Panera Offers Kids Organic and All-Natural Items…and a Free Lunch Coupon
Panera Bread Co. announced it is now the first U.S. chain with a kids' menu touting organic and all-natural items. Great news!
And watch for a one-day-only coupon for a free kids’ meal, offered online on June 21 The coupon, promoted as a thank you to parents for preparing children's lunches during the school year, will only be valid on June 21, the first day of summer. (A parent must buy a regularly priced menu item.)
New kids’ options at Panera include
• a grilled cheese sandwich made with organic American cheese
• all-natural peanut butter and jelly
• organic American cheese with roast beef, smoked ham, or smoked turkey.
Panera is serving the sandwiches on white whole-grain bread that has the soft feel of white bread with the added nutrition of whole grains. Sides include Horizon Organic Squeezable Yogurt and a choice of Horizon Organic milk or chocolate milk, or organic apple juice.
John Taylor, Panera's director of new product development, said the menu was developed in about a year and a half. Real kids taste-tested the items at Panera restaurants.
Quoting Taylor from the Reuters article: "What really drove the development of all of the items was food that kids say 'Whoa, hey I really like this and I'll eat it' but food that parents felt provided a better option than what they could get out there today."
The Panera Kids menu makes its debut days after a new report funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that restaurants can help prevent obesity by offering and promoting more low-calorie, healthy items.
Panera is not the first chain to add choices that make meals more palatable to parents looking for healthier fare for their Quixies. At McDonald's, for instance, children can order apples and low-fat caramel dip instead of French fries, and drinks such as apple juice and milk can be substituted for soft drinks.
And then there are the new Wendy's choices I posted about here last week.
The Panera Kids meals do not include toys or prizes, which are familiar components in meals at those fast food chains. The meals are priced at $4.49 at company-owned locations, or a couple of dollars below the average price of meals aimed at adults. Reuters says the Panera Kids menu hit all U.S. restaurants on May 24 after tests in Dallas Ft. Worth and Nashville.
Reuters says the kids' menu follows other health-related changes made at Panera. Since February, items have been free of trans fats except where they occur naturally. Panera also began selling antibiotic-free white meat chicken in most of its sandwiches and salads last year.
Panera is based in Richmond Heights, Missouri, and has about 900 U.S. locations.
Nice. This will be a great new option when Baby A and I meet TWH for lunch on workdays.