Sept. 26 is the fifth annual"Family Day" a national effort to promote family dining.
Tampa, Fla. - While one holiday in September encourages parents to dine with their children on a designated evening, a Tampa dinner preparation business is providing a practical way to make family mealtime a regular routine in American households.
Spearheaded by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in 2001, Family Day has become a national effort to promote parental engagement as a simple and effective way to reduce youth substance abuse and raise healthier children.
Celebrated on the fourth Monday of every September, Family Day has been recognized by President Bush and more than 400 communities in 42 states. Last year, companies from General Mills to Bristol-Myers Squibb offered employees incentives to dine with their families' in some cases leaving work early to do so.
A pair of Tampa, Florida moms is trying to bring their families and others back to the dinner table by easing the stress of preparing family meals with a dinner assembly business called Let's Eat!
Founded in 2004 by Marni Poe and Melissa Slack, Let's Eat! simplifies the dinner preparation process by eliminating the planning, shopping and clean-up involved in making fresh-cooked meals. Customers can assemble eight to 12 meals wholesome meals in less than two hours inside a 14-station commercial kitchen equipped with all the ingredients, cooking utensils and packing material needed to make family-sized entries and carry them home.
Like many Americans, Poe and Slack were working mothers consistently searching for ways to make preparing dinner an easier task. Both mothers of two toddlers, the longtime friends felt that there was a need for a sanctuary where parents like themselves could simplify the dinner-making process, put healthier and tastier food on the table, and save valuable time and energy.
"Before Let's Eat!, I just wasn't able to put dinner on the table in time for all of us to eat together", Poe said. "Our little ones were eating the usual macaroni and cheese or spaghetti at 6 p.m., and my husband and I were sitting down to dinner after the kids were in bed."
These days, Poe, her husband, and two young daughters convene around the dinner table together and enjoy fresh-cooked meals like Chicken Roulades with Asparagus Tips while indulging in pleasant conversation.
Most busy families wish the same was happening in their own kitchens. Recent studies indicate that 87 percent of parents believe that it is "very important" or "extremely important" to eat together as a family. But many are too overwhelmed with late work hours, after-school activities and other demands that overlap with family dinnertime.
Though the current trends show hectic work schedules and after-school activities are contributing to a decline in regular family dinners, studies through the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University consistently find that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use illegal drugs.
Slack says those are the statistics she and Poe had in mind when establishing their meal assembly shop.
"We want to help bring your family back to the dinner table because eating together can benefit the entire family," she said. "These days, getting the whole family around the dinner table at the same time can require the scheduling prowess of an air traffic controller. But studies show eating dinner together nightly is associated with happier marriages and stronger family ties. Family meals are the perfect time to teach kids good manners and to model appropriate table etiquette."
Fran Mikuta, the first Let's Eat! franchisee, bought into the concept for that very reason. She opens her store in St. Petersburg, Fla. in October.
"My husband and I feel that dinner time is the most important time of day for communication with each other and with our kids," she said. "We both grew up in homes where dinner was the only time of day that we could all be together."
Others appear to believe in the power of family dining as well.
Let's Eat! will open their second corporate location in October. Three other franchise stores are planned for Florida in Clearwater and Orlando. The third will open in Maryland.
A handful of studies also have suggested that eating as a family improves children's consumption of fruits and vegetables, grains, fiber and vitamins and minerals. Kids who regularly eat with their families tend to have healthier eating patterns.
Poe has first-hand proof.
"My husband and I have been amazed at how much better our girls are eating," she said. "They want to eat what Mommy and Daddy are eating, even if it's Crab Bisque soup. I used to think I had picky eaters, but they just didn't want to eat macaroni and cheese and hot dogs, and I don't blame them."
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Media Contact:
Krista Zilizi
407-936-1010
706-627-3204
kzilizi@quantifiedmarketing.com
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