I'd like to describe the canteen at the garment factory where I work as a quality supervisor, just outside Chittagong in Bangladesh. It's on the top floor of the main building, so it gets quite hot in summer, but there are big ceiling fans that make it bearable.
It's one huge room with long metal tables and benches, enough for about four hundred people at a time. The walls are painted pale green, and there are posters about hand washing and fire safety everywhere. At one end there's a serving counter where the kitchen staff dish out food from enormous steel pots.
The food is simple and very much what people eat at home. Every day there's rice, lentil soup and a vegetable curry, and three days a week there's fish or chicken. On Thursdays they make a special biryani, and you can tell it's Thursday just by the length of the queue. The company pays for most of the cost, so we only pay a tiny amount each month.
Overall, I feel quite positive about it. Most of our workers are young women who've moved from villages, and for some of them it's the most balanced meal they get all day. So I think it does a lot of good. It's also the one time when supervisors and machine operators sit together and chat, which helps everyone get along. That said, it isn't perfect. The lunch break is only forty minutes and the queue can take fifteen, so people end up gulping their food. I've suggested opening a second counter, and the management have promised to look into it.