Panera CEO Challenges Fast-Food Executives To Eat Their Chains' Kids' Meals For A Week
Panera Bread just released the largest "clean" kids' menu of any national restaurant chain. Its contents feature classic half-size portions of regular menu items such as mac and cheese, broccoli cheddar soup, and Greek salad. Now, Panera founder and CEO Ron Shaich is asking other fast-food restaurateurs to join him in eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner off their chain's kids' menu for an entire week.
"For too long, restaurants in America have served menus full of nutritionally empty chicken nuggets, pizza and fries, paired with sugary drinks and cheap toys," he said in a press release. Shaich calls on McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's CEOs to take a hard look at their kids' menu offerings.
Hey @Wendys, @BurgerKing & @McDonalds – Would you eat off your kids' menu for a week? Join me in the #KidsMenuChallenge – Ron pic.twitter.com/v61cRNKM7A
— Panera Bread (@panerabread) September 20, 2017
"I want to say to them, would you really eat your own kids' meals for a week?" Shaich told Business Insider. "What do you think the nutritional content of that food you'd be eating is? Do you feel good about that? And, if you don't feel good about it, why would you serve it to kids?"
In August 2016, Panera issued its Kids Meal Promise, in which the company vowed to avoid artificial ingredients and preservatives while aiming to pair healthy food options with nutritional sides like organic yogurt, sprouted grain rolls, and apples instead of onion rings and fries. To wash it all down, kids can have water, organic milk, or 100 percent juice.
We want the #KidsMenuChallenge to inspire real change in the food industry. We're making changes. We urge others to do the same. pic.twitter.com/uwuwV3fSny
— Panera Bread (@panerabread) September 21, 2017
"At Panera, we say let kids be picky — our cafes should offer the same choices and transparency to children as we do to adults. We're not saying a child will suddenly order a salad over mac & cheese — but kids can surprise you when they have positive options to choose from," the chain's director of wellness and food policy, Sara Burnett, said in a statement. "We believe we should not induce the consumption of these nutritionally empty meals by marketing a kids' meal with toys and cartoon characters."
The inclusion of cheap toys in McDonald's Happy Meals has driven children to ask that their parents bring them to the chain. Though Shaich pinpoints the restaurant's unhealthy options, like fries, McDonald's has recently replaced Minute Maid apple juice boxes with Honest organic apple juice, which has less calories and sugar. The chain also offers milk and apples. For more nutritional facts on the Golden Arches' food, here are the healthiest McDonald's menu items.