Where to find healthier eateries for your kids

Forget cheeseburgers and fish fingers, this new program aims to give children’s cafe and restaurant menus a healthy overhaul.

Move over chicken nuggets and chips, two of Brisbane’s most popular eatery brands have joined the fight to make children’s menus at cafes and restaurants healthier.

Nodo Donuts and Cheeky Poke Bar have signed up to Health and Wellbeing Queensland’s (HWQld) Healthy Kids Menu initiative, which encourages food venues to ditch the cheeseburgers and fried fish, in favour of more nutritious meals for little ones filled with fruit, veg and wholegrains.

With a whopping one-third of the average household budget these days spent on dining out, HWQld chief executiveRobyn Littlewoodsaid the move couldn’t come soon enough.

“Overweight or obesity in kids is one in four,” she said.

“We know now with discretionary spending so high on eating out we need to do something to support cafes and restaurants around this.”

Zoe Munro, 12, Benjamin Raethke, 2, Ethan Raethke, 5, and Lucy Munro, 10, try out some healthy breakfasts from Nodo cafe in Newstead. Picture: Brad Fleet

The initiative provides cafes and restaurants with nutritional guidelines and a variety of recipes for how they can create a healthy menu for children that still tastes delicious, but is good for them.

Owner Kate Williams of Nodo, which has eight outlets across Brisbane, said she was thrilled to join the state government-run program as it built on her brand’s reputation for wholesome food and supported our youth into the future.

“People are dining out a lot more now than when they used to and I think it’s so important to have healthy choices for kids when eating out,” she said.

Although her cafes already had nutritious offerings for children, she said joining the initiative encouraged her team to step it up even further, creating a healthy waffle made with probiotic flour topped with coconut yoghurt and fruit, a vegetable rosti crowned with organic ham and an egg, and a brisket burger with house-made ketchup.

“I’ve got three kids now and as a parent you want to know you’re giving your child a good meal,” Williams said.

Cafes can learn more about the program at hw.qld.gov.au/healthy-kids-menu