Raising team spirit on international pizza day

A break that brings the team together

A good team day often starts with something simple. Everyone puts the work aside for a while, gathers in one place and eats something good. International pizza day on 9 February is exactly that kind of occasion. An informal break, conversations that have nothing to do with tasks and a few boxes of pizza bring the whole team around one table quickly.

For an office it is one of the easiest formats there is. Nobody has to invent a programme or explain why people should take part. Good food, a shared pause and a few small details are enough to make an ordinary lunch feel a little different.

Pizza day in the office

A delivery for a whole team is several boxes, and carrying them from reception to the kitchen is not always convenient, especially when there are a lot of them. A pizza shopping bag holds several boxes upright and keeps the food warm on the way up, and it turns an ordinary delivery into something that looks arranged rather than left at the door. It is a small thing, but it is the difference between food arriving and food arriving properly.

A few kitchen items on the table and a couple of boxes from the pizzeria round the corner are enough to make the day feel different from the usual lunch at a desk. The staging does not need to go any further than that. A shared table, plates and a couple of small details already show that someone put the lunch together instead of ordering it between two meetings.

For colleagues who work remotely

Distributed teams get the message about the office lunch and nothing else, which is a strange way to be part of something. A small package that arrives before 9 February closes part of that gap, and items from the foodware range, boards, serving pieces and everyday kitchen things, work because they belong to the same meal without pretending to be it.

It does not replace being in the same room, and anyone who has eaten a company-funded lunch alone at their own kitchen table knows the difference. What it does show is that someone counted people honestly, including the ones who are not visible on the day, and that the point was to include them rather than to be seen including them.

The part that keeps reminding people of the company

The lunch is remembered for about a week, while the bag is remembered for as long as it lasts, and that is where the value sits. A bag with a logo on it goes to the market on Saturday, carries groceries home, stands in the hallway and gets seen by people who have never heard of the company. That visibility is quiet and unforced, which is why it works better than the same money spent on one more catered lunch.

A good pizza day is therefore not only a good lunch and a pleasant break. It is also a chance to leave something useful behind, something that keeps reminding people of the company long after the boxes have gone in the bin.

Five things that stay after pizza day

The sections above are about the day itself. These five items are the ones that most often end up in a package for it, chosen for the part of the year when nobody remembers 9 February any more.

• VINGA Sortino Cooler Bag Grande: for cold drinks at an office party, a picnic or a summer get-together.
• Pizza Shopping Bag: carries several pizza boxes from reception to the kitchen, and does the shopping once the day is over.
• Utah Tritan Bottle 500ml: a water bottle that is easy to use at the office, on a walk or during training.
• Odense Food Storage Container 700ml: a lunch container that is useful well beyond pizza day, on ordinary office days too.
• Sara Porcelain Mug: a classic porcelain mug for coffee and tea that becomes part of the daily office routine without any effort.

Pizza day is a simple reason to make a working day nicer and to get the team around one table. Add things people will actually use afterwards, and the impression does not end with the last slice.