This guide is for the office manager, team lead or founder who has noticed that the afternoon snack of choice is whatever's in the tin.
1. Start with the lunch break
The afternoon starts at lunch. If people eat at their desks, skip lunch to clear the inbox or grab something from the vending machine on the way to a meeting, no snack shelf will fix that.
South African labour law already sets a baseline. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act says an employer must give an employee who works continuously for more than five hours a meal interval of at least one continuous hour; a written agreement can reduce that to no less than 30 minutes (Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, section 14). Treat it as a floor, not a formality:
- Block lunch in shared calendars and avoid booking meetings over it.
- Give people somewhere to eat that isn't their keyboard.
- If you cater, favour meals with a proper mix of food groups over a platter of pastries.
2. Make water the easy option
"Drink lots of clean, safe water" is one of South Africa's official food-based dietary guidelines (FAO summary). In practice that means putting water where people already walk: a dispenser by the kettle, jugs in meeting rooms, a glass on the table before a long session. It costs almost nothing and it's the simplest thing on this list.
3. Build an afternoon snack shelf that isn't mostly sugar
The same guidelines say to use sugar and foods and drinks high in sugar sparingly. Most office snack shelves drift the other way because sweets are cheap, last forever and nobody has to think about them.
A better default is a shelf built from food groups people already know:
| Instead of only… | Add… | Why it works in an office |
|---|---|---|
| Biscuits with tea | Whole fruit, nuts, crackers with peanut butter | Ambient, cheap in bulk, easy to portion |
| Sweets in the meeting room | A bowl of fruit and a jar of mixed nuts | Visible and shareable |
| Fizzy drinks | Water, rooibos, milk for coffee | Covers most of what people drink anyway |
| Vending-machine chocolate | Ambient nut-and-seed bars | A proper snack between meetings |
Keep treats for birthdays and Fridays, not as the permanent 3pm default.
4. Be honest about "healthy" snacks
A lot of snacks sold as healthy are sweets with better packaging. Read the back of the pack: the ingredient list runs from most to least by weight, and sugar and fibre together tell you a lot.
"Natural" sweeteners count too. The World Health Organization defines free sugars as including sugars added by manufacturers and those naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices, and recommends adults keep them below 10% of daily energy intake (WHO, 2015).
We hold ourselves to the same standard. Our Original bar is bound with honey and dates, so we won't call it sugar-free or low sugar. What we will say is that it's built from real nuts and seeds, with a clear protein figure on the pack once the final recipe is tested. Steady fuel, not a sugar-rush snack.
5. Plan for how your team actually works
- Site and field teams: stock ambient options that survive a hot bakkie, like nuts, bars and whole fruit.
- Shift teams: make sure the late shift isn't left with an empty shelf; restock on a schedule, not when someone notices.
- Hybrid teams: stock for in-office days and keep it smaller and fresher.
- Meeting-heavy days: a bowl on the boardroom table does more than a note in the kitchen.
- Allergies and dietary needs: ask, label and keep options for people who avoid nuts, dairy or gluten.
6. Put restocking on autopilot
The shelf usually fails not because people don't want better food, but because nobody owns restocking. Put it in someone's job, set a monthly budget and use deliveries where you can.
That's the gap GetProtein for teams is built for: a monthly box of chunky nut-and-seed bars (for example 24 or 48 bars a month) delivered by courier to offices anywhere in South Africa and invoiced to the company. Food to get the job done, sitting alongside the fruit bowl.
We're signing up founding companies ahead of our first run. Add your company to the waitlist and we'll come back to you with founding-company pricing.