Dine healthy! an all-inclusive local community restaurant program targeting low-income, non-chain restaurants in harris county, TX

American families are eating out more often than ever before. Today, Americans spend nearly 50% of their household food budget on meals prepared outside the home. More importantly, there is an overwhelming number of studies that link the dining out experience with obesity and other health-related issues. The Dine Healthy! Community Restaurant Program is designed to specifically motivate private, non-chain “Mom&Pop” restaurants to make and promote healthy changes to their restaurant so that dining out can be both fun and beneficial. Quantitative assessment results based on a reliable and tested Nutrition Environment Measures Survey identified non-chain restaurants in the East Aldine District of Harris County, TX to be less health-promoting than the major chain restaurants nearby. Of the 67 restaurants assessed, 32 were non-chain and on average, none of these restaurants offered a single healthy entrée on the menu. However, with the cost of nutritional analysis running upwards of $100 per recipe, these smaller dining venues have not been able to adhere to the guidelines of other existing restaurant programs – setting our program apart from the rest. With the new Dine Healthy! standards, both chain and non-chain restaurants can make small steps to a leaner East Aldine.