Heathrow airport, the National Trust and Explore Learning were among the big winners at Mumsnet’s Family Friendly Awards, hosted by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
Heathrow took home its prize for the airport’s ‘Stay & Play’ areas; the National Trust received the Innovation Award for their wonderful ’50 things to do before you’re 11 ¾’ campaign; and Explore Learning won the award in recognition of their free workshops for parents seeking extra support to help their children with phonics or maths homework.
Other companies celebrating included Gold Award winners Pizza Express, Butlins (top honours from Mumsnetters in praise of its resort activities for children), Matalan, Metro Bank and Starcom MediaVest Group, each of whom was recognised by Mumsnet for consistently meeting family friendly criteria in their internal policies as well as for customers and employees.
Pizza Express focuses on families
According to the judges, “Value for money and customer service was the key to a win for PizzaExpress,” who took into consideration PizzaExpress’ approach to families visiting its restaurants and its HR policies for parents working for the company, as well as feedback from restaurant guests and employees.
Families have been a key focus for PizzaExpress throughout 2013. In April, it refreshed its Piccolo menu for children and announced that it would be teaming up with the Children’s Food Trust (The Trust) to inspire a million kids to get cooking over a 12 month period.
Experts from The Trust worked with PizzaExpress to remove some of the unnecessary calories and fat from its menu and to create a more engaging menu to help children to make better choices. This included laying it out in the form of an attention-grabbing magazine with an activity sheet in the middle relating to fresh, healthy ingredients, as well as introducing ‘Create Your Own’ with colourful and appealing photography of vegetables. PizzaExpress also chose to start serving its famous Dough Balls with olive oil and balsamic syrup (heart-healthy fats) and to bring in the option of ordering just one course so its littlest guests aren’t tempted to overeat.
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