Lunch used to happen by accident, in a break room or over a shared table. For remote and hybrid teams, it now has to be planned on purpose, or it does not happen at all. A virtual lunch fills that gap, giving distributed employees an actual reason to log on together over a meal. Here is how to host one, plus virtual lunch ideas built for teams that are used to working apart.
What is a virtual lunch?
A virtual lunch is a scheduled video call, often on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet, where a remote team eats together while catching up, playing icebreaker games, or learning something new. Unlike an in-office lunch, everyone joins from wherever they are working, whether that is a home office, a coworking space, or a different city entirely.
A virtual lunch meeting typically runs 30 to 60 minutes and can be purely social or built around a lunch and learning topic, a guest speaker, or a themed activity. Some teams treat it as a quick catch-up; others turn it into a bigger virtual event with games, prizes, and a full agenda.
Virtual lunch ideas for remote teams
With some creativity, you can come up with virtual lunch ideas that bring your team together while they enjoy a satisfying meal, whether that's a casual hangout or a session built around learning something new:
Set up a virtual cafeteria
Your remote employees do not have to eat alone. Create a link on your company's video call platform of choice and keep it open between noon and 1 p.m. for anyone who wants to eat lunch "together."
Host a themed lunch
Each week, pick a different global cuisine for a themed lunch you can order from home, DoorDash for Business works with hundreds of thousands of restaurants, so your team has plenty of tasty options representing a range of international flavors, without sacrificing nutritional value.
Host a pizza party
Give each team member a budget to order from their favorite local pizza place, then compare choices over video. Have everyone share what they ordered and vote on categories like the best topping combination or most tempting slice.
Try a virtual cooking class
Book a guided cooking class where ingredients are delivered to each person ahead of time. It is one of the more memorable remote lunch ideas because everyone ends up with something they made themselves.
Take online lunches outdoors
Encourage groups of employees to eat lunch together on video calls from their patios, backyards, or other outdoor spaces. Research shows that employees who take breaks in a place surrounded by nature enjoy increased relaxation, well-being, and job satisfaction.
Play icebreaker games
Liven things up with activities that get people talking. Two truths and a lie is a reliable icebreaker for teams that have not met in person. Test the team's knowledge of the company with a trivia game, or build a playlist and play Name That Tune.
Make it entertaining
Give your talented employees the spotlight. Schedule a virtual lunch talent show and let team members perform, whether that is the salesperson who plays classical guitar or the receptionist who moonlights as a singer.
End with a virtual happy hour
If afternoons are hard to schedule, do not limit yourself to lunch. A breakfast buffet is a great way to start the day, and a virtual happy hour or an afternoon treat break with cookies or boba tea delivered can round out the week just as well.
Bring in a guest speaker
Invite someone to share expertise on a topic the team actually cares about, whether that is a client success story, a new tool the company just adopted, or a skill someone outside the team has mastered. A guest speaker gives the session a reason to show up beyond the free meal.
Watch a webinar together
Instead of leaving people to click through a recorded webinar alone, watch it as a group over lunch and open up discussion afterward. It turns a passive video into a shared experience and gives quieter team members an easy way to jump into the conversation.
Start a rotating book club
Let employees take turns picking the title and leading the discussion. Rotating who chooses keeps the list varied, spreads out the prep work, and gives everyone a turn in the spotlight instead of the same person running it every time.
Host a show and tell
Give people a few minutes to share a hobby, a recent trip, or a project they are proud of. It is one of the easiest ways to get to know coworkers outside of work topics, and it works especially well for teams that have never met in person.
Whichever format you choose, keep it optional, cap it at 45 minutes, and always provide the meal. A lunch and learning only works if it still feels like a lunch first.
Why virtual lunches matter for remote teams
Remote employees report meaningfully higher rates of loneliness than employees who work on-site. Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2024 Report found that 25% of fully remote employees feel lonely, compared to 16% of employees who work exclusively on-site. A virtual lunch is a low-lift way to close that gap: it gives distributed teams a reason to log on together, without adding another meeting to the calendar.
The benefit goes beyond company culture, too. Stepping away from work for lunch helps employees recharge, refocus, and come back to the afternoon with more to give, physically and mentally. Skipping it to save time tends to backfire.
Sharing that break as a team makes the payoff bigger. It builds the kind of casual camaraderie that is hard to manufacture any other way, whether that is trading recommendations, catching up on someone's weekend, or just seeing a colleague's face outside of a status update.
How to host a virtual lunch, step by step
1. Pick a time that works across time zones
Look at where your remote employees are based and choose a slot that is reasonable for most people, even if it means rotating the time each month for globally distributed teams.
A scheduling tool like World Time Buddy or Every Time Zone makes this easier by showing everyone's local time side by side, so you are not doing the math manually or guessing who is about to log off for the day.
2. Choose a video call platform and share the link
Most teams already run video calls on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or Google Meet, so use whatever the team already has open. Drop the link in Slack or your team chat tool a day ahead, and again 10 minutes before, so nobody misses it.
3. Set a meal budget and let people order what they want
Give each person a budget to order lunch delivered to wherever they are working. This is the step that makes a virtual lunch feel like a real perk instead of one more meeting. DoorDash for Business makes this easy with meal budgets: set up recurring spend per employee through a centralized admin portal, so the same budget is there every time your team has a virtual lunch, no re-approving it each round.
If it is a single event rather than something you will repeat, meal vouchers are the simpler option. Send a one-time voucher with a set value and redemption window, and you only pay for what people actually redeem, no ongoing budget to manage. Ask about dietary restrictions ahead of time so everyone has options that work for them.
How DoorDash for Business makes hosting virtual lunches easier
Once you have decided on a format, the harder part is usually the logistics behind it: tracking who ordered what, staying inside budget, and making sure everyone's dietary restrictions are covered, on repeat. DoorDash for Business handles that so the person planning the virtual lunch is not stuck doing it manually.
Meal budgets for a recurring virtual lunch
Set a recurring meal budget so each person can order from a restaurant they actually want, whether that is for a weekly team lunch or a monthly lunch and learn. Every order lands on one consolidated bill instead of a stack of individual receipts.
Meal vouchers for a one-off lunch and learn
Running a single virtual lunch and learning rather than an ongoing program? Meal vouchers let you set a budget and a redemption window, then let each person pick their own meal, without needing to build out a full group order.
DashPass to stretch the meal budget further
DashPass covers delivery fees on eligible orders, so more of the budget goes toward the meal itself instead of fees.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a virtual lunch last?
Thirty to 45 minutes hits the sweet spot. Long enough for a real conversation or activity, short enough that it does not eat into the afternoon or start to feel like just another meeting on the calendar.
What are some good 10-minute virtual team building activities?
For a quick session, stick to icebreakers that need no setup: two truths and a lie, a rapid-fire trivia round, or a "guess the coworker" game based on a fun fact submitted ahead of time. These work well as an opener before a longer lunch and learning, or as a standalone activity when the team only has a few minutes to spare.
What are 10 good lunch foods for work?
Salads, grain bowls, tacos, sandwiches, wraps, sushi, poke bowls, burritos, soups, and pizza all travel well and hold up for a virtual lunch, since they are easy to eat on camera and simple to customize for different dietary restrictions. Letting each person choose from a wide restaurant selection, rather than one preset menu, tends to work better than picking a single cuisine for the whole team.
How do you buy lunch for remote employees?
The most common approach is setting a per-person meal budget and letting each employee order for themselves from wherever they are working, rather than trying to coordinate one big order across time zones. DoorDash for Business offers a few ways to do this: meal budgets for recurring spend and meal vouchers for one-off events.
How much should a company budget for a virtual lunch?
There is no universal number, since it depends on group size, location, and whether the session includes an activity like a cooking class. Instead of setting one fixed amount, most companies find it easier to set a per-person meal budget and let each employee order within that limit, which flexes naturally with the size of the group.
How do you get remote employees to actually show up?
Keep it optional, survey the team on topics ahead of time, and always cover the meal. Attendance drops fast the moment a virtual lunch starts to feel mandatory or like it is competing with someone's actual lunch break.
