Micky D's tour gets thumbs up

Monday, October 20, 2008
By TOM SHORTELL
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Clean and well organized.

That's how education advocate and Jersey City City Council candidate Shelly Skinner described the McDonald's on Kennedy Boulevard after getting a behind-the-counter tour Wednesday as a "Moms' Quality Correspondent."

The Moms' Quality Correspondent program is a national initiative by McDonald's to battle the public's negative perception of fast food.

The program started in 2007 when six mothers were selected to review and blog about McDonald's facilities, ingredients, menu changes and sanitation to educate others, said Tara Hayes, McDonald's manager of U.S. communication.

"Moms in particular are interested in food quality," she said.

At the local level, McDonald's franchises are inviting prominent mothers in the community to take a look at what happens in its kitchens.

Celeste Quintana, who owns 10 McDonald's, four in Jersey City, played host to Skinner's tour, and Skinner walked away impressed.

"It was very clean. It was very organized. It was all fresh. It was a treat," said Skinner, mother of a 5-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy and a candidate for the Ward E council seat. "I wish everybody who takes care of children has the same sense of responsibility they do."

Still, both Skinner and Quintana agreed McDonald's is not a suitable choice for dinner all the time.

"My kids don't come here every day," Skinner said.

And Sharon Richter, a dietitian who has appeared on the TV show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," would say that's a very good thing.

McDonald's food has "very little nutritional value," Richter said, adding that the company's website for the moms program - www.mcdonaldsmom.com - "danced around" the nutrition issue.

But Paul Dillon, executive director of the Hudson County Community College's Culinary Arts Institute, saluted the McDonald's moms tour as a brilliant move.

"I think it's fabulous," Dillon said. "It makes the public more aware of how much work goes into that operation."