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Resources for Restaurants & Foodservice
Need to write, design or improve a Kid's Menu?
Most parents say that healthy and nutritious food is a priority for children. But they're also keen to avoid the drama of making kids eat what they don't enjoy - that's a battle best left for home. A smart kids menu is an essential part of restaurant success.
The drums are beating: it's the sounds of parents and legislators who can no-longer ignore childhood obesity. This issue is NOT going away.
You don't have to be a substitute parent. But you do need menu items they approve of. Large chains take this very seriously, constantly trialling new menus to find the winning combination: food that is profitable, healthy and cravable. Food that children want to eat - and that's not usually broccoli!
This regular Smart Strategy Update will bring you the latest on kids menus from restaurants, hotels, chefs and the media, showing how to combine popular, nutritious children's food with successful business operations. You can also follow Child Nutrition and Kids Menus: More Articles
Comments, tips and suggestions are very welcome.
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| Colouring Pages to keep kids occupied and parents calm |
| They're an easy way to keep little fingers occupied, and you'll find hundreds with food themes, ready to print at Coloring Pages. Search by subject matter eg fish, apple, cow etc...
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| Tuesday, Aug 17, 2010 09:04 |
| Meatless Mondays: interesting idea for Kids Menus? |
| Meatless Monday is 'an international movement to help people reduce their meat consumption by 15%, in order to improve personal health and the health of the planet. In the US, the tradition of Meatless Mondays began in WWI, when the FDA encouraged the rationing of meat, wheat and other staples to help the war effort. The campaign was relaunched in 2003 as a public health campaign to help individuals reduce their saturated fat intake.' As the website shows, it's been enthusiastically embraced by schools and public health groups - an interesting option for your Kids Menu, even if it means adding extra non-meat options. The US Humane Society also has a ton of suggested vegetarian recipes.
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| Saturday, Jun 05, 2010 07:48 |
| Taking the Adorables to Restaurants: Tips for Parents |
| Lots of useful ideas from parents on making the restaurant experience enjoyable for themselves and their children: see Taking the Adorables to Restaurants. So how can restaurants make these ideas work for them?
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| Saturday, May 08, 2010 05:09 |
| Does Ronald McDonald make it harder to sell healthy food to kids? |
 Quite likely! You're not the only foodservice professional frustrated by his endless capers undermining the taste of young diners. The Retire Ronald website has a simple message:
For nearly 50 years no one has been better at hooking kids on unhealthy food, spurring an epidemic of diet-related disease. Ronald deserves a break, and so do we! For alarming reading, check the sites detailed report Clowning With Kids' Health: The Case for Ronald McDonald's Retirement.
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| Monday, Apr 05, 2010 05:58 |
| Jamie Oliver at TED: 'Teach every child about food'. What does this mean for restaurants? |
| Jamie Oliver is going head to head with America's Obesity epidemic. He wants to 'educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity'. How do we back up the message in our kids menus and the food and drink we offer?
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| Saturday, Feb 13, 2010 06:05 |
| Fooditude - a new food show for kids |
| Fooditude is an upcoming food show for kids in the US, covering cooking and nutrition, food science, environmental issues, culture, history and gardening. Their focus is on getting kids to eat better, more healthy food. Here's the promo video:
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| Monday, Nov 30, 2009 09:31 |
| Competing with the Sugar Pushers when developing a healthy Kids Menu |
| No wonder it's hard to promote healthy Kids Menu items when high-sugar breakfast cereals set the standard for children's taste experiences. Here's a recent example of advertising for Froot Loops - it contains 44% sugar by weight and insignificant amounts of fibre. What does 44% sugar look like? A 100g (4 oz) serve contains 44g of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of sugar = 5g. So that's almost 9 teaspoons of sugar in that bowl of Froot Loops - ouch! Another way to visualise sugar uses the equivalent number of cubes or sugar sachets - see the great examples at Sugarstacks. And that Coke or soda your staff grabbed for an energy hit because they skipped breakfast? Work out the sugar content from information on the can, then you know why their energy sags in the afternoon...
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| Saturday, Nov 28, 2009 03:43 |
| Starting and developing a child's interest in food - thoughts from Brasserie Bread |
 Sydney's Brasserie Bread do a great job with weekly cooking classes for kids, and have been reviewing the programme for next year. They make an important point:
Sustaining a passion and lively interest in food is a process. Growing that interest isn't just simply achieved after the first discovery, just as growing healthy eating habits for life isn't achieved after one baking class, or one excursion. Read the rest of this thoughtful article...
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| Friday, Nov 27, 2009 01:10 |
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