5 Food Holidays for Easy and Delicious Team-Building Activities

If you’ve been looking for some fun, engaging ways to get your team together, then a national food holiday offers the perfect excuse. ‌Sharing something delicious is a great way to spend time with one another away from the pressures of work.

We’ve rounded up a smorgasbord of fun food holidays that might just be the perfect excuse to rally your squad and cook up some camaraderie. Bon appétit!

3 Tips for Celebrating National Food Holidays at Work

Here are some things to think about when organizing a national food holiday-related team building event:

1. Allergies and Dietary Requirements: Check with your team before setting anything up. Employees may have certain food allergies, restrictions, or religious rules, so provide vegan, vegetarian, or dairy-free options for those who don’t eat animal products. If you have any team members with allergies, avoid bringing in food that could be dangerous to them.
2. Budget and Cost: ​​ Be especially mindful of your employees’ finances if you’re asking them to bring something in from home.
3. Capacity: Organize your food activities when your team isn’t busy, or make it easy for them to participate. If it’s difficult to get everyone together, dropping off a treat at the desk or sharing something over the lunch break would be the best way to let everyone enjoy a national food holiday.

5 National Food Holidays to Celebrate at Work

Most national food holidays have somewhat unclear origins, most often created as a way of marketing a product, like L&L Hawaiian Barbecue’s National Spam Misubi Day or former President Ronald Reagan’s National Ice Cream Day and Month.

Here, we’ve served up inspiration for some of the best national food holidays to celebrate in the workplace.

National Ice Cream Day

I scream, you scream, we all scream for National Ice Cream Day! Whether you’re a classic vanilla fan, an rare rum-raisin lover, or a true chocolate fanatic (with fudge on top), there’s room for everyone at the ice cream bar.

Even though National Ice Cream Day is celebrated on the third Sunday in July, you can easily adapt and celebrate any day in July, which is also National Ice Cream Month.

Here are some ways to get your ice cream fix plus get in some team building:

• Guess the flavor: Grab a few tubs of ice cream and get your team to blind taste test them to guess the flavor. It can be a fun competition to build rapport between teams while they get to enjoy a treat, too.
• Ice cream bar: Grab a few flavors of ice cream, a variety of cones and cups, toppings (sprinkles, chocolate chips, flavored sauces, etc.), then set up somewhere and encourage your team to come along and grab an afternoon treat.
• Ice cream gift card: For remote or distributed teams, send your employees a gift card for ice cream, and encourage them to share a photo of their treat in the team’s intranet.

But what if one of your team members isn’t an ice cream fan? Or maybe you have team members who are lactose intolerant or vegan. Grab a sorbet, a dairy-free brand, or fresh fruit and other treats, so they still feel included.

National Taco Day

Created by none other than fast food favorite Taco Bell, National Taco Day happens on the first Tuesday of October.

Here are some ways you can celebrate National Taco Day with your team:

• Build your own taco: Organize the fillings yourself or have a caterer come in to cook tacos fresh for your team. Ask them what their preferred fillings are beforehand, so you can have these ready for them to enjoy.
• Taco delivery: Order a selection of tacos from a nearby restaurant and have these delivered to the office for a lunchtime treat.
• Taco-inspired desserts: If your team has more of a sweet tooth, you can still celebrate the sweet side of tacos with churro tacos, fruit tacos, or chocolate taco shells filled with sweet treats.

National Cookie Day

The cookie crumbles in the right way with this national holiday in early December. Celebrating all things sweet, National Cookie Day is an easy one to recognize and enjoy as a team.

Here are some ideas:

• Surprise them: Bring in cookies for everyone to share and enjoy during that mid-afternoon slump. Encourage a short break and catch up over a coffee and a cookie to bring people together.
• Bake-off competition: There’s nothing like a friendly competition to bring people together. Organize a Great British Bake Off-inspired event, assign judges, and encourage people to bring in cookies to share with co-workers. You could even organize a small prize for the baker with the highest score.
• Gingerbread cookie house: Make this a festive team-building activity, and work as a group to make a gingerbread house.

National Fried Chicken Day

National Fried Chicken Day is celebrated in July and is an opportunity to take a moment and appreciate that yummy, crunchy fried chicken goodness.

Restaurants like KFC, Popeyes, and Chik-fil-A usually offer deals on this food-related holiday. Get the team together to appreciate everything about fried chicken. Here’s how to celebrate:

• Taste test: What could be better than crispy fried chicken? Several big buckets of fried chicken from different restaurants to taste and score. Get the team together to see which is the favorite!
• Hot sauce roulette: Inspired by Hot Ones, where celebrities are interviewed while eating hot wings, you could ask team members fun questions while they test their limits. Keep in mind that some people aren’t fans of spice, so offer other sauces, too.

Be sure to offer meat-free alternatives. There are lots of great substitutes and vegan options on menus.

National Pretzel Day

Celebrated in April, National Pretzel Day isn’t just for Dunder Mifflin employees. This is a holiday you can enjoy, too.

The best way to celebrate this joyous holiday?

• Pretzel topping station: Bring in some soft pretzels and offer up a fun selection of toppings for people to choose from. You’ll learn who has a sweet tooth and who prefers to keep things savory.
• Pretzel bake-off: Like with National Cookie Day, you can ask for volunteers to bake up their favorite recipe, do a taste test, and give out small prizes to the winner.
• Pretzel baking workshop: If you have the budget, invite a local baker to lead a workshop on how to make homemade pretzels.

What Are the Benefits of Celebrating National Food Holidays?

• Create a culture of inclusivity in the workplace: You don’t have to stick to one kind of cookie or pretzel. Celebrate team members from around the world by sharing cuisine from different places.
• Get people together to bond over good food: Getting the job done is key, but you can’t overlook the value of team bonding. A great sandwich, a delicious ice cream, a tub of buttered popcorn—people bond over their love of food.
• Support local establishments: You’ll support local restaurants and food businesses in your local community, boosting your company’s public profile.

But if food holidays just aren’t your flavor, check out our guide to 60+ team-building activities for more ideas.