Celebrate Mother's Day By Eating Together

Celebrate Mother’s Day By Eating Together

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report.

Many families’ Mother’s Day traditions include taking Mom out to eat; but don’t underestimate the benefits of making Mom a meal at home. In fact, any time a family can spend sharing a meal together there are some amazing benefits.

Kathleen Manenica, WSU Extension’s Food $ense State Coordinator, shares
three factors that underscore the importance of families spending meal times together.

Manenica: “We know that it foster togetherness between family members and in doing that kids really get a stronger sense of belonging to a group and are less likely to actually participate in risky behaviors outside of the home. Research also shows that kids who participate in regular family meals are happy, well adjusted and do well in school. Last but not least is that family meals really result in better nutrition for the whole family.”

Manenica shares another benefit of at-home meals is including kids in planning, shopping, cooking and even cleanup of family meals.

Manenica: “Because kids really develop the skills they’ll need throughout their life and pass them on to their own kids. We have found in our Food $ense programming that the more kids are invested in producing a meal, the more likely they are to eat the healthy choices they’ve brought to the table. And of course, every day can feel like Mother’s Day when helpers share the workload and have fun getting things done.”

For additional educational material as well as tips for family meals, visit www.eatsmart.org.

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.