Illini Country Club in Springfield, Ill., offers the Fit & Fresh Grab & Go Lunch program, allowing member children (and their parents) to choose and pick up a custom-packed lunch.
As a growing number of schools employ professional chefs to craft healthy and delicious lunch menus, kids from Illini Country Club in Springfield, Ill., are already one step ahead, thanks to the club’s Fit & Fresh Grab & Go Lunch program, which allows member children (and their parents) to choose and pick up a custom-packed lunch made by the club.
The program is the brainchild of Executive Chef Mark Andrews, CEC, who came up with the idea when he was inspired to reinvent Illini CC’s kids’ menus after attending C&RB’s 2015 Chef to Chef Conference in Savannah, Ga.
“There had been a lot of discussion about the lack of healthy food offerings to that segment of the membership,” says Andrews, who revamped Illini’s menus to align with the USDA “Choose My Plate” program, which promotes healthy eating by combining local, fresh, healthy ingredients and preparation methods that let kids make better food choices.
Today, when kids dine at Illini CC, they can craft their own meal by picking one item from each of five categories: proteins, vegetables, grains and starches, fruits, and dairy. Each category has eight or nine choices, including black-bean burgers, grilled shrimp, asparagus, carrot and celery sticks, whole-wheat pasta, apple slices, pineapple, flavored yogurt, and cottage cheese. All meals cost $9, regardless of what is ordered.
Saving Kids from the “Lunch Ladies”
Once he had the a la carte menu in shape, a light bulb went off for Andrews. “It seemed obvious and easy to expand the program to school lunches,” he says. “Not only would the kids be able to choose a healthy and delicious meal, it would provide a convenience to their parents they can’t get anywhere else.”
Andrews created an abbreviated menu for the lunch offer, with more portable choices like sandwiches, granola bars, grape tomatoes, and whole-wheat crackers. When selecting what they want in their lunch, kids can choose one of four items in each of five categories (main bites, fruit, snacks, veggies, and grains and starches). The lunches cost $6 each and are available for order and pickup at the club on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
“Since we do our own printing at the club, the paper was the only real cost for the menu change,” Andrews reports. “I also bought a case of to-go bento boxes for about .65 each.”
Once the program was ready, Illini CC’s General Manager/COO, Joe Burden, CCM, wrote a blurb in the club’s newsletter to introduce and explain the concept, as part of promoting the direction of the new kids’ food programs.
“Generally, we do better with the school lunches in the fall, when members get excited about the new school year, than in the spring,” Andrews reports. “But parents are really excited to have this option for their children; this past year we increased revenue from our kids’ menu by 15%.”
A key to sustaining momentum, Andrews adds, is remembering to consistently promote the program. “It has to be refreshed in the members’ minds throughout the school year,” he says. “They need to see [promotion about] it on a regular basis.”
Going forward, Illini CC plans to create similar on-property meal options both in the club’s newly developed “Parents-Free Zone” (for children ages four to eight) and “Tween Room” (for ages nine through 12). “These kinds of programs help members meet their minimums,” says Andrews, “while providing convenient, healthy food that’s made fresh, just for them.”
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