CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Inspired by the Culinary Institute of America and Harvard School of Public Health’s Menus of Change, an initiative that focuses on the business of healthy, sustainable food choices, Compass Group has decided to adopt four key principles from that project to drive all of its menu decision moving forward.
"Not only is this the right thing to do for a sustainable future, it's also a progressive wellness benefit for our clients and a significant menu expansion for our customers," said Rick Post, Compass Group's chief operations officer, in a statement. "Compass Group serves seven million meals a day and adopting this program may benefit clients by improving healthy lifestyle choices of their associates and the health of the planet."
The four guiding principles are:
- Increasing customers' access to vegetables and fruits by focusing on globally inspired, largely plant-based cooking.
- Including recipes and concepts where meat plays more of a supporting role, reducing red meat portion sizes and offerings, and leveraging strategies from seasonal and local flavors, vegetable proteins and global cuisines.
- Increasing the number of offerings of grain options that are more than 50 percent whole grain.
- Employing conscious menuing and messaging that promotes health and sustainability through inspiring menus, customer interaction at the chef's table and telling the story about great food.
The food management firm has developed a Menus of Change scorecard to help benchmark and measure the progress of the initiative. The scorecard will measure the purchasing volume of produce and red meat, as well as the spend on whole grains.
Launched in 2012 as an educational project, Menus of Change brought together representatives from all areas of foodservice, from operators and chefs to scientists and policy makers, to push for healthier, more sustainable menus throughout the industry.