I HAVE said it often and for long enough and thankfully the facts figures are now presenting themselves in the format to support it.
Children will eat smaller portions from the adult menu!
A recent survey by Nutrition & Health Foundation and Restaurants Association of Ireland shows that almost every parent wants their child to eat what they are having. Backing the claim that many “kids menu” offerings are just not good enough.
The two groups came together recently to launch ‘Kid Size Me’ Nationwide initiative.
Provision of child size portions of adult meals in restaurants is an important step forward in tackling Ireland’s childhood obesity levels and is at the heart of a new joint initiative called ‘Kid Size Me’ from the Nutrition & Health Foundation (NHF) and the Restaurants Association of Ireland (RAI).
The initiative aims to ensure children have access to healthier food options when dining out by making child size portions of adult meals available as an alternative to ordering from the standard children’s menu.
Participating restaurants will carry the new ‘Kids Size Me’ symbol on their menus and over the coming weeks consumers can log on to www.wheretoeat.ie to see a list of participating venues.
New research entitled ‘Eating Out With Children’, commissioned by the NHF, indicates the scale of demand for child size portions of adult meals with 98% of parents surveyed supporting the move. 80% of parents state they have dined in a restaurant or café where child size portions of adult meals were available in addition to the standard children’s menu. However, 3 out of 5 (58%) of those surveyed only became aware of this option by requesting it from restaurant staff as the offering was not advertised.
