# I have a question



## zedraki (May 18, 2020)

hi there! i run a family restaurant in Toronto but we serve fast food. how can I encourage children to eat healthy when the accompany their parents? do you offer a special menu for children?


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## sgsvirgil (Mar 1, 2017)

Hello and welcome to CT. 

I never had a children's menu, per se. I offered children's portions of the main entree items. 

However, encouraging a child to eat healthy is not really something that can be done effectively by someone who only has transient contact with them as we do. We can mold and shape our own children's eating habits. But, encouraging someone else's children to eat healthy when they come into our eateries cannot be done beyond our choices of what we put on our menus. 

Having said that, I suppose you could engineer your children's menu to include more healthy selections that would be appealing to a child. But, beyond that, I don't think there's much more you can do. 

Good luck.


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## zedraki (May 18, 2020)

sgsvirgil said:


> Hello and welcome to CT.
> 
> I never had a children's menu, per se. I offered children's portions of the main entree items.
> 
> ...


thank you so much for sharing your experience


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## chefwriter (Oct 31, 2012)

You seem to be stating a contradiction. You are a family restaurant serving fast food concerned about the eating habits of children but imply you do not serve healthy choices right now.. 
What makes it fast food? What makes it. a family restaurant? What is on your menu that you do not consider a healthy choice? 
How difficult would it be to include a few healthy options for all the customers, with adult portions and a children's portion? How would you alter the menu to be a more healthy menu overall?


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## zedraki (May 18, 2020)

sgsvirgil said:


> Hello and welcome to CT.
> 
> I never had a children's menu, per se. I offered children's portions of the main entree items.
> 
> ...


thank you


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## meezenplaz (Jan 31, 2012)

i see the ultimate goal here is to entice more parents to comeb back to YOUR restaurant, vs someone elses. IMO, providing a few ...certifiably...healthy child entrees could do just that. Sure it seems contradictory, 
but its really not--I can think of many people who would feel better about going to their fave fast food if they could...nudge their kids to a healthier menu item, while they chow down on that burger and fries.


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## dc1346 (Nov 28, 2014)

How can you serve fast food to the parents while offering healthier options to the kids? I'm not judging you. I'm just suggesting that this might seem unfair from the children's point of view. Can you imagine a kid having to eat broccoli while the parents enjoyed fries? Shouldn't the parents model what they preach by making healthy choices themselves ... which would then beg the question as to why they would be in a fast food place to begin with.

Fast food is comfort food. What's wrong with allowing children to enjoy this food if this is what their parents are eating? 

Here's an alternative. Offer a family meal with an entree and sides that would then allow the parents to control their child's portion size?


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## Seoul Food (Sep 17, 2018)

dc1346 said:


> How can you serve fast food to the parents while offering healthier options to the kids? I'm not judging you. I'm just suggesting that this might seem unfair from the children's point of view. Can you imagine a kid having to eat broccoli while the parents enjoyed fries? Shouldn't the parents model what they preach by making healthy choices themselves ... which would then beg the question as to why they would be in a fast food place to begin with.
> 
> Fast food is comfort food. What's wrong with allowing children to enjoy this food if this is what their parents are eating?
> 
> Here's an alternative. Offer a family meal with an entree and sides that would then allow the parents to control their child's portion size?


Part of being a parent for me at least is also teaching my kids life isn't fair, and just because one person gets a burger and fries doesn't mean everyone does. They are children, and when they grow up, get jobs and buy their own stuff they can decide if they want the fatty burger over the grilled chicken. Plus to be honest, a lot of kids menu items aren't that healthy to begin with. Sometimes fast food is a necessity as you need a quick meal or the family, but that doesn't mean you have to feed your kids junk. As far as being comfort food, that is debatable, and I would hope there would be a broader list of these foods for families other than fast food.


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