Join us for dinner at any one of the 4 Roanoke area Applebee’s on September 22nd! 10% of the proceeds will come back to the Prevention Council and its programs!
For the last ten years, the Prevention Council of Roanoke County has held an event called “Family Day Dinner”, which encourages families of all kinds to share a meal together. The event was initially a response to CASA’s national Eat Dinner with Your Family: Family Day Dinner campaign. Families across the nation were challenged to honor the tradition of preparing and sharing a meal together—and local community groups, like the Prevention Council, hosted events to bring awareness to the movement. The basic idea is simple: youth who report sharing a meal with their family frequently are significantly less likely to engage in risky behavior, such as alcohol or substance use (CASA, 2014).
As children age, it is vital to keep those lines of communication open, especially as they start feeling increased pressure to start engaging in risky behavior including smoking, drinking or using other drugs. Adolescence is the critical period for the start of risky substance use and its consequences. For the first time this year, Roanoke County used the Youth Risk Behavior Survey to measure how often youth said they dined with their families; YRBS data indicates that 2 out of 10 high schoolers and 1 out of 10 middle schoolers have not recently dined with their family. Those are numbers we want to change!
Over the years, the Family Day Dinner event took on several forms. To date, we have used it as the closing event of a parenting conference, held it on local school campuses, and most recently, partnered with the Salem YMCA to host an event on the Salem campus. In the last two years, we have noticed a big shift— families are more pressed to it all in! Sports, clubs, work. It’s difficult. So we wanted to find an easy way to share information about eating healthy, staying active, and communicating within the family. And we found partners who shared that vision! Healthy Roanoke Valley, PATH Coalition, Junior League of Roanoke Valley, Virginia Cooperative Extension, RAYSAC, Salem Family YMCA, and local schools and parents have all contributed and supported this initiative.
This year we are pleased to announce a 5 day Eat Dinner Together Challenge! We have prepared a book with daily suggestions for recipes, physical activities, and even conversation starters for parents. Books will be available in paper form at various locations and will be available online. We wanted to make it easy to have those sometimes tough talks with children and teens! You can learn more HERE. And if you take the challenge, YOU COULD WIN FREE GROCERIES!
Remember: whether driving the kids to soccer practice, enjoying family dinner, or tucking little ones into bed, all of those every day activities have a lasting effect on your children. Each of these moments offers an opportunity to connect, share and really listen to what’s on their mind.
Be Connected. Stay Connected. Tips to Remember!
- Be ready to share and listen to them, which could be at any time during the day
- Pencil in regular activities like game nights or volunteering together
- Get to know your kids’ friends, teaches, coaches, etc
- Talk to your doctor about any questions how have about risky behaviors
For more information, visit Eat Dinner With Your Family on our website. You can also find resources and post your photos and ideas on our Facebook page!
