Tips to Help Justify Your Office Snack Budget to Leadership

Preparing to justify your office snack budget to your CFO, head of finance, or someone else in leadership is always a little nerve-racking—especially if you’re advocating to add something new or fighting to keep perks that your team already uses and loves. The good news is that if you go into the meeting prepared, you can increase your odds of a thumbs-up! 

Here are a few key things to keep in mind as you create your presentation. They’ll help you make your case effectively and either secure your proposed budget amount or get the sign-off on how you plan to allocate the funds you’ve been given. 

How to Justify Your Office Snack Budget

These tips should work for most offices, but keep your company culture and your coworkers’ personalities in mind as you put together your presentation, too. If employee health is really important to your team, for example, lean into that angle. And if your CFO loves numbers, make sure you have a lot of them. 

Now, let’s get into the tips. 

Start with What’s Working

If you already have an office snack program in place, you can start your presentation on a positive note by going over what’s working. 

• Which snacks disappear from the break room the fastest? 
• What improvements to things like morale, productivity, and engagement have you seen since implementing or updating the program, and can they be tied back to it? 
• What have you done over the last year to make the program more efficient? 
• Have you gotten positive feedback from employees that you can share? 
• If the vendors you work with give back, can you share impact statistics showing the good your program is doing? (If you’re a current client of The FruitGuys, just ask us for these numbers!) 

All of these things will help you make a strong case to keep benefits you already have. 

Connect Your Proposal to Leadership’s Business Goals 

It’s important to explain the business case for fresh fruit delivery, healthy snacks, coffee, and the other line items in your budget. Not only will this help convince leadership that your requests are worth the funds, but it might also actually get them excited to send money your way! 

• Does leadership want to increase productivity? Explain that snack breaks boost productivity at work. 
• Do they want to boost retention? Tell them that free food can be a form of employee appreciation, which reduces burnout and job hopping. 
• Are they aiming to increase employee engagement? Talk about the connection between fresh fruit and mental health and how it can help increase energy and reduce the risk of anxiety and depression. 
• Is corporate giving a key part of your company’s mission? Explain how your chosen vendors give back and how your program supports that giving.

The more clearly you can show that what you’re asking for ties back to those larger business goals, the more compelling your case will be. 

Back Up Your Asks with Data

Whenever you can, reference studies, statistics, and employee survey data in your presentation to back up your position. For example, if you can show leadership that fresh fruit is your team’s most-requested snack, that will go a long way toward convincing them to let you add or keep fresh fruit delivery. And if your proposed budget is less than $15,000 per month (which is the average office snack budget), you can make your proposal look more affordable by showing that contrast. 

Here are a few stats to keep in your back pocket that will help you justify your office snack budget: 

• Most companies spend $7.50–$10 per employee per day on office snacks, but some spend upward of $20 per day
• 88% of employees and office managers consider snacks important, and 38% ranked office food among their top three workplace perks 
• People who take breaks during the workday to have a snack are 13% more productive than those who don’t 

Explain How You’ll Track ROI

It’s not enough to show leadership that fresh fruit, healthy snacks, and the other line items in your budget can have a measurable ROI—you also need to explain how you’ll measure that ROI in your specific office. Walk them through the tools you’ll use and the figures you’ll aim to bring them as proof of success for next year. For help tracking the ROI on healthy snacks, check out our article “Does Your Wellness Program Work? 3 Ways to Track ROI”. 

Paint a Word Picture

Numbers are nice to have in a presentation. They’re essential, even. But when you’re talking about the happiness, health, and wellbeing of your employees, you have to have a human element, too. So take the time somewhere in your presentation to paint a word picture. Describe what your break room will look like with the improvements you suggest. How will employees feel when they walk in? What kind of energy will they take back to their desks? Just like hard skills and soft skills, hard data and emotional pull are equally valuable.

Don’t Forget the Fun 

If your presentation puts the CFO to sleep, they probably won’t be all that jazzed about signing off on what you asked for. So, make it fun! Throw in a quick quiz asking everyone what their favorite office snack is, add colorful graphs where you can, and see if people can guess a particular stat before you unveil it. If your presentation is interesting, memorable, and checks all of the other boxes we mentioned, you’ll set yourself up for success. 

Rank Your Priorities (Just in Case)

Of course, there’s always the possibility that things won’t go 100% your way. Maybe another area of the business desperately needs a larger budget this year, or inflation has pushed prices up so much that finance’s belt is particularly tight. If that’s the case, it’s smart to go into the meeting with a mental ranking of your priorities—just in case leadership asks what you’re willing to cut. So, ask yourself: Which line items in the budget are absolute musts, and which ones are nice to have? It’s okay to pare back if you have to as long as you hold onto what your team values most. 

Consider this quote from Scott Berinato, who wrote about corporate wellness programs for Harvard Business Review: “Too often, people go all in on investments like treadmill desks when they could get the same payoff by giving their employees natural light, fresh air, and some fresh fruit.”

Still Gathering Numbers for Your Budget Presentation? 

Our team at The FruitGuys can help, whether you’re looking for a quote for fresh fruit and snack delivery or impact numbers for your current program to help justify your office snack budget. Reach out to sales to request a quote, and to your rep or customer service for specifics on how your company’s purchases have helped support diverse suppliers and feed people in need. 

Good luck in your budget meeting! We’ll be rooting for you.