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Chapter 3

Families With Full Plates, Sitting Down to Dinner

Families With Full Plates, Sitting Down to Dinner

This activity contains 3 questions.

	What are some of the scientific advantages to families dining together regularly?   "The study by the Columbia center showed that compared with teenagers who have five or more family dinners a week, those who have two or less are three times as likely to try marijuana, two and half times as likely to smoke cigarettes and one and half times as likely to try alcohol." " A number of studies show that children who eat dinner with their families regularly are less likely to get involved with drugs and alcohol than those who do not. They also tend to get better grades, exhibit less stress and eat better."

	What are some of the government, private and personal efforts being made to encourage families to dine together?   "The cable networks Nick at Nite and TV Land have run public service announcements urging families to break bread together." "Virtually every state in the nation has endorsed the center's initiative to encourage families to eat dinner together on the fourth Monday of September. Grass-roots efforts by individual communities to do the same -- selecting a night months in advance that is free of homework, school meetings and sports practices -- have also gained momentum, with Ridgewood, N.J., holding its fifth annual family night last month." "Marcia Marra, a parent in Ridgewood, N.J., has tried to do her part to promote the trend, helping to start the annual family night there in 2002. She worked with school officials and community leaders to suspend baseball practices, book clubs and Girl Scout meetings to allow a night of downtime and dinner together. The effort has since spread to a half-dozen other communities in Bergen County. After the first night in 2002, and a deluge of news media attention, Ms. Marra received inquiries from towns across the country. She created a Web site, readysetrelax.org, and, with a grant from Hasbro, put together free information kits. She has sent out 350 kits to communities from Kentucky to Oregon." "... corporations are jumping on the family-dinner bandwagon. The maker of Crisco, J. M. Smucker Company, recently sponsored a ''Family Dinner Challenge,'' with a $10,000 prize for the best home video showing parents and children assembled at the dinner table."

	What are some of the barriers that keep families from dining together?   Evening community volunteer/organizing meetings Work scheduling conflicts Children's extracurricular activities such as music lessons, sports, club meetings

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