When I worked in a kitchen at a pizza place in the summer of '88, the restaurant chain's policy was that staff could have any food they wanted, free of charge. They just had to note it in a ledger (I assume so that the restaurant could record it as an expense). You could drink as much soda as you wanted without noting it because it was too cheap to care about.

It always seemed like a perfectly rational policy. It's an easy and cheap way to make your employees think you care about them.