Healthy kids’ meals ranked No. 4 in the National Restaurant Association’s “What’s Hot 2015 Culinary Forecast,” a survey of nearly 1,300 professional chefs. Also on the list were whole-grain items in kids’ meals (No. 14) and fruit/vegetable children’s sides (No. 19).
But are convenience store-operators taking any notice?
Rutter’s Farm Stores is. For the past three years, the 60-location, York, Pa.-based chain has been offering kids’ meals, including sliders, hot dogs and grilled cheese for $3.29. Healthy sides are on the docket alongside more traditional offerings: Milk and juice are available, along with fountain beverages, and children can pick a piece of whole fruit (apple, banana or orange) instead of fries or mac and cheese bites.
These meals were added to Rutter’s foodservice lineup as a way to drive parents into the chain’s stores. The idea, says vice president of foodservice Jerry Weiner, was that parents would pick up something for their kids, and perhaps they’d grab something for themselves at the same time.
It was important to feature healthier sides, Weiner says, to make the meals appealing to moms, typically the parent responsible for their kids’ meals. He also decided to offer grilled cheese with or without crusts, which, he says, “doesn’t make a big difference operationally, but to moms, it’s a big deal.”
This is right on track, says Donna Hood Crecca, senior director of Chicago-based research firm Technomic Inc. “Anything that can help [today’s busy mom] find a healthy, quality, affordable, easy and convenient solution to feed her kids is a good thing,” she says.
Rutter’s options for kids reflect what’s happening across the industry. You can recite most restaurants’ kids’ menus in your sleep—mac and cheese, cheese pizza, chicken fingers—though many now come with better-for-you sides and drinks, such as apple slices, carrot sticks or milk.
So what’s the next step in the evolution of kids’ meals? A look at leading restaurants and c-stores reveals a continuation toward health, along with higher-quality and even more sophisticated offerings.
The restaurant industry is taking a more serious looking at healthy eating. This spring, famed chef Roy Choi plans to open his new fast-food chain, Loco’l, which will focus on healthy offerings. And Beefsteak, the new fast-casual chain from José Andrés, is slated to open this month in Washington, D.C. There, vegetables will be the stars, with meat offered as a side dish.
Kids’ menus are reflecting this overarching shift. The Original Pancake House franchise group in the Dallas-Fort Worth area partnered with Medical City Children’s Hospital to create a health-conscious kids’ menu. The resulting Kids Fit Menu allows kids to custom-build meals, mixing and matching fruits, grains, vegetables, proteins, dairy products and nuts for a flat price of $3.99—all in an interactive, game-like menu.
Tupelo Honey Café, an eight-location chain based in Asheville, N.C., gives kids a Color My Plate option, through which children select three vegetable sides and try to get as many colors as possible onto their plate. “They like the idea that they’re building it themselves,” says spokesperson Elizabeth Simms.
Denver-based chain Tokyo Joe’s offers chicken teriyaki and a peanut butter and jelly sushi roll for the under-12s. “Kids have a propensity to eat healthy food if they’re given the opportunity,” says founder Larry Leith.
These dishes may be a little sophisticated for c-stores, but a report published last March by Chicago-based research firm Mintel shows 71% of parents with children ages 11 and under said they’d like c-stores to carry more healthy foods.
They want convenience, too, but not at the cost of health, according to Julia Gallo-Torres, category manager of foodservice for Mintel. Almost two-thirds of parents of children ages 11 and under told Mintel they feel they sacrifice health for convenience at c-stores. “This shows there’s still a lot of room to improve,” she says.
Maeve Webster, director of Datassential, a food industry market research firm in Chicago, predicts we’ll simply see smaller portions of adult food to cater to a generation of more sophisticated young diners—which will make back-of-house execution easier.
And that’s similar to what Rutter’s is offering, except the chain is dishing up the adult portions to kids, just packaged to appeal to young consumers in cute bags that include crayons and activities.
Offering the same foods was essential to the success of this program, Weiner says, both to make it easier to execute and to keep SKUs under control.
Beyond the execution, there was another essential factor of these kids’ meals: Weiner wanted consumers to see the food heated and assembled so they’d know it’s freshly prepared. “If you’re trying to make the case of fresh, you can’t just say it; you have to show it,” he points out.
Kids’ meals, says Crecca of Technomic, “have got to be done right. They’ve got to have health and freshness attributes and the overall foodservice offering has to be spotlessly clean.”
One thing that can go a long way toward reinforcing the “fresh” message, says New York restaurant consultant Arlene Spiegel, is using clear packaging so consumers can see what’s in kids’ meals if they’re preprepared. It’s also a good idea to date packages, she says, to emphasize freshness.
CONTINUED: Tedeschi's Working Lunch
Retailer-branded kids’ meals, such as those offered by Rutter’s, are a great idea for convenience stores. According to Mintel’s study, 62% of parents with children ages 5 and under say convenience stores’ own brands of packaged foods are good quality, so the opportunity’s there. It’s one Tedeschi Food Shops is also taking advantage of.
Last fall, the Rockland, Mass.-based c-store chain launched kids’ lunch bag kits, which are merchandised next to salads in the open-air refrigerated case and with sandwiches in the wall units—at kids’ eye level.
“While we do not specifically target kids, we are targeting time-starved working moms,” says Lisa Breagy, fresh food and culinary category manager. “Female consumers are looking for ‘better-for-you’ and ‘child-friendly’ meals, and one of the ways we are approaching that is through better choices.”
A lunch bag kit (called Working Lunch) contains a sandwich, apple slices and fruit punch box (100% juice) for $6.99; Tedeschi is now working on making the packages more eye-appealing for kids, Breagy says.
The best news, says Breagy, is that the sales of these kits are a new revenue stream and not cannibalizing other sales.
Tedeschi is also looking at a Snack All Day Pack that could serve as a meal for kids or a snack for adults. This will come in a small container with four compartments containing items such as celery sticks and dips, cheeses, nuts and a hard-boiled egg.
The kits have also opened up an entirely new opportunity for Tedeschi’s 23 delis: catering.
“This evolved from a request from high schools asking if we’d do a bag lunch program for the kids’ travel teams,” says Breagy. The lunch bags contain a sub or salad, a bottle of Tedeschi Select water, a small bag of chips and a pickle. Higher-priced bags will also contain a piece of whole fruit and a Clif Bar.
Customers will order these lunch bags as they would catering. One person will place the order for the whole team from order forms available in the school.
Each lunch bag costs $3.50 to $6.50, depending on what it contains, and margins range from 48% to 53%, says Breagy. If the program takes off, she hopes to expand it to camps in the summer.
“It was very important that [these lunches] were healthy,” but they don’t have to be health-crazy, she says. “Consumers want options.”
As with Rutter’s kids’ line, Tedeschi’s Working Lunches and Snack All Day Packs aren’t a lot of work, which keeps operational logistics and costs at bay, Breagy says: “It’s just another sandwich in the commissary.”
Millennial Parents in the Kitchen
Percent who report cooking most meals at home, compared to 80% of Gen-X parents and 85% of boomer parents.
Percent who report taking their kids out to a restaurant at least once a week, vs. 58% of Gen-X parents and 57% of boomer parents.
Percent who order takeout or delivery for their kids at least two to three times a week, vs. 29% of Gen-X parents and 15% of boomer parents.
Percent who say their children “have to try new foods; I don’t give them an option,” vs. 10% of parents from all age groups.
Source: Datassential/CIA Healthy Kids
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