Free Republic

They probably won’t promote their 6-inch big hot pastrami sandwich, but the Subway chain of restaurants is partnering with first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to persuade kids to eat healthier meals. Subway and the first lady’s office announced a three-year commitment Thursday in support of Mrs. Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign. The sandwich shops will promote efforts aimed at getting children to eat more fruits and vegetables. Subway offers a variety of low-fat sandwiches on its menu, along with choices that probably wouldn’t get the first lady’s approval, such as the six-inch chicken and bacon ranch melt with cheese, which contains...

(Colo, IA) A teacher in Colo, Iowa, decided to eat only at McDonald’s for 90 days to see what it would do to his health. The result turned out to be a good lesson for him and his students. “I can eat any food at McDonald’s I want as long as I’m smart for the rest of the day with what I balance it out with,” said science teacher John Cisna said That was the theory Cisna laid out for three of his students at Colo-Nesco high school this past fall. Ninety days of Mickey D’s for breakfast, lunch and...

Pizza Patrón executives intend to roll out multiple new strategies designed to bring the brand closer to its core Mexican-born customers in 2014. The company plans to execute an array of updated branding programs that include new product development, unique promotions, traditional advertising, digital, social media and public relations, according to a company press release. This marks a significant narrowing of focus for the brand that started franchising in 2003, with the objective of becoming the nation's premier Latino pizza brand. The company gained notoriety from its unconventional programs like "Pizza Por Pesos," where customers could use pesos as a...

Easier to open in Siberia than California "Under the current U.S. business climate, regulatory and tax restrictions tend to curb otherwise dynamic entrepreneurial energy," Puzder said. "We'd love to see more growth in domestic markets. Unfortunately, it's easier for our franchisees to open a restaurant in Siberia than in California." In the U.S., the company's Hardee's division is expanding in New York, New Jersey, Chicago and South Florida. Meanwhile, the Carl's Jr. division is growing in Texas and the Seattle area. Challenges to U.S. expansion Puzder named ethanol regulation, which has resulted in higher beef costs, a rising minimum wage...

<p>McDonald’s has some healthy advice for its workers – don’t eat at McDonald’s.</p> <p>The fast-food behemoth recently posted the jaw-dropping tip on its Web site for employees, warning that the very same burgers and fries they sling for their legions of customers are hazardous to their health.</p>

Since he wrote "Fast Food Nation" more than a decade ago, muckraking author Eric Schlosser has noticed a sympathy gap in the food movement that he helped foster. Some foodies seem to care more about the treatment of the animals they eat than the workers who prepare and serve them. "It's not all foodies by any means," Schlosser said. "But the food movement can get sidetracked into wealthy, upper-middle-class people caring about food as status, caring about food as pleasure. I'm a huge supporter of animal welfare, but the compassion for the abuse of animals is so much more excessive,...

Momentum Machines robot enables a restaurant can offer gourmet quality burgers at fast food prices. It does everything employees can do except better: * it slices toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before it places the slice onto your burger, giving you the freshest burger possible. * their next revision will offer custom meat grinds for every single customer. Want a patty with 1/3 pork and 2/3 bison ground to order? No problem. * Also, our next revision will use gourmet cooking techniques never before used in a fast food restaurant, giving the patty the perfect char but keeping in...

We are often told that individuals are “stuck” in fast food jobs, as if there is no hope for advancement or development. But these aren’t dead end jobs for people willing to learn, grow, and work really, really hard. At Domino’s Pizza, over 90 percent of franchise owners started out as hourly employees, and the chain’s 5,000 locations are largely owned and operated by franchisees. Rob Cookston is one such owner who worked his way up. Cookston started delivering pizzas out of his cherry red Volkswagen Beetle 25 years ago. But, eyeing the store owner’s yellow Ferrari, Cookston knew that...

Believing that fast food companies pay their unskilled labor low wages primarily because they are greedy capitalist pigs, protestors flocked to McDonalds and Wendy’s last Thursday. Well… “Flocked” might be a strong descriptive term. The pro-union activists, nonetheless, demanded from the purveyors of low quality food-like products that employees get a bump in pay. Currently, minimum wage is set at $7.25 per hour. The economically challenged protestors of market driven wages are asking the profit-driven businesses to increase that wage to $15 per hour. Heck. Why stop there? Let’s kick it up to 25, or 40 dollars per hour....

... "Upon arrival at home, she took her food out of the bag and noticed a strange odor in her hamburger,” Gaddis said. “When she opened it, she discovered a partially smoked marijuana cigarette.” The woman took the burger and her receipt back to the restaurant and reported it to the manager and called police. “They were able to speak with the suspect, who admitted that she was responsible,” Gaddis said. “She had been smoking while she worked. When she was fixing the burger, part of the marijuana fell into the burger.” ...

Hourly wage increases advocated by labor groups could kill more than 450,000 jobs, according to a new report. Union-backed labor groups, including Fast Food Forward and Fight for 15, are staging nationwide walk-outs and demonstrations at fast food chains across the country calling for starting wages of $15 per hour. Their success could spell economic disaster for nearly 20 percent of the nation’s 2.5 million fast food workers, according to an analysis from the Employment Policies Institute. “We find that roughly 460,000 jobs would be lost in the fast food industry as a consequence of a $15 minimum wage,” the...

Dozens of people gathered outside Dunkin Donuts and McDonald's locations Downtown on Thursday morning to protest low wages as part of a national campaign energizing fast-food workers. Carrying placards and shouting slogans such as “No justice, no doughnuts,” about 75 people rallied in front of the Dunkin Donuts in Market Square and the nearby McDonald's on Stanwix Street. The actions are part of push by labor unions, worker advocacy groups and Democrats to raise the federal minimum wage of $7.25. President Obama says he would back a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour, and on Wednesday addressed income equality in...

Seeking to increase pressure on McDonald’s, Wendy’s and other fast-food restaurants, organizers of a movement demanding a $15-an-hour wage for fast-food workers say they will sponsor one-day strikes in 100 cities on Thursday and protest activities in 100 additional cities.

Late last year, in a small health-food eatery called Cafe Sprouts in Oberlin, Ohio, I had what may well have been the most wholesome beverage of my life. The friendly server guided me to an apple-blueberry-kale-carrot smoothie-juice combination, which she spent the next several minutes preparing, mostly by shepherding farm-fresh produce into machinery. The result was tasty. But at 300 calories (by my rough calculation) for a 16-ounce cup, it was more than my diet could regularly absorb without consequences. Nor was I about to make a habit of $9 shakes, healthy or not. Inspired by the experience nonetheless, I...

This fast food establishment allegedly in Ephrata is looking for new employees, but they have someone specific in mind which is creating quite a stir. As the sign says: “Now Hiring Must Be Mexican I’m not exactly sure of the reasoning. Maybe none of the current staff can speak español or perhaps they need to fulfill their EEO report, I’m not exactly sure. What do you think? Do you find this sign offensive or are you okay with their honesty. (POLL-AT-LINK)

Thanks to the dubiously identified "buddy" of Redditor DJDanaK, the world now knows what "raw McRib meat" looks like, stripped of its plush bun, special sauce, and sliced onion. Since many manufacturers produce boneless, mechanically separated "rib" products, the exact provenance of this particular mystery-meat specimen is the subject of ongoing debate deep within the Reddit trenches at this very moment.

KEYE TV has learned city council is considering a resolution that -- if passed -- would "restrict fast-food food restaurants from locating near areas that children frequent." That includes schools, municipal parks, child care centers and libraries... Convenience stores are also being targeted. The plan would offer food marts incentives to carry healthy food options.

Food companies understand that Americans are increasingly interested in buying food that actually seems worth eating. We want food that's some degree of fresh, healthy, natural or otherwise of higher quality. It's for this reason that you see images of plump fruit decorating packages of cereal bars and the greenest broccoli you've ever laid eyes upon appearing on boxes of frozen dinners. At Burger King, you don't order a mere salad - it's a Chicken Caesar Garden Fresh Salad. Those chips aren't just cheese-flavored - they're Harvest Cheddar Sun Chips, with "harvest cheddar" an entirely meaningless term. Few companies have...

My favorite one (not mentioned in this article) is the Dunkin Donuts "Big and Toasted". Here is the picture featured on the menu compared to reality... But it's really more like this...

<p>Forget the burger and fries clogging your arteries. The "Big Catch" fish platter at Long John Silver's is being called the "Worst Restaurant Meal in America." The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, says the dish has more than 1300 calories, 33 grams of trans fats and 3700 milligrams of sodium.</p>