Activity 1.1 Our Family Meal Tracking

Family meals are a KEY component of Strengthening Families Program! Eating pleasant family meals together while discussing interesting topics and things that have happened in the lives of your loved ones helps build strong and healthy families. If you can’t get everyone together for family meals, get as many as you can together as often as you can.

Scientific research has shown that there are Seven Key benefits:

1. Eating Together Encourages Healthier Eating Habits: Teens who eat with their family are more likely to consume more fruits and vegetables and less fast food and sugary beverages.
2. Eating Together Can Help Prevent Mental Health Disorders: Frequent family dinners can prevent issues with eating disorders, alcohol and substance use, violent behavior, depression, and suicidal thoughts in adolescents.
3. Eating Together May Prevent Adulthood Weight Struggles: There is a direct correlation between the frequency of shared family meals in adolescence and reduced odds of obesity or weight issues 10 years later.
4. Eating Together Can Improve Children’s Self-Esteem: By encouraging your kids to talk about their day (and genuinely listening to their responses), you help them feel more confident in themselves.
5. Eating Together Can Improve Communication Skills: Research has shown that kids in families with positive meal experiences become better communicators as they get older, compared to those who do not share meals.
6. Eating Together May Help Kids With Bullying: Teens who ate dinner with their families (ideally four or more times each week) reported fewer problems as a result of being bullied (both in person and cyber-bullying.)
7. Eating Together Helps Families Practice the New Skills Learned in SFP: Shared dinner habits encourage family members to take lessons learned in this SFP program to dinner table discussions, improving communication patterns.

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