The Crumb for June 23rd, 2017

Dropped next to a fizzy mango-grapefruit shrub on a sunny porch.

Happy first Friday of the summer! Grab yourself a frosty beverage and settle into this past week's food news.

Summer job seekers: Snap to it

Ever gone back and forth over which Snapchat filter to use on your resume? Maybe not, but for a potential 250,000 new McDonald’s employees this summer, a great “Snaplication” could be their ticket to a new job. Phone-savvy 16-to-24-year-olds comprise a significant chunk of McDonald’s applicant base, so the company figures this method should meet their target audience where they’re at. Snaplications in Australia opened up last month, and direct marketing to Snapchat users in the States began this past Tuesday. Snap away.

Avoca-don’t stop

If you thought that surely the avocado toast trend must be on its way out: maybe think again. Brooklyn’s Industry City recently welcomed Avocaderia, a fast-casual joint dedicated to—you guessed it—avocados. Every menu item utilizes one half of the lumpy green fruit, with the exception of the Avoburger—it gets two halves, with healthful fillings sandwiched in between. The restaurant brought in 1,000 customers on Memorial Day and goes through 25 cases of avocados a week; founder Francesco Brachetti hopes to eventually incubate the concept into a fast-casual chain. Better sit back down, ‘cause this avocado train ain’t stopping.

Waste not, want not

Food waste is no joke, and Ikea’s decided to get serious about it. Apparently the amount of cinnamon rolls and Swedish meatballs coming out of Ikea Restaurant kitchens wasn’t quite lining up with actual customer demand—bad news for a brand that’s basically synonymous with minimalism and efficiency. They’ve revisited that formula, and now they say they’ve come up with a more streamlined solution. The goal is to halve food waste across their stores by 2020; so far, they’ve already cut 79 metric tons of food waste. Bra jobbat!

Finding common grounds

This past Tuesday marked World Refugee Day, and to celebrate, Starbucks set a goal to hire 2,500 refugees in eight of the company’s European markets, including Great Britain, France, Spain, and Germany. On a larger scale, Starbucks plans to hire a total of 10,000 refugees worldwide over the next five years. Exciting news, but not everyone is universally thrilled—in light of President Trump’s proposed travel ban and recent terrorist attacks in Europe, plenty of people are on edge. Making coffee and breaking down barriers ain’t easy.

Happier meals

Listen up, kids (and adults that still order like kids): it’s time to move on from the chicken tenders. Kids meals, following in the footsteps of adult menus, are trending healthy; in 2017, that looks like hormone-free cheese quesadillas, sprouted grain rolls, organic yogurt, and vegan chocolate chip cookies. Cracking the “health” code isn’t simple, though. Quick-service chains still struggle to make even 10% of kids menu items meet the “Kids Live Well” standards of 600 calories or less, plus lower levels of saturated fat, sugar, and sodium. So there’s still work to be done—but, as more restaurants, chefs, and parents get behind innovative kids menus, the future is looking bright.