Sowing the seeds

Adventures in healthy eating

As many families now eat out regularly, more and more parents face the dilemma of finding a family friendly restaurant that also serves healthy food for their children.

All too often, children’s menus consist of unhealthy burgers, pizza, chicken nuggets, and, of course, chips with everything. It doesn’t have to be this way; healthier options on the children’s menu can be just as popular with young customers as with parents.

Soft play centres, supermarket cafés, family restaurants and sports clubs have all achieved the healthyliving award for their efforts in successfully introducing innovative and healthy children’s menus.

Making sure children are able to eat healthily is a major focus of the healthyliving award and anywhere catering for youngsters must provide them with healthy options. This means offering child-sized portions of a variety of the adult meals on the menu and providing alternatives to chips, such as baked potatoes or pasta.

Fruit, vegetables or salad must be served as part of every child’s meal and drinks such as milk, unsweetened fruit juice or water should be offered.

The Beech Tree Inn, near Killearn, is one family restaurant that offers a wide-ranging children’s menu with lots of choice. When proprietor Lynne Aldritt took over the popular restaurant and bar in 2004 she was keen to make this menu healthy from the start.

She explained, “We offer child-sized portions of some of the healthier adult meals, which the kids love, as well as the traditional favourites like burgers and nuggets; however we place these further down the menu so that they see the healthier options first.”

Parents can help promote healthier eating amongst children when dining out so don’t be afraid to let café and restaurant managers know if the menu is not what you want for your children.

Similarly, if your favourite place is doing a good job of promoting healthier eating, why not encourage them to apply for the healthyliving award? Their good work should be recognised and the more places that have the award, the more caterers will be encouraged to get involved.

At Currie Rugby Football Club, in Midlothian, a group of mums have taken things a stage further by taking the catering for the Minis section into their own hands. When Kim Haggart, Sheelagh Jones and Lesley Dunleavy took over the post-match catering, they ditched the traditional pies and sausage rolls and introduced a menu of filled rolls, salad, homemade soup, pasta and fruit.

Kim told us, “The new menu took a bit of getting used to by the children but now they love it, especially the fruit, and it is accepted as the norm. The new menu has gone down very well with the parents, too.”

Andy Hixon, owner of TimeTwisters Soft Play Centre in Edinburgh, set out with the intention of providing healthy food for the children that come to the centre. He says, “Why build in quality to all other aspects of your business only to let yourself down by not offering good quality, healthy and nutritious food to your customers? Our healthier approach to our menu has become a fundamental part of our growing reputation, and has proven popular with both parents and children.”

Many establishments like TimeTwisters see gaining the healthyliving award as a reflection of their commitment to quality and of providing healthy food to children as a matter of course. After all, children are the future of healthy eating.

Download this issue in PDF format
Food Service Sector
Involved in the food service sector and would like to know more? Click here
Customers
Do you sometimes want to eat healthily when eating out? Click here
issue five: February 2008
Change font size
The healthyliving awardNHS Health Scotland - Scotland's health improvement agencyHealthier Scotland - Scottish GovernmentHealthier Scotland - Scottish Government