Panera Bread announced a new approach to kids food—children can choose almost any item on the Panera menu as a smaller sized entree, resulting in more than 250 clean menu combinations. To spark further dialogue for change, Panera founder, Chairman and CEO Ron Shaich challenged leading restaurant industry CEOs to join him in eating from their kids menus exclusively for seven straight days.
In August 2016, Panera issued its Kids Meal Promise to express the company’s long-held beliefs about kids meals and commitments relative to its Panera Kids menu. The promise is meant to be a challenge to the restaurant industry and to all food manufacturers who offer kids food. The five tenets of the Kids Meal Promise include:
- Clean. No artificial flavors, preservatives, sweeteners or colors from artificial sources in any menu item (as publicly defined on Panera’s No No List).
- No marketing gimmicks. No cartoon characters, crazy colors, toys, or toy-shaped food.
- Real options. Let kids be kids. Let them be picky. Let them make their own choices from a menu full of tasty, wholesome options.
- Nutritiously paired. Options like organic yogurt, sprouted grain rolls, apples or no side at all.
- No sugar-laden drinks as part of a meal.
For more information, visit panerabread.com
