporting their wellness and engagement goals.

That turns a Produce Box from a one-day employee perk into something much more interesting: an employee benefit that can influence what happens around the dinner table.

Employee Engagement Meets Local Impact

There’s another side to the program that matters just as much.

When businesses purchase food through The Produce Box, those dollars help create demand for the North Carolina farmers growing food in this region.

That means one company initiative can support multiple goals at once:

employee wellness, workforce engagement, local purchasing, community impact, and a stronger regional food system.

Our corporate program was built around that connection. The Produce Box purchases from local growers, packs food for employees, and helps employers tell the story of where that food came from. Our materials include farmer stories, seasonal information, storage tips, recipes, and other resources that help employees connect the box in their hands to the people who grew what’s inside it.

For companies with sustainability, ESG, community engagement, or local procurement goals, that creates an opportunity to make employee benefits and community investment part of the same initiative.

More Ways to Bring Local Food Into Your Workplace

An employer-sponsored Produce Box distribution is only one way we can partner with a company.

Depending on your workforce, location, event calendar, and employee wellness goals, we can build a program around the format that makes the most sense for your team.

As Discussed: Employer-Sponsored Produce Boxes

Your company sponsors fresh, seasonal Produce Boxes for employees, and we deliver them directly to your workplace.

Programs can be designed as a one-time employee appreciation gift, a seasonal wellness initiative, quarterly benefit, or recurring workforce engagement program.

We handle the sourcing, packing, farmer storytelling, and delivery.

Pop-Up Farmers Markets

Want employees to choose their own local food?

The Produce Box can create a pop-up farmers market at your office, employee event, wellness fair, or benefits expo.

It’s an interactive way to introduce employees to seasonal North Carolina food while creating an experience that feels very different from a traditional vendor table.

Pop-ups can complement a broader employee wellness event or serve as a standalone employee appreciation activation.

Employee Home-Delivery Benefits

Not every workforce is in the same place at the same time.

For companies with hybrid employees, multiple locations, or employees who live throughout The Produce Box delivery area, another option is offering discounted Produce Box membership or home-delivery benefits to employees.

Employees can then shop our online market for fresh produce and other local foods and have their orders delivered directly to their homes.

It allows the company to support healthier food access while giving employees more flexibility over what they order and when they participate.

Educational Lunch & Learns

Food can also be an entry point into conversations about health, sustainability, agriculture, and the local economy.

The Produce Box offers educational Lunch & Learns rooted in local food, everyday wellness, and community impact.

Topics can include:

The benefits of eating seasonally and locally
Simple ways to eat well with a busy schedule
The economic and environmental impact of eating local
Sustainable, regenerative, and organic farming practices
Small-scale versus industrial farming

Our Lunch & Learn program is designed around practical, realistic habits rather than restrictive diets, and can include fresh samples and an optional seasonal Produce Box for employees.

It can work especially well as part of an employee wellness week, benefits fair, HR engagement initiative, sustainability program, or corporate wellness event.

A Workforce Engagement Program Employees Can Actually See

HR and benefits leaders have no shortage of programs competing for employees’ attention, but sometimes the most meaningful ideas are also the simplest.

A box of fresh peaches.

A bag of North Carolina apples.

Vegetables an employee takes home and turns into dinner.

A card introducing them to the farmer who grew their food.

It’s tangible. It’s useful. And it connects several things companies increasingly care about: employee well-being, workforce engagement, community investment, sustainability, and local economic impact.

The Produce Box can also help employers measure and communicate that impact through employee surveys and program reporting.

Could Local Food Be Part of Your Employee Benefits Strategy?

If you’re an HR leader, benefits manager, employee wellness coordinator, sustainability professional, plant manager, or business owner looking for a different way to engage your workforce, we’d love to explore what a local food partnership could look like.

Whether that means distributing hundreds or thousands of Produce Boxes across manufacturing facilities, hosting a farmers market at your next wellness expo, bringing a Lunch & Learn to your office, or simply giving employees better access to local food through home delivery, we can build a program around your workforce.

Because businesses can be more than places people go to work.

They can be bridges between local farms, local families, and stronger local communities.

Interested in bringing The Produce Box to your workplace? Get in touch with our team at info@theproducebox.com to explore employer-sponsored Produce Boxes and customized workforce engagement programs in North Carolina.