November 15, 2012 - Last month, the National Restaurant Association and McCormick for Chefs launched its Kids Recipe Challenge, a competition to showcase the restaurant and foodservice industry’s culinary ingenuity for creating healthful menu items for children. SNA is supporting this exciting new program and encouraging members to submit school meal recipes for consideration.
The contest is designed to recognize the best recipes used on children's menus at restaurants and other foodservice establishments around the country. The collaboration highlights how organizations can work together to ensure young people have ready access to healthy, nutritious food throughout their communities.
Restaurant and foodservice operators interested in participating in the Kids Recipe Challenge can submit one or more recipes from their children's menus that meet the nutrition guidelines of the NRA's Kids LiveWellSM initiative and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's MyPlate program. Participants can compete in four categories: independent restaurants or companies with fewer than 20 units; multi-unit company with more than 20 units; contract-managed foodservice; and independent noncommercial foodservice (including school foodservice). A panel of industry professionals will select the contest's finalists and elementary school students will choose the winners. The deadline for recipe submissions is Jan. 7, 2013. For details on submitting recipes, visit www.restaurant.org/recipe.
Winners of the contest will be flown to will be revealed at the 2013 National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show, May 18-21 in Chicago.
The Kids Recipe Challenge is a complement to Kids LiveWell, which the NRA launched in July 2011 in collaboration with Healthy Dining to help parents and children find healthful menu options when dining out. To date, more than 100 brands representing nearly 30,000 restaurants are participating in Kids LiveWell.