As offices reopen, employers everywhere defer to popular resources, such as the CDC’s guidelines, to implement healthy office environments. But let’s call it like it is - these guidelines only touch on safety. Instead, employers need to consider all the changes that will bring their teams back into the office. ‍ We will explain how employers can rethink the meaning of offices then invest in some changes that make employees want to actually come back to work.

This morning, Inc. Magazine released its 38th annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. Sifted is thrilled to announce that our company has made it onto the Inc. 500 at #188 and will be featured in the print issue that hits newsstands on September 1st. Outpacing our competition, Sifted has ranked at the #7 position in the national Food & Beverage category.

A healthful, balanced lunch that you actually pause for. A great idea, right? We talk about it all the time. We experience it at our client’s offices. But fact check: We weren’t living it.

You know the food is good when someone asks for a recipe. Here are two DIY favorites from our Atlanta chef, India Ramos.

Sifted has officially launched in Atlanta, Georgia! This is Sifted’s first expansion. Over the past year, the Sifted community has grown to include some of the most disruptive tech-centric companies, including Eventbrite, Emma, iCitizen, LYFT and DayNine.

Try this easy recipe for the best gluten free flatbread--Sifted style.

Sifted isn’t a restaurant. We’re not a food truck. We’re not a delivery service. We don’t fit well into categories or preconceptions.Sifted creates experiential lunch programs for fast growing companies.

I’m realistic when I am interviewing candidates. This isn’t going to be the last stop. People have dreams, and I want for a position at Sifted to play a significant role in getting people one step closer.

The first way to make someone feel excluded at the table is to not have a lunch they can eat. As vegetarians, we’d opt for bringing our own lunch many times or go out to eat after the company celebration. We know what it’s like when being vegan/gluten-free/pork-free at work feels harder than it should be.

Humans are by nature social creatures. We self-group around any number of social, political, religious, or entertainment-related areas of our lives. Baptists, Democrats, Video Gamers, Foodies, Left Handed Basket Weavers; at our core, we simply want to be with people who understand us. With the explosion of the internet, and our increasing move into digital relationships, that in-person connection is more important than ever before. If you haven’t found that connection yet yourself, then perhaps this article will help you take the steps needed to start your own community.

At Sifted, we don’t want to just build processes and exist in a routine. Like Software-as-a-Service companies, we seek to constantly iterate and build on a platform, releasing new updates and tapping into our customer base to rank client needs.

How do you possibly slow down? How do you possibly slow down when your email is the last thing you read before you go to bed and the first thing when you wake up? When you have a business under two years old. When steps forward feel more like inches.My only escape is a yearly practice that started when I was 10 years old.

Our clients love our communities as much as their own teams. We feel the same way. With a new menu everyday, and people in and out of the office, leftovers happen. Really good leftovers happen. Reducing food waste and finding ways to take care of our city is important to us. We’ve spent the last several months researching and trying out different solutions, and we’re glad to say we’re partnering with Nashville Rescue Mission.

Startups must understand what attracted talent to their company in the first place, and seek to find what aspects of the work environment are most meaningful to employees. The kind of talent you want to stick around doesn’t walk out the door because your conference tables aren’t as trendy as Facebook’s. It doesn’t walk out the door because you cut the company-branded t-shirt this year. But they will jet the second they feel undervalued.

When we moved from our hot desk to an office space in the nation’s fifth largest entrepreneurial tech hub this spring, we heard a stat that could have been disheartening. Out of the 1,000 people at the Atlanta Tech Village, we were two of eight female founders. Here’s why we’re urging other women to make the investment in a coworking space.

Hosts are the heart of our team. They create experiences for our clients onsite by styling food + telling the story of our menu. Our hosts know our eaters’ habits so that everyone feels like an individual when they come to the lunch table.Being friendly, inclusive + hardworking seems to come naturally to Krissy, one of our Atlanta hosts.

Combat unhealthy workplace norms by getting your mind right. Remember – you own your day. You have the capacity to switch things up, form new health habits and do the little things that can help you grow personally at work.

Venture Atlanta gives us a chance to talk Sifted and share what we’re all about it. It’s an opportunity to unpack the trend that’s here to stay: lunch as a perk.

Christopher Wilson defines what it means to be a modern, southern chef. He’s talented, forward-thinking, and passionate about working with local farms to bring exceptional flavors to taste buds across Central Texas. He’s helping to redefine lunch with Sifted. He’s making food with an Austin flare – conscientious, authentic, and experiential.

Companies brag about their perks. Bigger is better. Fewer rules means happier employees. Or so we’re led to believe. But what about the impact of the investment? Is the ping-pong table a reason people are signing their offer letters? Is the new renovation bringing the team more joy at work? Is the beer keg inspiring creativity and productivity?We like perks. But we love perks that can show us a return on the investment.

We drew a hard line and made a CHOICE for self-care and empowerment, remembering that we are never so smart or hardworking that we can’t benefit from a true break.

Because with Sifted, you’ll be the boss. You’ll have maximum control, uncommon personalization and a 60+ person team at your service. And we’ll feel good about our work because our model forces us to be transparent, honest and create food so amazing, we can’t stop sharing.

I just finished the long trek between Atlanta and Denver. About the time I made it to Kansas and its flat roads, turning windmills and pale colors, the emotions, ALL of them, sunk in.

When we launch in a new city, we hire a team of chefs who have made an impact on the local culinary community. These chefs see Sifted as an ideal creative opportunity and the best environment for personal and professional growth.

At Sifted, our lunch programs are designed for brands that value and protect their people, their data and their ideas. That’s why, today, we’re welcomed in the offices of credit-card processors, EMR managers and high-volume e-commerce retailers.

At Sifted, we believe in building community. We have feet on the ground in each of our cities because our food and service is inspired by the culture, eater preferences, and partners unique to that city. We are local to each of our cities, which is why we talk about ourselves as a restaurant without walls and a company without a headquarters.

We’re not your average corporate caterer. In fact, we’re really not much of a corporate caterer at all. We don’t mess around with tasteless chicken, lukewarm buffets, or soggy sandwiches in a box. And we’re pretty darn sick of the tired and unappealing reputation of office lunch.

Our team works nation-wide to make our clients’ lunch program the highlight of their week. We set goals and then double them. We’re reinventing corporate catering. We take an all-hands-on-deck mentality: our teams are constantly collaborating and learning from each other’s unique challenges, experiences, and strengths. In this series, we give you the dirty deets on the creative minds and extraordinary individuals behind the Sifted experience.

From the beginning, we set out to be different. We didn’t want to be just another corporate caterer making and wasting food. Forty percent of all food prepared in the US ends up in the trash, and that percentage is way higher for traditional food service companies.

Our lunch menu is carefully constructed to offer you the nutrients your mind and body need to thrive throughout the day, but there’s another meal that’s critical for each day’s success - breakfast. It’s a meal that’s often on-the-go or completely overlooked. On our breakfast guide, we’re sharing some options we’re currently digging so that you can you can say goodbye to that mid-morning slump.

Have you met our COO, Abby Henderson? She is a recovering public accountant who left a big four accounting firm to mastermind the logistics of Sifted across 5 cities and growth into new markets. An Austin-transplant residing in Atlanta, she’s a social arbiter of the latest + most creative food in the southeast. Her self-made, highly-frequented social profile, “allaboutthat_atl” goes beyond the likes of typical foodstagrams, connecting followers with a curated mesh of cultural experiences. Get her take on the current food climate and all things Sifted in our latest blog.

As we lay down our roots in Seattle, we’ve been nomads wandering the city for all that it is worth. In typical Sifted style, we’ve hosted most of our meetings in the corner of a bakery, in the lobby of a coworking center or on a park bench.

Meet, Jackie Ospina, our host-turned-Internal-Operations-Associate. Her story at Sifted is representative of the organic upward trajectory at our company. We love to see people in a role at Sifted and then grow into a larger, more defined position that puts their talents to use. We’re known to create roles for people, rather than the other way around.

We like to flip the assumptions that accompany most food concepts. Unsustainable, impersonal, wasteful - to name a few of the common narratives. At Sifted, we’re writing a new food story that reduces our carbon footprint at every turn. Did you know we compost excess food scraps, supporting local green initiatives in your city?

You’ve probably noticed we like to send a lot of vegetables with each meal, whether on the side, in a salad or a part of the main attraction. We do this because studies show that they are the secret to energy and clearness of mind. If you’re wanting to be more productive and feel more energy, load up on the vegetables.

We’re a food-centric startup in a competitive on-demand delivery industry. Making great food that gives color to the office and energy to our clients in a way that honors the people that grow the food and those that consume it for us means owning the process from start to finish. It means taking responsibility for your lunches, rather than handing it off to another restaurant.

Aquafaba (/ˌɑːkwəˈfɑːbə/) is the name for the viscous water in which legume seeds such as chickpeas have been cooked. Due to its ability to mimic functional properties of egg whites in cooking, aquafaba can be used as a direct replacement for them in some cases, including meringues and marshmallows. It’s composition also makes it a relatively flavorless, colorless emulsifier for creating a plethora of vegan sauces.

Talking about food is far more complex than it’s “rich” or “too garlicky.” The food dictionary is diverse and robust — far more involved than simply calling something spicy, sour or seasoned. Food needs a language that speaks to your experience through all five of your sensory details. We’ve all had the experience of tasting or smelling something that blows our mind and when asked all we can say is it’s good. Food language turns “good” into “sapid.”

We’re huge fans of eating your greens. One of our favorite leafy green powerhouses? You guessed it: kale. Kale has been on everyone’s radar for a while now, but there are more ways to enjoy it besides making kale chips or using it as a salad base. With the right flavor pairings, you can create a mod green dish that doesn’t taste too green.

People often recognize that buying local produce means supporting local farmers and their production, but there are several other reasons why shopping and eating local food is better across the board. We’re proud to partner with regional growers to incorporate fresh, seasonal produce in our lunches. And when you invest in local food products in your everyday life, you invest in yourself and your community. Here are a few ways how.

Colorful foods continue to capture our attention and find their way into our pantries. We’ve seen grassy green matcha and deep purple acai take the stage, to name a couple of high-profile colorful foods. The sunny yellow of turmeric is no exception. In the foodie-sphere, it’s popularly used to create golden milk, a warm spiced milk that incorporates cinnamon, ginger and black pepper along with the earthy spice.

Our company may have national reach, but each city team is made up of locals who know their way around the food scene. Our Atlanta team is no different. And because a major part of our culture revolves around supporting sustainable and community-focused practices, we make an effort to support local establishments inside and outside the office. So when it comes to finding delicious peachy offerings around Atlanta, we focused on local spots or restaurants that are supporting area farms like Pearson Farms. Here are a places with peach creations that captured our attention.

Breakfast can often turn into a meal so dominated by sugars and fats, it could be considered dessert. No one wants, or needs, a sugar crash at the start of the day to hinder productivity, but it can be difficult to find a variety of breakfast options that are wholesome and delicious, especially if you have a dietary restriction or preference that omits dairy.

Snacks are so often the double-edged sword in our food lifestyle: They keep us going when we need a pick-me-up, yet they can often be laced with sugar, sodium and artificial ingredients that do our health more harm than good. What we all really want — and need — are clean snacks that sustain and support us as we tackle our work. We’ve rounded up a few of our favorite snacks that are healthy, delicious and full of nutrients that will keep you fueled until you get to your next meal.

Sometimes all it takes is a dash or a pinch to take a dish’s or sauce’s flavor to the next level. We love busting the myth that corporate lunches have to be bland, boring or unhealthy. Using fresh ingredients, including herbs, our chefs craft delicious and healthy office lunches for our clients.

Office managers have a million tasks to do on any given day, and smart time management is a must. Here are some services guaranteed to give you one less chore to think about throughout your day.

At Sifted, we believe the best lunches are a blend of clean ingredients, innovation and excitement. We've designed over 120 menus in house and add to that every week. When designing each one, we rely on everyone from our chefs to our eaters to our city managers to deliver a delicious, healthy and fun lunch experience.

These days, trendy foods are simply trendy for their looks. More often than not, when you look closer at the hottest foods, you’ll find that there’s a health benefit associated to their rise in popularity (think smoothie bowls and golden milk). Digestive health is a huge trend this year, and with the rise of kombucha, apple cider vinegar concoctions and more, the word “probiotic” has begun to make its way into our everyday health vocabulary. And so has prebiotic. We break down the difference between the two, why they’re important to include in your diet and the best foods to buy to up your intake.

From the beginning, Aceable's founders believed that a strong company culture was important. At just 55 employees, the company implemented an employee lunch program to bring the team closer together and provide time to share ideas, conversations, and a great meal. Since then, Aceable has grown to more than 100 employees, and weekly lunches are still a favorite culture benefit among Aceable team members old and new.

There’s a honeymoon stage to every good thing, including a job. You’ve been a new hire before at some point, so you get it. When you start that job, you’re excited and ready to embed yourself in your work and new company. The honeymoon stage ends, inevitably, but that doesn’t mean work can’t be engaging long after the romance fades. Like every strong relationship, it’s about an evolving enjoyment and appreciation for where you are and who you’re with.

Thanksgiving, the name says it all. It’s a time for us to be thankful and give. At Sifted, we hate wasting and donate leftover food throughout the year, but Thanksgiving gives us an opportunity to do more. If you’ve been looking to give back, but haven’t found the right way to do it, here are some great organizations that are doing amazing things for their communities.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and also the perfect time to do something extra fun and festive with the team — beyond the holiday party. We love being embedded in lively cities with plenty to enjoy all year round, but they definitely don’t disappoint when it comes to showing off their holiday flair. Leave the office behind one evening and put a festive spin on happy hour to bring the team together and celebrate the season. Check out these happy-hour locations in each Sifted city.

At Sifted our teams consist of dynamic and diverse individuals who make us who we are. Many of our team members come from different walks of life, each with different passions and talents that they bring to their role at Sifted. From our host team to our sales team we are made up of actors, artists, scientists, and chefs, all who bring something unique and beautiful to Sifted. One of our Denver hosts, Alex Trahan came to Sifted a year ago as he launched his new hydroponic farm business, The Urban Greenhouse.

Keto is one of the hottest trends in the world of food and dietary restrictions today. Unlike other popular food movements, it has actually been around for years, since the 1920s. The Keto diet focuses on limiting carbohydrate intake, and encouraging fat-burning for energy. Although that may seem intimidating, it is actually one of the most achievable and socially friendly diets out there, according to Sifted’s Hilary Straw who has been Keto for eight months now.

Inclusivity is part of our fabric at Sifted, from how we hire and work with our staff to the food we serve. We are so proud of our team, and appreciate and love your uniqueness and individuality. Today on the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, we wanted to take the time to celebrate Pride. We honor and affirm all of our LGBTQ+, gender fluid, and non-binary employees.

In the past 4 years, Sifted has grown from a simple idea in the brains of Kimberly and Jess (our fearless leaders) into a national company, with 300+ employees serving lunch to companies all across the US. We love each of our amazing cities, and today we want to highlight one in particular, Atlanta, specifically one street, Auburn Ave. Sifted HQ is lucky enough to call this street home. After Sifted HQ’s recent office move, we found ourselves on Auburn Avenue in the middle of the Sweet Auburn Historic District, an area rich with history.

Sifted hired two new directors to continue triple digit growth. The new Sifted team includes: Director of Operations, Bryan Droll, and Director of People Operations, Hilary Straw.  The expansion of Sifted’s team comes as we prepare to maximize our market share in our current markets and plan additional market launches in early 2019.

It’s early January. People are ready to work. They’re thinking about clean-eating and staying “on the grind.” But as February comes around, the hype and motivation tend to dissipate. The congestion of morning commutes leads to hunched shoulders bent over a computer screen and stress eating Cheese-It’s at the desk for lunch. It’s definitely difficult to be an effective worker when the mind and body are not at 100 percent. And while employees’ new year resolutions may lose some steam, a health-focused work environment can promote productivity and wellness all year long.

At Sifted, we care about the bigger picture. Providing amazing service and delivering delicious lunches is important, but we also care about our impact on the health of our eaters and our environment around us. To do our part, we’ve made it our resolution to offer healthy and environmentally friendly policies to our partners. The first program we are offering is a Meatless Monday option for the month of February. Let your lunch coordinator know if you are interested in joining us.

At Sifted, we are committed to being a company that protects the health and wellness of the environment and the communities around us. That’s why we have decided to take our vision to new heights by becoming the first catering company to launch a national, portfolio-wide food donation program that will feed thousands of people in need in communities across the country.

Meet Sifted’s Atlanta head-chef, Ashwin! He’s held head chef positions at some of the most prestigious locations in the Atlanta area and at only 24 years old became the youngest chef manager at corporate caterering company, Compass. Now he leads a team of amazing cooks in Sifted’s Atlanta kitchen and is responsible for some of the fantastic menus you’re enjoying today, such as the new Jamaican Jerk Chicken menu. We sat down with Ashwin to find out about his journey to becoming a professional chef.

It’s 2019! This year we are making daily changes to live more environmentally friendly. Since we do spend a significant portion of our time at the office, it's important that we bring our “green” efforts into the workplace too.Sifted recently moved headquarters into its own office space! With the help of our office administrator, we have taken steps to make it as eco-friendly as possible. Here are some of our eco-friendly office hacks

When you meet Kevin Barthelemy you will quickly find out that he is extremely passionate about life… and food. I had the opportunity to chat with Kevin and talk to him about his experience as a chef. What was evident, even over the phone, was that Kevin has an exuberant attitude towards life and his desire to put his all into everything he does - including being Sifted’s Denver head chef!

At Sifted, we pride ourselves on being a company committed to protecting the health and wellness of the environment and communities we serve. We are the first catering company to launch a national, portfolio wide food donation program that feeds thousands of people in need through our partnership with Copia. With Copia’s help, we are able to safely and easily deliver 100% of our uneaten food to nearby nonprofits who need it. Not only does this meet the needs of underserved communities, but this also benefits the environment by eliminating food waste!

At Sifted, observing our environmental impact is rooted in everything we do. We work to minimize food waste at every turn, to eat mindfully, and to appreciate all those involved in growing and preparing it. We believe every day is earth day, and we’re happy to share our journey with each of you.

Starting off the year with healthy eating can be one of the most helpful spring cleaning activities to do for yourself. Eating clean can give you increased energy, enhanced mood, and the ultimate gain, a longer life. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by starting in your own kitchen and with your own groceries. Although it may seem daunting, cleaning up your diet doesn’t have to be difficult, and you may even have fun in the process.

At Sifted, we take pride in our dedication to sustainability and making a positive impact on the environment. One of the top ways we are doing this is through becoming a zero food waste company. This means that none of the food we serve gets thrown away. By locally sourcing produce, composting in our kitchens, and donating uneaten food to people who need it through our partnership with Copia, we are able to eliminate food waste and benefit the environment!