The National Restaurant Association expanded its Kids LiveWell® program to 37 participating brands representing nearly 75,000 locations, adding 19 new brands over the past year and launching KidsLiveWell.com, a mobile-ready restaurant finder that surfaces dietitian-verified children's menu options by geography. The program spans QSR, fast casual, and full-service segments, covering chains from Burger King and Chick-fil-A to First Watch and Ted's Montana Grill.
How the Program Works
Kids LiveWell operates as a voluntary, industry-led certification requiring each participating operator to offer at least two qualifying meals and two qualifying sides. Registered dietitians independently verify every item against science-based thresholds for calories, saturated fat, trans fat, added sugars, and sodium, while each meal must include at least two food groups — fruits, vegetables, whole grains, meat or meat alternatives, or dairy. Default beverage options must be water, milk, or 100% fruit or vegetable juice. The NRA publishes full nutrition criteria in a publicly available white paper, giving operators and dietitians a consistent compliance benchmark across all segments.
The new KidsLiveWell.com Good Food Finder lets parents search by location and click through to approved meal listings at each brand. The mobile-ready design targets on-the-go decision-making — a recognition that families increasingly resolve dining questions via smartphone before or during a visit. For operators, participation provides a consumer-facing signal of nutritional credibility at a moment when menu transparency is under growing regulatory and advocacy scrutiny.
Operator and Policy Context
GoTo Foods — parent of Jamba, McAlister's Deli, Moe's Southwest Grill, and Schlotzsky's Deli — is among the first-time joiners, giving the program a significant fast-casual footprint boost in a single enrollment. Bloomin' Brands, whose portfolio includes Bonefish Grill, Carrabba's Italian Grill, Fleming's Prime Steakhouse, and Outback Steakhouse, has participated since the program's early days. Dine Brands contributes Applebee's and IHOP locations, extending Kids LiveWell penetration across the casual-dining daypart.
NRA Chief Advocacy Officer Sean Kennedy framed the expansion in explicitly regulatory terms, noting that policymakers are paying closer attention to children's food options and that the voluntary industry model represents a proactive alternative to mandated menu restrictions. The argument echoes a broader industry posture that self-regulation through programs like Kids LiveWell reduces pressure for legislated nutrition mandates at the state and federal level — a dynamic operators in calorie-posting and sodium-labeling debates will recognize.
For franchisees and multi-unit operators evaluating participation, Kids LiveWell adds no royalty or licensing fee; the cost lies in menu R&D and dietitian-verification submissions. The program's reach across independent operators — including Florida independents Conchy Joe's Seafood and Anna Maria Oyster Bar — signals that certification is achievable outside the corporate test-kitchen infrastructure available to national chains. That accessibility is likely to drive continued enrollment as the NRA positions Kids LiveWell as a value-proposition tool amid ongoing consumer focus on food quality and dining-out ROI.
For more on menu nutrition trends in commercial foodservice, see our coverage of health-and-wellness menu strategy and family-dining segment developments.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
