Date: 14/09/2024
- Over 50 restaurants, including LH Group, Tao Heung, Saint's Alp Teahouse, and Luk Lam Dessert, are the first to participate.
- HKCS collaborates with the catering industry to enhance service standards and build a child-friendly city.
In recent years, the United Nations has been actively promoting 'child-friendly cities'. The 'National 14th Five-Year Plan' has also included the concept. To promote child-friendly development in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Christian Service (HKCS) launched the 'Child-friendly Award Scheme' from July 2024, with the first phase targeting restaurants. HKCS will provide child-friendly recommendations to participating restaurants and award a 'Child-friendly Label' to those that meet the criteria, allowing them to be identified by the public. 11 restaurant brands, including LH Group, which operates Japanese restaurants such as Gyu-Kaku and Mou Mou Club, Chinese restaurant Tao Heung, Taiwanese tea shop Saint's Alp Teahouse and traditional dessert shop Luk Lam Dessert, have already joined the scheme with a total of 51 restaurants. HKCS will also work with participating restaurants to organise activities to promote child-friendliness. The 2024-2025 scheme is now open for restaurant applications, with a deadline of 15 October.
In April this year, HKCS surveyed 1,531 children from 14 kindergartens and found that the majority of children (47.8%) were concerned about the child-friendliness of 'restaurants', followed by transport (27.2%) and streets (25.0%). The children would like the restaurants to implement various measures, such as providing toys and books, offering space for strollers, and decorating with cartoon themes. Therefore, the scheme starts with restaurants and integrates children's opinions along with the United Nations' guidelines for child-friendly cities to establish six criteria: 'Staff Treating Children Kindly', 'Safe Environment', 'Providing Child-Sized Cutlery/ Furniture', 'Offering Healthy Children's Meals', 'Providing Illustrated Children's Menus', and 'Offering Children's Entertainment/ Interesting Environment Setup'. Restaurants that meet at least three criteria will be awarded. HKCS will regularly arrange for children to act as mystery diners to assess the implementation status of participating restaurants.
Today (14 September), HKCS held a child-friendly event at the participating restaurant Luk Lam Dessert, where several children acted as 'little servers', serving their parents who were dining as customers. Meanwhile, the parents had to use inappropriate eating utensils to taste desserts, experiencing the difficulties children face when using adult utensils. After joining the scheme, Luk Lam Dessert began offering child-sized cutlery. The owner, Gloria Mak, stated, 'The scheme is very meaningful, helping me and my staff better understand children's dining needs, which improves our service quality. We have recently seen an increase in family diners. Restaurants are an important stakeholder of the community, and we are pleased to contribute to building a child-friendly city.'
Five-year-old Bryan found the waiting time for food boring and hoped that restaurants would have items suitable for children to play with, such as capsule toy machines, to provide some entertainment while waiting. He would also like to see children's meals with strawberries and jelly. His mother, Mrs Chan, shared, 'When dining out with my children, I consider whether the restaurant environment is suitable for children and often bring our own child-sized eating utensils. In the future, I will visit more child-friendly restaurants, reducing caregiving pressure and allowing us to enjoy family dining time better.'
Eunis Vu, Service Head of Family & Counselling Service at HKCS, said, 'We hope that Hong Kong society will pay more attention to children's rights. In addition to protecting children, we also need to value their right to participate and listen to their voices. Through the "Child-Friendly Award Scheme", we encourage adults, especially parents and neighbours, to support the comprehensive development needs of children. At the same time, the catering industry in Hong Kong has faced fierce competition in recent years, and child-friendly offerings can help attract families who consume locally. We encourage more restaurants to join the scheme to collectively enhance service standards.' HKCS will gradually expand the scheme to more community stakeholders to build a child-friendly city. Those interested in participating or learning more about the scheme can contact HKCS at 3611 8347 or visit the website
(https://www.hkcs.org/en/services/child-friendly-award-scheme)
| Participating Restaurants of Hong Kong Christian Service's 'Child-friendly Award Scheme' (As of 9 September) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Address |
| LH Group | All shops of Gyu-Kaku, Mou Mou Club and On-Yasai (Please visit their official website for the full address.) |
| Tao Heung | Tao Heung (Mei Hei House), Shop 106, Mei Hei House, Shek Kip Mei Estate, Shek Kip Mei |
| Saint's Alp Teahouse | Saint's Alp Teahouse (Foursquare Mansion), G/F, Foursquare Mansion, 215 Sai Yeung Choi Street North, Prince Edward |
| Luk Lam Dessert | G/F, 77-79 Un Chau Street, Sham Shui Po |
| Golden Phoenix Restaurant |
|
| Wu Zhi Jian Beef Noodles |
|
| Be with Years | Shop G27, G/F, Pebbles World (Site 3), Wonderful Worlds of Whampoa, Hung Hom |
| Taste Noodle | G/F, 514-516 Castle Peak Road, Lai Chi Kok |
| Yakiniku Kumamoto | 3/F, 477-481 Jaffe Road, Causeway Bay |
| Soo Good Vegan Restaurant | 9/F, Kornhill Apartments, 2 Kornhill Road, Tai Koo |
| Dicos | G/F, Seng Ming Court, 377 King's Road, North Point |
For media enquiries, please contact:
Don CHENG, Assistant Manager (Public Relations), HKCS (Tel: 2731 6263 / 9356 1041)
(From Left) Don Cheng, Assistant Manager (Public Relations), HKCS; Jackie Chan, Supervisor, Centre for Research & Development, HKCS; Eunis Vu, Service Head of Family & Counselling Service, HKCS; Gloria Mak, owner of Luk Lam Dessert; Bryan and Mrs Chan.
Participating restaurants (Luk Lam Dessert) that meet child-friendly criteria can be awarded the 'Child-friendly Label'.
Participating restaurants (Luk Lam Dessert) that meet child-friendly criteria can be awarded the 'Child-friendly Label'.
Participating restaurants (On-Yasai) that meet child-friendly criteria can be awarded the 'Child-friendly Label'.
Participating restaurants (Gyu-Kaku Buffet) that meet child-friendly criteria can be awarded the 'Child-friendly Label'.
Children became 'little servers' during the child-friendly event organised by HKCS in collaboration with Luk Lam Dessert.
Children became 'little servers' during the child-friendly event organised by HKCS in collaboration with Luk Lam Dessert.
Parents used oversized eating utensils while dining to experience the daily difficulties children face.
Gloria Mak, owner of Luk Lam Dessert, called for more industry peers to join the scheme to promote child-friendliness in the community.
Bryan and Mrs Chan found dining out to be quite troublesome, and child-friendly restaurants would be more appealing.
