Let's Move! Campaign On QSR List Of The Year's "100 Biggest Restaurant Stories"

It's that time of year when everyone's putting out year-end lists. QSR magazine, the leading media outlet covering the quick-service and fast casual restaurant industry, has today given First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign the #8 spot on its list of the 100 biggest stories of 2011. In September, Darden Restaurants, Inc., the largest chain restaurant company in the US, parent to Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Bahama Breeze, and Longhorn Steakhouse, committed itself to the Let's Move! campaign, pledging to revamp its menu offerings and marketing practices aimed at children.

"Darden is doing what no restaurant company has done before," Mrs. Obama said.

Highlighted in QSR placing Let's Move! on its list is the fact that the White House is seeking more support from quick-serve restaurants.

The QSR entry reads:

8. "We're looking for leadership from quick-serve restaurants. There's no question that we're really going to need folks in the industry to step up and help get this initiative where it needs to be." --Sam Kass, senior policy advisor for healthy food initiatives at the White House, speaking to QSR about the First Lady's anti-obesity campaign, "Let's Move!" (sic)

Taking the #1 spot on the QSR list is Roark Capital buying Arby's restaurant chain. Other entries on the list note a shift in industry practices toward healthier food offerings, such as McDonald's changing its Happy Meal to include a smaller serving of fries and apple slices or other fruit in its boxed child meals, #3 on the list. The effort wasn't quite ambitious enough to warrant an invitation for McDonald's executives to make their announcement with Mrs. Obama standing by their side. Instead, the First Lady issued a lukewarm statement noting the change.

Kass, for his part, spent 2011 wooing chefs to participate in Mrs. Obama's campaign, as well as meeting with food and restaurant industry representatives at the White House.