Table Talk

August 12, 2010 — Close your eyes for a moment and think back to the family dinners of your youth. What do you remember? The aroma of a favorite meal or a rushed trip to a fast food drive-through? Laughter or lots of rules? Fighting at the table or engaging conversation that helped shape your thinking about important matters?

Research over the past fifteen years shows overwhelmingly that sharing fun family meals is good for the spirit, brain and health of all family members, affecting everything from grade point averages to resilience and teen-pregnancy rates. Yet, obstacles—particularly time and difficult family dynamics—often get in the way.

Last year, as a 2009 fellow in Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, I began exploring a number of ways to promote ethical thinking and help raise moral citizens. During one of our think tanks, I had the pleasure of meeting the Public Conversations Project’s founder Laura Chasin, and she introduced me to Vice President Bob Stains. Together, we became convinced that the Public Conversations Project’s approach could help families improve their conversations and realize the benefits of dinners together.

Together, with six other core team members, we built the vision for The Family Dinner Project—a start-up grassroots movement of food, fun, and conversation about things that matter.

We kicked off the pre-pilot effort by recruiting fifteen Boston-area families. And, we launched a comprehensive Web site that introduces people to the idea of family dinners with multiple resources including menus, games, activities and conversation tips. In addition to providing support, the site also provides ways for families to engage with each other and talk about their challenges and discoveries as they participate.

The current participating families are using the Web site to set personal dinner goals, blog about their meals and conversations, and share tips with one another. Over time, we will invite more families to come together both in person and on our Web site to share their issues and insights. By sharing their experiences with one another, they can figure out—together—the resources needed to improve the frequency and quality of their mealtime interaction. The project’s continuing role will be to provide resources and help families learn from each other. Although our team consists of experts in education, family therapy, conflict resolution, food, marketing and more, we believe that the greatest knowledge will come from families themselves. We hope you’ll join us in making dinner a time for families to connect over meaningful conversations.

And bon appétit

Shelly London

Project Team Leader, Family Dinner Project