Panera CEO Initiates ‘Kids Meal’ Challenge

CEO Ron Shaich invites the CEOs from McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s to eat exclusively from their kids’ menus for a week.

October 03, 2017

ST. LOUIS – Panera Bread announced on Sept. 20 a new approach to the kids’ menu, where children can choose almost any item on the Panera menu as a smaller sized entree. To spark further dialogue for change, Ron Shaich, Panera’s founder, chairman and CEO, challenged leading restaurant industry CEOs to join him in eating from their kids’ menus exclusively for seven straight days.

“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,” said Shaich. “I’m challenging the CEOs of some of the largest companies in the industry—McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s—to personally eat exclusively from their restaurants’ kids’ meals for an entire week—and if not, to take a thoughtful look at what they are offering our smallest guests.”

In August 2016, Panera issued its Kids Meal Promise to express the company’s 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 food for kids. Panera’s five tenets of the Kids Meal Promise include:

  • Clean. No artificial flavors, preservatives, sweeteners or colors from artificial sources in any
    menu item.
  • 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. Growing bodies need a meal complete with nutritious sides. Not fries, not onion rings. Options like organic yogurt, sprouted grain rolls, apples or no side at all.
  • No sugar-laden drinks as part of a meal. Kids meals shouldn’t be bundled with a sugary drink.

Shape.com reports that so far, none of the three CEOs from McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s have accepted Shaich’s challenge. However, one Denver-based eatery did step up to the plate: Garbanzo Mediterranean Grill’s executive team says it will eat the company's kids' meals not just for one week, but for 30 days and will raise money for charity while doing so.

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