If you’re a vegetarian or even a health-conscious meat lover, The Veggie Grill of Southern California is a casual eatery that offers American dishes with a vegan twist.

Instead of serving animal protein, Veggie Grill uses various forms of plant-based or “veggie” protein including tempeh, a soy bean and rice culture blend. The result is organic dishes such as “Bean me up Chili” and “Chipotle BBQ” that contain no transfat and are free of cholesterol. They also prepare gluten-free options. And yet the biggest draw to this restaurant is its flavor. Both vegetarians and meat-lovers alike mention how despite the common view that eating vegan can be a tasteless endeavor, Veggie Grill is different and serves a wide array of flavorful creations.

With one location in Irvine and another in El Segundo, Veggie Grill hopes to expand and show that eating healthy without the taste of meat can be just as delicious. Let FeelGoodFastFood know of any vegetarian restaurants in your, or any, area and tell us your experience.

In the January 19th issue of the Economist, there is a special report on corporate social responsibility (or CSR) discussing how “doing good” is increasingly important for businesses, their employees, their customers, and their bottom line. The restaurant industry continues to struggle with balancing positive social impact while maintaining margins in this difficult industry.

Burgerville is one quick service restaurant that stands out in using good deeds to contribute to the success of the restaurant. It’s $1.4 million investment to cover employee’s health care premiums have resulted in positive returns for the company. Burgerville began paying over 90% of each of its 1,050 hourly employee’s premiums in January 2006 as part of Holland Inc.’s (the parent company’s) mission statement of “Serve with Love”. To qualify, employees are required to have already worked in the restaurant for 20-plus hours a week for 6 months and agree to pay a monthly $15 for coverage. Few restaurants provide adequate health care plans to their employees, which often impacts them directly with astonishing employee-turnover rates - 114% is average in the industry.

Also in terms of sustainability, Burgerville distinguishes itself with its renewable wind energy program. Sourced by local wind farms in the Northwest region, Burgerville purchases  wind power credits to fulfill all of its electricity needs. As a result, Burgerville estimates that their efforts prevents 17.4 million pounds of CO2 from entering the region every year. This is equaled to taking 1,700 cars off the road. With 39 locations, Burgerville’s actions demonstrate that achieving near-complete sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and success are all possible. As Burgerville’s President and CEO, Jeff Harvey, states “Quick service is just a delivery mechanism for food–everything else is up to the company”.

Source

The Center for Social Innovation at Stanford Graduate School of Business invited former President and CEO of Wal-Mart’s Global Procurement Division, Lawrence Jackson to discuss how Wal-Mart has been working to become more socially responsible while continuing its practice of providing low prices to its customers.

In the conversation Jackson mentions the steps Wal-Mart has taken with more efficient heating systems and renewable energies. He specifically discusses Wal-Mart’s efforts with the introduction of baby clothes made from organic cotton. Jackson points out not only the success of Wal-Mart in providing an eco-friendly product but also the fact that the product is an affordable price, $9-12 vs. three or four times those prices.

The biggest takeaway of the conversation, however, was the current green movement and whether it is restricted strictly to affluent society. Lawrence Jackson believes that, though there appears to be a definite economic and social characteristic of green advocates, that doesn’t mean being green and healthy is only for the well to do. In this case, Wal-Mart believes that it is challenging and hopefully changing this belief with its recent actions. This view is very much aligned with the Feel Good Fast Food perspective of offering delicious, affordable, better-for-you foods to mainstream consumers.

What do you think? Is being green really an elitist movement? Or is it a movement of affluent origins that will become more affordable with time and the efforts by such stores like Wal-Mart?

Taco Bell has recently announced that in 2008, a lower fat “Fresco Menu” will be available for its health-conscious customers. The Fresco Menu consists of nine familiar items each with under 9 grams of fat. The menu includes such options as a chicken soft taco and a bean burrito, replacing sour cream and cheese with freshly made pico de gallo salsa.

I spoke with Rob Poetsch, Director of PR for Taco Bell, who explained that the Fresco Menu is based on its preexisting, yet mainly underground, Fresco Style option. This previous option allowed an individual to take any item on its regular, high calorie menu and order it “Fresco Style”, meaning without cheese but with fresh salsa. The main difference is that the Fresco Menu has its items already prepared Fresco Style and will be more publicly displayed.

The Fresco Menu is clearly an example of a traditional fast food restaurant reacting to the trends of the new year and the desires of its consumers. Taco Bell isn’t going out on a limb trying to change people’s eating habits. Subway was more of a market leader with their Jared campaign. Subway is now expanding this with FreshFit and even going “green” with a new LEED-certified Eco-store. Starbucks, another leader in social responsibility in the quick-service restaurant world, is also promoting healthier items in 2008, though often using artificial sweeteners.

Let’s hope that others will follow the lead of Subway, Taco Bell, and Starbucks and broaden their healthy fast food in a more eco-friendly environment. While we applaud these companies for implementing steps towards change, they should continue to challenge themselves to strive for continuous improvement in their impact on the health of employees, customers, and planet.

What’s your New Year’s resolution? Eat better, exercise more? How about being a bit more specific? How about eating a salad every day? Yoga 2 times a week? Trying the 100 mile diet for a year? Taking 10 Spanish lessons? Offsetting your carbon emissions?

My resolution is to exercise at least 20 minutes a day (and hopefully more) EVERY DAY. Life is busy, so I plan to get at least two 10 minute walks in or something more active, regardless of how chaotic restaurant life will be.

Why don’t you give extra meaning to your New Years resolution by connecting it with helping other people? Will you join me in supporting one of my favorite San Francisco community organizations? At The Crossroads, which reaches out to homeless youth and young adults to help them to build healthy and fulfilling lives. has a really great way to do this. It is an “I THINK I CAN” fundraising campaign where you can choose any resolution and get your friends and family to help you meet it by sponsoring your activity. You can sign up online, set up your personal campaign website, and track your progress for your donors. Deadline to sign up is January 20th and mark your calendars for the January 30th launch party.