How much office catering do you actually need per person?
21 September 2026 · 4 min read
The most common question we get isn't about the food — it's about the quantity. Order too little and someone misses out; order too much and you're throwing away good food and a chunk of budget. After a few hundred office deliveries, here's what actually holds up.
Start with what kind of meal it is
The single biggest factor isn't headcount, it's whether the catering is the meal or an accompaniment to it. A platter that comfortably feeds ten people grazing during a presentation will feed six people who skipped breakfast and are treating it as lunch.
| Occasion | Per 10 people | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Morning tea | 1 sweet platter | People take one item, maybe two. |
| Working lunch (light) | 1 platter + 1 salad | Everyone eats at their desk. |
| Lunch as the main meal | 2 platters + 1 salad | Expect seconds. |
| All-day workshop | 1 breakfast + 2 lunch + 1 sweet | Energy dips at 3pm. |
| Client presentation | 1 grazing board + 1 platter | Looks matter more than volume. |
The rules of thumb that actually work
- Sandwiches and wraps: allow 1.5 pieces per person for a light lunch, 2.5 if it's the main meal.
- Grazing and charcuterie: these get picked at rather than eaten as a meal. One board per 10 people alongside something substantial.
- Hot trays: a pasta tray serving 6–8 is genuinely 6–8 servings, not 10. Don't stretch it.
- Pastries and muffins: one per person, plus two or three spare. There are always latecomers.
- Fruit: order it even when you think you don't need it. It's the platter that consistently empties.
Adjust for who's in the room
A room of tradies at 7am eats differently to a boardroom at 2pm. Morning catering gets eaten harder than afternoon catering. Standing events consume less than seated ones because people have one hand occupied. And if there's no other food option nearby, people will treat whatever you ordered as lunch whether you intended that or not.
Don't forget the dietary split
The mistake we see most often is ordering the right total quantity but the wrong distribution. If three of your twelve people are vegetarian, one small vegetarian platter next to three meat platters means those three get one option and everyone else gets ten. Tell your caterer the numbers and let them balance it across the whole order instead.
If you're unsure, tell us the headcount, the time of day and whether it's the main meal. We'd rather talk you into the right order than sell you a platter you don't need — repeat customers are worth more to us than one oversized invoice.