The takeaway restaurant that wants to help children lose weight with fried chicken

The Chicken Town project in Tottenham, north London, is looking for £50,000 on Kickstarter

Chicken at the restaurant will be steamed (Creative Commons)

Setting up a new fast-food fried chicken shop could help fight childhood obesity, a community group claims.

The Chicken Town project aims to set up a chicken shop in Tottenham, in north London aimed at serving children on the way home from school.

The plan is for the restaurant to serve better quality, healthy chicken meals to youngsters, at the same price as in the fast food chicken shops they already eat at.

Free-range chickens will be steamed before they are flash-fried, to reduce the amount of oil they are cooked in.

Side orders like sweet potato fries, corn-on-the-cob and coconut rice will replace chips, and higher quality oils and less salt will be used in preparation.

40% of children over 11 in Tottenham are obese – one of the highest rates in the country.

“Within a mile of the new restaurant there are over 30 fast food outlets offering cheap, calorific food and for many young people it is a regular part of their diet,” the community group, Create, said on its website.

“Chicken Town will provide young people with a much healthier way of enjoying fast food and will encourage them to think about the origins of what they are eating.”

In the evening the chicken shop will become restaurant. The profits from that venture will help keep prices low at the takeaway by way of cross-subsidisation.

The plan, which wants to be crowdfunded to the tune of £50,000 on Kickstarter, is also to provide paid apprenticeships to kids from the local area, plus pay workers a living wage.

The Mayor of London has already contributed £15,500 to the project through his High Street Fund. As of the time of writing the project has already raised over £9,000 spread over 73 backers.

The project is also backed by Michelin-star experienced chef Giorgio Ravelli, who is helping design the menu.

The Mayor’s High Street Fund said the new restaurant would be “serving healthy and affordable food and “connect with local young people from across the borough, teaching them about healthy yet tasty food options and explore fun ways of eating right”.