First Lady, Subway Partner to Fight Childhood Obesity

MILFORD, Conn.Subway® has joined First Lady, Michelle Obama, in the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) and promoting healthier choices to kids for the next three years by launching its largest kid-targeted marketing effort to date.

As part of its commitment, the restaurant chain will launch a series of new campaigns aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in children; set and implement new marketing standards to kids; and strengthen its childrens menu offerings.

Im excited about these initiatives not just as a First Lady, but also as a mom," said Obama. Subways kids menu makes life easier for parents, because they know that no matter what their kids order, its going to be a healthy choice."

The commitment follows the first-ever White House convening on food marketing to children this fall, during which Obama called on the private sector to leverage the power of marketing to promote healthier products and decrease the marketing of unhealthy products to kids. In addition, the collaboration between the Sesame Workshop and Produce Marketing Association (PMA) aimed to increase children's consumption of fruits and vegetables was announced in October.

The Subway  restaurant chain is the first and only quick service chain to join PHA, which works with the private sector and ObamaPHAs honorary chairto broker meaningful commitments to help end the childhood obesity epidemic.

Subway will only offer items on its kids menu that meet strong nutritional guidelines informed by federal standards for the national school lunch program, including offering apples as a side and low-fat or non-fat milk or water as a default beverage. Additionally, the chain will deliver $41 million in media value in the next three years to market healthier options to children and families, with a specific focus on increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables.

Ending childhood obesity is a cause that has been near and dear to Subway since we introduced the Fresh Fit for Kids Meals in 2007," said Suzanne Greco, vice president of R&D and operations for the Subway brand. With this partnership with PHA, we will now reach millions of kids as part of a healthier eating education campaign, making it our largest outreach campaign to date. From a sign on each restaurants door that says Playtime Powered by Veggies to a video collaboration with Disneys The Muppets, we will build upon our ongoing efforts to create even better choices for families. We hold ourselves to the highest standards in the industry when it comes to speaking to children and their families. Now we are letting everyone else know what that standard is."