The canteen at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) headquarters has gone from serving full meals to largely serving tea, coffee, packaged biscuits, and omelette-pav for staff, with the contractor attributing the change to falling demand and a smaller workforce after COVID.

Once a regular breakfast and lunch stop, the canteen served idli, medu vada, dosa and poha, along with rice, dal, and bhaji. “After COVID, very few people started ordering food, so it became difficult to continue with so many items,” the contractor said.