Organization 'shapes up' Somerville restaurants through approval system

    Even if you only intended to grab a coffee and yogurt when you stopped for a quick breakfast at that café the other morning, chances are that you were tempted by the buttery croissants, double chocolate muffins and oversized cinnamon rolls as you waited by the display case.
    Many restaurants and cafés, with their heaping portions and full-fat, sugar-laden foods, do little to stem the obesity epidemic hitting the nation, but one organization in Somerville is working with local eateries to promote healthier eating in the community.
    Shape Up Somerville launched in 2003 as a way to educate children and families about nutrition, exercise and healthier lifestyles. The organization was founded in response to a Tufts study which found that 46 percent of first through third graders were overweight or at risk of being overweight.
    Shape Up initially worked with the Somerville School Food Service Department to increase the quality and quantity of healthy foods in local schools. It then branched out with after-school programs, a local road race and a project called Shape Up Approved Restaurants.
    "We realized that restaurants have a big influence on healthy eating, which led to the restaurant program," Nicole Rioles, a Shape Up Somerville coordinator, said. "We thought that restaurants should offer and market healthy options, [and] have smaller portions."
    The restaurant approval project, which was originally developed in 2004, grants "approval" to local food establishments that meet certain healthy eating standards developed by Shape Up Somerville. The requirements include encouraging customers to take half of their meal to go, promoting healthier meal options and offering smaller portions, low- and non-fat dairy options and fruits and vegetables.
    "The whole goal is to encourage people to make healthier choices … including going to restaurants with healthier options, while encouraging restaurants to promote these options," Tufts senior Anna Pierson said. She has been working with Shape Up Somerville as part of her community health internship, focusing on the Shape Up Approved Restaurants project.
    "We look at a restaurant's menu first and assess how [it is] doing [according to] Shape Up requirements," Pierson said. "If they meet the standards, or if they're close, we approach them."
    As part of the project, Pierson has been working with the 18 approved restaurants in Somerville, including two cafes — True Grounds and Teele Square Café — right near Tufts' campus.
    Teele Square Café, which opened last March on the corner of Broadway and Curtis St., proudly sports its Shape Up Approved sticker right by its front door.
    According to owner and chef Jonathan Adelson, the café prides itself on cooking "homemade comfort food from scratch." He said that the café didn't have to change anything to meet the Shape Up standards.
    "[The program] approached my wife, and we wanted to get [involved] in the community," Adelson said. "Shape Up Somerville really appealed to me, because I think people should be a little more conscious of what they put in their mouths."
    Adelson, who has been a chef in the Boston are for over 15 years, has a background in fine dining and French bistro. He opened his first café in Cambridge eight years ago. "I'm always focused on healthy options, not necessarily diet options, but healthy options cooked from scratch ... [We're not] just opening up frozen food, but bringing in raw food and cooking," he said.
    While the café does not skimp on delicious croissants and other tempting baked goods, fruit and other healthy options are offered and prominently displayed.
    According to Adelson, while Teele Square Café has always had a "secret, backdoor" kids' menu for his son as well as his wife's friends' children, the eatery is working with Shape Up to coordinate an official kids menu.
    "[We're] thinking about what would excite kids that's not necessarily bacon," Adelson said, joking around about his two-year-old son's eating habits.
    Pierson has been helping out with kids menus at Teele Square Café as well as at other restaurants. "I've been designing healthier menus for kids, since many of these places don't have kids menus, even if they are family oriented," she said. "I'm looking at their menus and coming up with meals I remember eating as a kid or served in restaurants I've worked in, then working with managers to see what will work for them logistically."
    Shape Up Somerville will soon be making appearances in the Mayer Campus Center.
    "The Commons and Hotung are going to become Shape Approved," Pierson said. "It's more of a publicity thing to get the word out there … a lot of people don't know about the campaign, and there are a lot of restaurants that are approved that Tufts students go to all the time."