essay on my family dinner

Essay on Family Dinner

Students are often asked to write an essay on Family Dinner in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Family Dinner

What is family dinner.

Family dinner is a time when everyone in the house sits together to eat. It is not just about food, but also about sharing stories and talking to each other. This meal helps family members feel close and spend quality time together.

Benefits of Eating Together

Eating together is good for everyone. It makes family bonds stronger. Kids can learn manners and how to talk to others. Families can talk about their day and make plans together. It’s a time for laughter and joy.

Challenges Families Face

Sometimes, it’s hard to have family dinner because everyone is busy. Parents work, and kids have homework or sports. But trying to eat together even once a week can make a big difference in a family’s life.

Making Family Dinners Fun

To make family dinners fun, everyone can help cook or set the table. You can have theme nights or talk about fun topics. The key is to make everyone feel included and happy to be together at the table.

250 Words Essay on Family Dinner

What is a family dinner.

A family dinner is a meal where all the family members sit and eat together. It is a time when everyone can share their day’s stories and enjoy home-cooked food. This meal is special because it brings the family close and allows them to spend quality time with each other.

Eating together has many good points. It helps family members feel like they belong and are loved. Kids often do better in school when they have regular family dinners. It’s also a chance for parents to teach their children about healthy eating habits. Sharing a meal can make everyone feel happier and more connected.

What Happens at Family Dinners?

At family dinners, people talk, laugh, and sometimes even argue in a friendly way. It’s normal because this is how families solve problems and understand each other better. Parents might talk about their work, while kids might talk about their friends or what they learned in school.

Keeping the Tradition Alive

In today’s busy world, it can be hard to have family dinners. But trying to have them even a few times a week can make a big difference. It doesn’t have to be a fancy meal. What’s important is being together. Some families have rules like no phones at the table, so everyone can focus on the conversation.

In conclusion, family dinners are a wonderful tradition that keeps families connected. They are good for everyone’s heart and mind. By sharing a simple meal, families create memories and bonds that last a lifetime.

500 Words Essay on Family Dinner

A family dinner is a meal where all the members of a family sit and eat together. This meal is often eaten at the end of the day when everyone has finished their work, school, or other activities. The food can be anything from simple dishes to special recipes that the family enjoys. The important part is that everyone is together.

The Food We Eat

At family dinners, the food on the table can be very different from one house to another. Some families might eat pizza, while others might have rice, vegetables, and chicken. Sometimes, families have a special dish that they make only on certain days, like tacos on Tuesdays or fish on Fridays. The type of food is not as important as the act of sharing it with each other.

Talking and Sharing

One of the best things about family dinners is the chance to talk. Parents and children can share what happened during their day. They can tell funny stories, talk about something they learned, or discuss plans for the weekend. This talking helps family members understand each other better and feel close to one another.

Learning Good Manners

Family dinners are also a time for kids to learn good manners. They learn to wait for their turn to get food, say “please” and “thank you,” and not talk with their mouth full. These manners are important for when they eat with other people outside their home, like at a friend’s house or a restaurant.

Helping Out

Everyone in the family can help with dinner. Younger kids can set the table or mix a salad. Older kids might help cook some of the food. After eating, everyone can help clean up. Doing these jobs together makes the work faster and can even be fun.

Problems with Missing Family Dinners

Sometimes, it can be hard to have family dinners. People might be too busy with work, school, or other things. Missing these meals can make family members feel less connected to each other. That is why it is good to try to have family dinners as often as possible.

Solutions for Busy Families

For families that are very busy, there are ways to still have family dinners. One way is to pick a day of the week that is less busy and make sure everyone knows that is the day for family dinner. Another way is to make the dinner simple, so it does not take a lot of time to prepare. Even sitting together for a quick meal is better than not eating together at all.

Family dinners are a special time for everyone in the family. They are a chance to eat good food, talk about the day, and learn important manners. Even when life is busy, finding time to eat together can make a family stronger and happier. It is a simple thing that can make a big difference in everyone’s life.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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The Benefit of Family Mealtime

Posted April 1, 2020
By Jill Anderson

A father having dinner with his daughter

Despite family mealtimes being hugely beneficial to kids, only about 30% of families manage to eat together regularly. Anne Fishel , executive director of the Family Dinner Project , knows it's not always easy to find that time but it also doesn't have to be so hard. Through her work, she helps families find fun, creative, and easy ways to make meals a reality. As many families adjust to stay-at-home orders from the Coronavirus, there is a silver lining in that now there is time to enjoy a family meal or two.

Jill Anderson: I am Jill Anderson. This is the Harvard EdCast. With so many families staying home right now, that means there's also more opportunities for families to eat meals together. Family therapist Anne Fishel says only about 30% of families regularly eat dinner together, despite family meal time being hugely beneficial for kids. She's the executive director of the Family Dinner Project, a nonprofit that helps families find their way back to the dinner table with fun, easy conversations and meals. Before the coronavirus outbreak, I spoke to Anne, and asked her how we wound up being a country full of families that just don't eat together very often.

I mean the numbers certainly have gone down over the last 30 to 40 years. Although it's interesting in affluent families the numbers have gone up, and in low income families they've gone down, which I think speaks to the extra stressors of having to work extra jobs, having unpredictable schedules, not having as much access to healthy food. I think this accounts for why low income families struggle more with it.

But whether families are high income or low income, or live in the Midwest or on either coast, the obstacles to family dinner are pretty much the same all over. We hear that families are too busy, it's too much work to make dinner night after night, once they make it their kids or their partners are too picky. So what's the point? There's too much conflict at the table, families are distracted by technology, teenagers seem not to want to eat with their parents, although the research really flies in the face of that. Teenagers rank family dinner pretty high on their list of things they like to do, and 80% of teenagers say that family dinner is the time of the day they're most likely to talk to their parents.

Jill Anderson: Wow. Tell me a little bit more about what are some of the benefits of having dinner together?

Anne Fishel: Yes.

Jill Anderson: And why it's important?

Anne Fishel: Yes. I'm a family therapist, and I sort of half joke that I could be out of business if more families had regular family dinners, because so many of the things that I try to do in family therapy actually get accomplished by regular dinners. There have been more than 20 years of dozens of studies that document that family dinners are great for the body, the physical health, the brains and academic performance, and the spirit or the mental health, and in terms nutrition, cardiovascular health is better in teens, there's lower fat and sugar and salt in home cooked meals even if you don't try that hard, there's more fruit, and fiber, and vegetables, and protein in home cooked meals, and lower calories. Kids who grow up having family dinners, when they're on their own tend to eat more healthily and to have lower rates of obesity.

Then the mental health benefits are just incredible. Regular family dinners are associated with lower rates of depression, and anxiety, and substance abuse, and eating disorders, and tobacco use, and early teenage pregnancy, and higher rates of resilience and higher self esteem.

Jill Anderson: The Family Dinner Project has worked with, I think I read 1 million families on this issue.

Anne Fishel: Yes, we've had close to 2 million unique visitors on our website.

Jill Anderson: Wow.

Anne Fishel: We have tons of free online resources of recipes that take less than 30 minutes, and games to play at the table that promote conversation and conversation starters. Then we've worked with thousands of families through our community programs. We host community dinners at schools, and afterschool programs, and military bases, and homeless shelters, and firehouses, and we bring together a lot of families, and we have a great dinner together, we cook together, we eat, we play games, we have conversation, and then the kids will go off with a team member to make dessert for everybody, and one of us will meet with the parents and we'll ask them what are they doing well when it comes to making dinner happen, and what are their obstacles? Then we'll ask the parents to brainstorm their own solutions to these common problems.

Over 10 years, we've kind of collected some of those great work arounds, those real life hacks and collected them in this new book that we wrote called Eat, Laugh, Talk, The Family Dinner Playbook . It's really kind of a celebration of the incredible innovation that families demonstrate when they try to make family dinner happen. It's organized around the main obstacles. If I could just give you an example to show you how innovative families can be.

Jill Anderson: Oh sure.

Anne Fishel: There's a father in the book, a divorced father who has his three sons every weekend, and he very much would like to have dinner with them over the weekend, and they're really not that interested, so they scarf down their dinner and off they go to their screens. One night he said to himself, if you can't beat them, join them. And he said, boys, come to the kitchen, humor me, we're going to make ratatouille over pasta. They did that, and then he had them watch the movie Ratatouille while they ate the dinner, and they would discuss how their ratatouille compared to the movie version. Then sometimes he would turn off the sound, and have them guess what the actors were saying on the screen, and sometimes he would have them be critics, stop the movie and have them critique the different scenes. He used technology to engage them around the table, and that kick-started their practice of having weekend dinners with one another, and he didn't have to show a movie each time.

Jill Anderson: Right. I mean that's not even something I had even thought about, you have so many different family structures, kids moving from maybe one home to a different home-

Jill Anderson: - or different parents' home, and just very different situations.

Anne Fishel: Yes, you have three generational families-

Jill Anderson: Yes.

Anne Fishel: - single parents, you could have a family dinner with friends, or college kids in a dorm who regularly have dinner with one another, I think of that as a kind of family dinner.

Jill Anderson: Really runs the gamut.

Jill Anderson: It's not what you traditionally would think of as a family.

Anne Fishel: Exactly. It doesn't even have to be dinner, some families find it so much easier to have breakfast together, or weekend brunches, or even a late night snack, where you push away from work and meet in the kitchen for cheese and crackers and hot chocolate.

Jill Anderson: Yeah.

Anne Fishel: That would count too. I mean if you think of it, there's 16 opportunities for a family to eat together in a week, seven breakfasts, seven dinners, and two weekend lunches, and any of those would count towards the benefits.

Jill Anderson: Right. If you know you're going to have a day where dinner is going to be impossible on a weekend together, maybe you can try to do a breakfast or some other time.

Anne Fishel: Sure.

Jill Anderson: I imagine doing this every day would be the dream, but is there a goal?

Anne Fishel: Yeah, I think it's really up to each individual family to find their way. The research has focused on five meals a week as being kind of the tipping point for a lot of these benefits, but I'm not sure that they've carefully calibrated it, I mean some researchers have looked to see, do you get the same benefits with two meals a week? Some of the academic benefits seem to really count on five meals or more, and the goal is to have at least one good enough meal together a week. If a family can make that happen, often more will follow.

The idea that has to be five or more can become an obstacle. It can kind of a tyranny of perfection. I think we really want to get away from that in all regards. It doesn't have to be a perfect number, it doesn't have to be perfectly cooked, doesn't have to be perfect manners, the secret sauce of dinner is really not about the food at all. The secret sauce is, is it enjoyable? Do kids feel that when they speak, somebody wants to listen to what they have to say? Is there not much criticism, or anger, or conflict at the table? These are the things that I think families really should focus on.

Jill Anderson: I want to talk more about that. It's not so much the act of eating together as much as it is about that connection, and making it quality time together, which I know myself as a parent is hard to do, especially with a young child.

Anne Fishel: There are developmental challenges when the kids are young, and then again when they're teenagers, but I think when they're young you want to set kind of realistic expectations-

Jill Anderson: Right.

Anne Fishel: - and some kids, if you can get them to sit for five or 10 minutes, I think that's something you can build on as the years go on. Sometimes if parents put a little bit more thought into how they're going to engage their kids at the table, and less focus on the foods that that can make for a more enjoyable dinner.

Jill Anderson: Oh yeah.

Anne Fishel: Maybe picking a game that you want to play that will really delight a child, and help a child talk more fully about their day than just asking them what did you do in school? Or how was your day? But instead maybe everybody goes around the table and says a rose, a thorn, and a bud. Rose is something funny or positive, a thorn is something difficult or challenging, and a bud is something you hope will happen tomorrow.

Jill Anderson: That's great.

Anne Fishel: Yeah.

Jill Anderson: I'll have to try that tonight, because I definitely am a parent guilty of saying how was your day and getting nothing because my child is so young.

Anne Fishel: Yes, there are 52 weeks of recipes and games to play at the table, and conversation starters for all different ages, and I think it can be fun as a parent just to go through, and kind of pick and choose what you think might work at your table with your family.

Jill Anderson: Can we talk about the conversation with teenagers, or when they get a little bit older, I would assume, and I'm sure a lot of parents would assume, their teenagers want nothing to do with them at the dinner table, and then it turns out that's not really true.

Anne Fishel: It's not true. No, when kids are given the choice, or when they're asked in a survey, would you rather eat with your parents than by yourself in front of a screen or with your peers? 80% choose their families. It's because teens know that it's the most reliable time of the day to have time with their parents, and adolescents still need that and want that. In a funny way adolescents have the most to gain from family dinner when you think of the reduction in high risk teen behavior that comes with regular family dinner.

I think it's kind of a question of accommodating, making some changes, engaging teenagers more in choosing the menu, or maybe cooking one meal a week, or cooking a course, or finding out a country that they're interested in and picking some menus from or some dishes from that country and making that, or asking a teenager to make a playlist of favorite songs to play during dinner and talking about that, and maybe not talking about things that you know really upset your teenage kid. Maybe not talking about that D they got on their math quiz, or how messy their room is, or the missed curfew over the weekend. Maybe waiting for those conversations until everyone's eaten, and maybe having it one-on-one instead of at the dinner table.

Jill Anderson: Wait, I want to go back to something you mentioned earlier, which was there's academic benefits to eating together-

Jill Anderson: - and I don't know that people would necessarily equate eating together as having some sort of benefit academically.

Anne Fishel: Yes, these are very dramatic benefits, with young kids, preschoolers, the organic language that happens at the dinner table turns out to have 10 times as many rare or uncommon words sort of embedded in those conversations, as parents talk about being late because they hit a lot of traffic and they were so upset they wanted to tear their hair out, whatever, there are a lot of words that kids don't pick up in their picture books or on the playground, and kids who have a larger vocabulary learn to read earlier and more easily. This was a study done at the Harvard Ed school actually, a kind of a longitudinal literacy study done by Snow and Beals.

Then moving along the age continuum, kids who eat regular family dinners in elementary school and in high school get better grades, and the effect is stronger than even doing homework, or doing art, or sports.

Jill Anderson: Have you looked at all at the college student population? They're sort of transient, sometimes they move home for a month or two.

Anne Fishel: Yes. The dinner table is in some ways the the microcosm of what's going on in the family in general. It's the place where parents first feel maybe the emptiness of the empty nest, as they night after night sit at the same kitchen table and they have two empty seats where their children would be seated. I think there's something like that that happens when young adult kids come home, and maybe they weren't expected. Maybe the parents, the single parent, or two parents, they're sitting in different seats now that it's just the two of them, and they notice they have to rearrange their seating to accommodate a young adult, or maybe they've gotten in the habit of eating much later than they used to, or maybe the college student has become a vegetarian and wants to change the way the parents eat.

So you see some of these developmental frictions, or changes, or adaptations at the dinner table, and as a family therapist, it's kind of a fruitful place to work out some of the changes, who's going to accommodate, and how's that going to happen? Are you going to keep eating at nine o'clock the way you've been doing since your college kid has been away? Are you going to reach some understanding?

Jill Anderson: It's just renegotiating?

Anne Fishel: I think often college kids come back with some new ideas about food that they may want to introduce their families to, and I think one of the kind of earmarks of families who do the best, making the transition from teenage to young adulthood happens when parents really welcome the adventures and journeys that their kids take outside the family, and those journeys might be in exploring new cuisines, new ways of eating. It's sort of an opportunity I think, for parents to say, teach us, make something you've learned, or let us adapt to things that are important to you now that you've had a new experience in college.

Jill Anderson: I hear a little bit about parents, they want to get their kid to bed earlier, and both parents are not home at the same time, and so then I becomes this what time to eat issue.

Anne Fishel: Right. Yeah, it's like which ritual is going to get privileged? Is it going to be the bedtime ritual or the dinnertime ritual? Couple things come to mind, one is a family dinner doesn't have to be everybody.

Anne Fishel: Family dinner is one parent and a child, it could still be a family dinner, and then if there's another parent and he or she comes home late, then the child at least still had a family dinner. But maybe on the nights when the whole family can't eat together, there's more focus on breakfast.

Few years ago, Cheerios came to us and said, we know you have the Family Dinner Project, but how about the family breakfast project? We created games, and food, and conversation starters for breakfast, building it around a seven minute breakfast, because that's how long it is when you press your snooze alarm before it goes off again. We thought even busy families could fit in a seven minute breakfast, so they're conversation starters and games that sort of tilt towards anticipating the day rather than reflecting back on it.

Jill Anderson: I'm still a little bit taken aback by that statistic you mentioned earlier, that only 30% or 40%-

Anne Fishel: Have dinner.

Jill Anderson: - have dinner together, and while that's not the worst number you could ever hear.

Anne Fishel: And that's regular.

Anne Fishel: There more families who have it one time a week, or twice a week. It's not that the other 60% are never having family dinner.

Jill Anderson: Right, it's still surprising to hear that. What would you say if there was one thing for families to think about doing? How do you start?

Anne Fishel: I think I would start with making a commitment to having it once a week, and then I would ask a family, what would you like to work on? If you were to make one small change, where would it be? Would it be in trying a new food? Would it be having more fun at the table? Would it be finding out more what goes on in each other's days? Would it be talking about the news? Or talking about who we are as a family, and what our identity is, and what we value as a family? I would ask a family, if you were to make one small shift, small addition to family dinner, in what realm would you want to do it?

Jill Anderson: Do you find that if you approached this to big, thinking let's do this every night, it's just-

Anne Fishel: It doesn't work.

Jill Anderson: It doesn't work.

Anne Fishel: Yeah. Yeah, I think that can be overwhelming, and can make families just want to give up on it. Some families, nobody likes to cook. I remember a family like that who nobody liked to cook, but they wanted to have dinner together, and so they decided to have one dinner out a week, and I made them a conversation jar, it was a jar stuffed with whimsical, thought provoking, funny questions on little slips of paper, you can download them on our website, because they wanted to have a sustained conversation at the restaurant for 45 minutes, and so they brought the conversation jar to the restaurant. Just said, forget about cooking at home, maybe later on we'll tackle that, but for now we just want to have a good conversation with the three kids and the two parents.

Jill Anderson: That's what this is all really about.

Anne Fishel: Yeah, it really is. There's just so few opportunities each day for families to be together, and to connect, and relax, and have a good time.

Jill Anderson: And get rid of your phones.

Anne Fishel: And well, get rid of your phone, that's one option that many families take to have a technology free time of the day. Other families I know take a slightly different stance where you can bring a phone if you want to share something with the family, a photo you took, or a funny text, that's okay. Or sometimes families say, we'll just use our phones to resolve factual debates, do fish sleep? Who won the world series in 1990? That kind of thing.

Jill Anderson: I mean, it sounds like there really is no wrong way to do this-

Jill Anderson: - other than just not trying to do this at all.

Anne Fishel: Yes, it's a very flexible format, the family dinner. We're not trying to make this a nostalgia project, or kind of bring back a fantasy from the 1950s with a spotless kitchen and one parent, usually the mother home slow roasting a pot roast. The idea really is to try to involve as many people as possible to make the work a little bit lighter, and to focus more on what happens around the table then the food, I mean, everyone loves food too.

Jill Anderson: Anne Fishel is the executive director and co-founder of the Family Dinner Project. She is also a family therapist, clinical psychologist, and associate clinical professor of psychology at the Harvard Medical School. She is director of the family and couples therapy program at Massachusetts General Hospital. The Family Dinner Project just recently released the Eat, Laugh, Talk, the Family Dinner Playbook .

I'm Jill Anderson. This is the Harvard EdCast produced by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Thanks for listening, and please subscribe.

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Interested in partnering with the family dinner project, bring us to your community with workshops, partnership programs, and more learn more, the familydinnerproject.org, on the path to college, reflecting on family dinner.

Note: This essay was originally written by teen Paul Clancy as part of the college application process. He included it in his Common Application as a response to the question “Describe a place or environment in which you are perfectly content, why is it meaningful to you?” Paul is currently studying at the University of Illinois — Champaign.

I did not always appreciate our family dinner. When I was younger and more selfish I was not interested in spending that much time with my family. Now, I understand that my family is the cornerstone to my success and family dinner is the cornerstone to my family’s success. Family dinner creates a sense of community and stability. Even if everything in my life seems to be crumbling to pieces, I know that mahogany table set for dinner will stand tall among the rubble. I can always look forward to a beautifully prepared meal filled with laughter and conversation to glue me back together.

One of the best aspects of our family dinner is that it has morphed over time. It has seamlessly aged with the rest of my family. At first, dinner would last ten minutes. Conversation topics changed quicker than lightning could strike. It started with “how was your day?” and ended with “where is your shirt?” My parents struggled to control four children under the age of 6. The combined attention span of us kids was less than a nanosecond. None of us kids knew what we truly needed but we certainly knew what we liked. The room would echo with screams for dessert, television and story time. Inevitably a glass or two of milk would be spilled. Afterwards my dad worked to clean off all of our faces and my mom struggled to clean the dishes. We were a messy bunch, wearing each meal’s color on our faces.

As my brothers, sister, and I began to enter the tween and teenage years, the intensity of conversation was amped up by agreement and debate from across the table. Fights at a Clancy family dinner are unique because my mother is an attorney and my father is a judge. Pulling hair and throwing food was not tolerated, so we kids learned to use our words as weapons and as shields. My parents reinforced the notion that a well-placed adjective is just as powerful as a sucker punch. Synonyms of stupid and annoying were as plentiful as the creamy mashed potatoes, yet my parents always managed to exhibit a sense of control over dinner. Groundings were handed out not only for bad behavior but also for taboo language. Although the weekend of a 12-14 year old is nothing incredibly enticing, the reactions of a Saturday night quarantine rivaled those of capital punishment. However, by the end of dinner, tensions would usually fall and most problems could be soothed with some ice cream and words of wisdom.

Now with three kids in high school a 7 o’clock dinner time is hard to come by. However, everyone makes sacrifices to be present. I find that once I sit down I no longer want to leave. Family dinner creates this fulfilling energy that I cannot find anywhere else. I always leave that mahogany dining table feeling happier than when I sat down.

Family dinner has helped make me the young man I am today. It has taught me the importance of listening, but it has also showed me how to make my point heard. I have become more loyal, responsible, and accountable. Most importantly, I have created a unique bond with my family that will not be broken. Lee Iacocca summed it up best stating, “The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.” I could not agree more.

Family Dinner: What Makes Us Together!

Categories: Family History Family Relationship Family Values

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Published: Aug 30, 2022

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Importance of Eating Dinner as a Family, Essay Example

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Introduction

The family unit often struggles with its ability to communicate and to spend time together in today’s busy society. Families are torn in many different directions: mothers and fathers must work to keep food on the table, children must attend school and then extracurricular activities, and errands must be run to purchase items for the household to use. These challenges play a significant role in families where both parents work because there is often not enough time to cook dinner and sit down together and eat as a family. This is a serious concern in many families because it breeds a culture where fast food and restaurant takeout become acceptable and appropriate within the family unit. This is a difficult circumstance because it often leads to weight and other health challenges for children and adults. Therefore, the emphasis must be refocused on the family and dinner together not only as an opportunity to eat healthier meals, but also to openly communicate to ensure that the quality of family time is optimized. These efforts are instrumental in supporting positive outcomes for families and in influencing participation in family discussions and other matters. Therefore, the family dinner must serve as an opportunity to explore the different dimensions of the family dynamic and the ability of this unit to communicate, thrive, and grow through regular family dinners. This opportunity will have a positive impact on all family members, but in particular, young children and adolescents in order to promote greater bonding and communication with other family members. The following discussion will address the importance of family dinners as a strong basis for communication and interaction between family members in order to accomplish effective outcomes and to strengthen the family unit in many different ways to support success.

Prior studies have demonstrated that the family unit is often challenged by the many pressures of modern life, including work, school, social activities, financial matters, and limited interaction due to time constraints. Therefore, it is important to recognize these limitations and to find ways to promote togetherness and to encourage families to share time together and to communicate more effectively (Ochs et.al). Family dinners are not formulaic by any means, as each family has different routine and focus during this time; however, the consistent belief is that family dinners promote discussion, stimulate bonding, and demonstrate the value of basic togetherness (Ochs et.al). Therefore, family dinners must be encouraged as a means of promoting positive outcomes for all family members. These elements are critical to the success of different alternatives to promote a greater number of family dinners during the week and throughout the year (Ochs et.al).

In some families, there are considerable challenges associated with communication between parents and adolescent youth, and this is often exacerbated by busy schedules and difficulties finding time to spend together (Fulkerson et.al 261). Therefore, it is important to recognize the value of family dinners in this regard, as they support the expansion of much-needed communication between parents and their children (Fulkerson et.al 261). In many families, basic communication is very difficult to accomplish; therefore, the family dinner should be used as a vehicle to support these objectives and to demonstrate the value of interacting over food at the same table (Fulkerson et.al 261). These efforts are critical because they demonstrate the importance of specific factors associated with enhancing communication through family dinners, particularly between parents and their adolescent children, who might not otherwise communicate effectively under other circumstances (Fulkerson et.al 261). Therefore, families must prioritize dinner time in order to make this a focal point of their weekly schedules and activities and determine how to best move towards a regular time to have dinner together on a weekly basis (Fulkerson et.al 261).

The family dinner serves as a symbol of togetherness and camaraderie; however, many families simply do not take the time that is necessary to coordinate this activity into their busy daily lives. Furthermore, when families are split by divorce or other circumstances, dinnertime is often more challenging because there are fewer influences or incentives to engage in dinner conversations, particularly when one parent is absent (Stewart and Menning 193). There are several explanations regarding absent parents, such as fathers, including the following: “A poor-quality relationship with a nonresident father may also cause stress for the child, which may lead to unhealthy eating habits and obesity…An alternative hypothesis is that involvement with a nonresident father improves children’s eating habits. Through frequent visitation, nonresident fathers can help monitor and support their children’s mothers’ food procurement habits, resulting in more nutritious and regular meals” (Stewart and Menning 194). In either case, there are challenges to consider that play a role in shaping outcomes for children; therefore, family dinners, even if one parent is absent from the home, must play an important role in supporting communication and improved nutrition for children (Stewart and Menning 194). When families communicate regarding nutritional choices, mothers and fathers must explore their options in order to provide their children with important information in an interesting way so that they will take these discussions to heart (Stewart and Menning 194).

Parents must continue to address the challenges of family communication by using the family dinner as a guide. This is accomplished through the creation of an environment whereby children develop respect for their parents and behave in a manner that is respectful and appropriate (Sen 2). However, adolescents often experience different concerns that may impact their behaviors in different ways; therefore, family interaction may play an important role in enabling adolescents to voice their concerns and frustrations regarding issues in their lives (Sen 2). Therefore, family meals may play an important role in facilitating communication for adolescents to address problems and other concerns at the dinner table (Sen 2). When adolescents experience more family meals, they are likely to be more engaged in the family unit and in conversation that may promote positive behaviors and decision-making in the home environment and beyond (Sen 3). Also, these efforts are likely to be effective in reducing feelings of animosity, anger, frustration, and even depression in some adolescents (Sen 3). After a period of time, the efforts made at the family dinner table may contribute to the overall effectiveness of interactions between adolescents and their parents in some situations (Sen 3). Adolescents have an advantage in eating meals with their families, as they are likely to experience greater camaraderie and other feelings of support in the home environment and from their families in this manner (Sen 3).

In many ways, the family meal goes above and beyond the sharing of food and drink, as this time is also beneficial in promoting sound nutrition, improved decision-making, expanded communication, and other efforts that are designed to facilitate growth of the family unit (Fruh et.al 18). However, nutrition remains a significant component of this process and supports the demand for improved nutrition and healthier eating habits using the family dinner as a guide (Fruh et.al 18). From this perspective, it is of critical importance that nutritional habits are recognized and understood in the familial setting in order to expand options and to utilize the benefits of home cooking as best as possible (Fruh et.al 18). In this context, it is observed that the family unit provides an opportunity to convey the importance of different appraoches to cooking and to determine how to improve nutrition through healthier food choices and cooking habits (Fruh et.al 19). However, other benefits are also derived from family dinners, as children and adolescents are likely to improve their overall knowledge and vocabularies based upon interactions at the dinner table (Fruh et.al 19). Some studies have demonstrated that there is a significant impact of family dinners on academic achievement and expanding achild’s vocabulary over time (Fruh et.al 19). These efforts are important because theyallow children to interact with adults and to discuss broad topics that have wide range appeal (Fruh et.al 19). These elements are critical in contributing to the effectivenes fo fmaily dinners in stimulating conversation and positive behaviors in children and adolescents (Fruh et.al 19). Family meals also support the development of new perspectives regarding family unity and bonding because food often serves the sole purpose of bringing people together to have conversation and to share meals (Fruh et.al 20). These elements are important within the family unit because they may ease tension between individual family members and support a greater understanding of the issues that are most important to families, including sharing problems and discussing issues of importance (Fruh et.al 20). Family meals often convey the challenges of different perspectives regarding matters of improtance, as well as the opportunities that are available to promote growth and support within the family unit (Fruh et.al 21).

The ability to use family dinners as a driving force in supporting successful outcomes for families is not a novel concept. However, it is important to recognize the value of healthy alternatives so that children grow up with stronger nutritional values and a focus on healthy foods (Fulkerson et.al 189). These issues are relevant because eating meals as a family provides a greater opportunity to share nutritional knowledge and insight in the development of new perspectives to expand nutrition an d positive health for children and adults (Fulkerson et.al 189). However, one of the critical issues is the limited amount of time that is available to sit down and eat a family dinner together, as schedules and conflicts often interrupt these activities (Fulkerson et.al 189). Therefore, it is important to identify circumstances that may facilitate positive interactions between family members using the family dinner enviornment as a guide in this process to stimulate family discussion, bonding, and greater health and wellbeing (Fulkerson et.al 189). When the family unit thrives, it is likely that they will also be healthier, experience less stress, and develop opportunities to grow and thrive within the family unit and beyond (Fulkerson et.al 189).

One of the most unique opportunities that is available with family meals is the ability to be effective in promoting positive nutritional outcomes for children and adolescents (Hammons and Fiese e1565). In essence, it is possible for family dinners to promote greater nutrition and wellbeing for children when parents cook meals and are in control of the meal planning for the household (Hammons and Fiese e1565). These efforts are significant because they influence the time at which children eat, their interactions with family members, and the food that they consume during the meal (Hammons and Fiese e1565). These issues demonstrate that children who are required to eat with their families may experience greater health and wellbeing because they are required to consume foods that their parents prepare for them, rather than relying upon fast foods or other pre-prepared foods that have less nutritional value (Hammons and Fiese e1565). Under these conditions, it is necessary to develop strategies that will encourage families to eat healthier foods together and at the same time, in the same room (Hammons and Fiese e1565). It is advantageous to recognize these alternatives and to provide children with a means of obtaining nutrition in the home environment and in the company of different family members (Hammons and Fiese e1565).

Family dinners also represent an opportunity to develop associations between family members that will encourage adolescents to experience positive wellbeing at home, at school, and in social situations (Musick and Meier 476). It is known that “Children thrive on routine and stability…and meals are an important part of what organizes a child’s daily activities. But more than just routine, mealtime may entail patterned, symbolic practices for many families, including favorite foods, structured roles, and expressions of gratitude. These rituals may be comforting, promoting feelings of closeness and belonging and providing a break from daily stressors” (Musick and Meier 476). These considerations are important because they provide a greater understanding of the issues and challenges that many children face that could be positively influenced by family meals and togetherness (Musick and Meier 476). These issues are instrumental because they have a significant impact on family growth and development when they communicate and share meals together at the same location (Musick and Meier 476). One study that was conducted demonstrates that when families do not engage in regular dinners together, there is a potentially greater risk of negative adolescent behaviors, such as smoking, low academic performance, and drinking (Musick and Meier 476). These concerns are significant and play an important role in efforts to shift the tide towards increased numbers of family dinners because they play an important role in supporting positive outcomes, particularly for children who might face challenges inside and/or outside of the home environment that may limit their physical and intellectual growth and progress as they grow and thrive (Musick and Meier 476).

Family dinners are a critical component of modern family living. Some might argue that family dinners are a thing of the past and that they are not necessary in today’s busy environments. However, this is not the case, as family dinners continue to serve as the cornerstone for family togetherness, communication, and bonding in different ways. These efforts support a greater opportunity for families to share ideas, discuss problems, and to express emotions in the comfort of the familial environment. However, family dinners are also effective in expanding opportunities for home cooking and to make smart food choices to promote healthier nutrition. It is important for families to prepare meals that are healthy and satisfying so that children are able to obtain adequate nutrition, including fruits, vegetables, and proteins in the suggested manner and without excess fats, oils, and other negative ingredients that could interfere with quality. The family dinner serves as the glue that brings many families together and therefore, should be an important component of the family dynamic and overall household support system, regardless of a family’s size or makeup. These options are important because they convey the challenges of encouraging families to communicate more consistently and more effectively to reduce tension, stress, and other concerns, while also healing any wounds that exist and sharing information and providing insight that might be helpful to the family as a whole. In basing these alternatives around food, there is a greater opportunity to explore the dimensions of family bonding at all levels that will have a positive impact on all family members, but in particular, children and adolescents, perhaps with parents as well as brothers and sisters in and out of the house.

Works Cited

Fruh, Sharon M., Jayne A. Fulkerson, Madhuri S. Mulekar, Lee Ann J. Kendrick, and Clista Clanton. “The surprising benefits of the family meal.” The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 7.1(2011): 18-22.

Fulkerson, Jayne A., Martha Y. Kubik, and Bonnie Dudovitz. “Focus groups with working parents of school-age children: what’s needed to improve family meals?” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 43.3(2011): 189-193.

Fulkerson, Jayne A., Martha Y. Kubik, Sarah Rydell, Kerri N. Boutelle, Ann Garwick, Mary Story, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, and Bonnie Dudovitz. “Focus groups with working parents of school-age children: what’s needed to improve family meals?” Journal of Nutrition and Educational Behavior, 43.3(2011): 189-193.

Fulkerson, Jayne A., Keryn E. Pasch, and Kelli A. Komro. “Longitudinal associations between family dinner and adolescent perceptions of parent-child communication among racially diverse urban youth.” Journal of Family Psychology, 24.3(2010): 261-270.

Hammons, Amber J., and Barbara H. Fiese. “Is frequency of shared family meals related to the nutritional health of children and adolescents?” Pediatrics, 127.6(2011): e1565-e1574.

Musick, Kelly, and Ann Meier. “Assessing causality and persistence in associations between family dinners and adolescent well-being.” Journal of Marriage and Family, 74.3 (2012): 476-493.

Ochs, Elinor, Merav Shohet, Belinda Campos, and Margaret Beck. “Coming together at dinner: a study of working families.” UCLA Sloan Center on Everyday Lives of Families, 15 November 2013: http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/celf/pages/view_abstract.php?AID=80

Sen, Bisakha. “The relationship between frequency of family dinner and adolescent problem behaviors after adjusting for other family characteristics” Munich Personal RePEc Archive, 15 November 2013: http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/24329/1/MPRA_paper_24329.pdf

Stewart, Susan D., and Chadwick L. Menning. “Family structure, nonresident father involvement, and adolescent eating patterns.” Journal of Adolescent Health, 45(2009):193-201.

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How Should I Go About Writing My Family Essay?: Examples and Tips

Family is an integral part of every individual's life. Delving into the intricate layers of family relationships and dynamics can yield a captivating essay. Here's a comprehensive guide with examples and tips to guide you through the process.

What Topics Should I Write About for My Family Essay?

Choosing the right topic is essential. Here are some suggestions:

Writing a Family Tree Dive into your roots! A family tree can be more than names and dates; it can narrate stories of ancestors, their challenges, achievements, and legacies. For instance, "When I looked into our family tree, I discovered that my great-grandfather was a sailor who traveled the world and had countless tales of adventures, some of which have become legendary bedtime stories in our family."

Describing My Family in My Essay Discuss each family member in detail. "My sister, with her fiery red hair and matching temper, is the exact opposite of my calm and analytical brother. Yet, when they come together, they create the most amazing music, with him on the piano and her singing."

Writing About a Personal Memory Share a poignant memory. "I remember the time when our cat, Whiskers, went missing. The entire family turned detectives overnight, searching for clues, putting up posters, and even setting up a 'cat trap' with her favorite treats. The adventure ended with Whiskers found sleeping peacefully in the neighbor's shed, unaware of the chaos she had caused."

Dos and Don’ts When Writing a Family Stories Essay

Be authentic.
Use vivid descriptions and dialogues.
Respect privacy; ask permission if sharing personal details.
Avoid making generalizations.
Refrain from being overly negative or critical.
Don't plagiarize; every family's story is unique.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good hook for an essay on my family? As Tolstoy once said, 'All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Our family, though, has found its unique shade of happiness.
What should I include in an essay about me and my family? Descriptions of family members, memories, traditions, challenges, and lessons.
How should I start an essay all about my family? Every time I think of the word 'home,' an image of our old cottage, Sunday dinners, and loud family debates comes to mind.
How long should my essay about my family be? Length depends on the requirement; academic essays typically range from 500-1000 words, while personal essays can vary.
How do I make my family essay engaging? Incorporate stories, memories, and emotions.
Is it okay to discuss family challenges in my essay? Yes, but be sensitive and respectful.
Can I add humor to my family essay? Yes, as long as it's in good taste.

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Why eating family meals together is still important today, eating together as a family is more important than ever, because there are more competing distractions, more activity choices outside the home, and a constant bombardment of information from technology..

This article has been updated from its original text.

During the day most of us are out in the community mixing with all kinds of people. Our children are learning about the world from many sources, often without parental filters or input. Even when everyone is home, individuals do their own thing. Perhaps the only opportunity of the day to talk with each other is at the dinner table.

Children in today’s busy world need a shared, safe space to discuss ideas within the understanding company of family, and parents need a routine time to connect with kids.

The way it was

I would like to share what family dinners mean to me. When I was growing up in rural northern California, I could always count on meeting my parents and two sisters at the maple dinner table around 6:30. We all helped getting dinner ready and would sit down together. For at least half an hour we would discuss how our day had gone, talked about matters which concerned us, and made future family plans. After a busy day our evening meal was a chance to gather our little tribe around the table and reconnect with each other. This pleasant time seemed like a reward for the day’s hard work.

Dining was about “us”, rather than the “I” so many families have evolved to cater to. There wasn’t a separate menu for each person. Even the babies had whatever we adults ate, just pureed or minced. If someone didn’t like something they were given a dab, just in case this was the day it suddenly tasted good, which often happened. As kids, we were most enthusiastic about the dishes we had a part in producing.

Conversation was spontaneous and unpredictable, although negative topics were discouraged since they might impair our appetites. Discussion between bites was fun, and often interspersed with fits of giggling with my sisters, to my father’s constant chagrin.

This nightly gathering was a common scene in America in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. People didn’t make plans around dinnertime and you were expected to be at your seat or sitting with your friend’s family at their table. Folks didn’t call during the dinner hour.

Why we don’t eat together as much today

In recent generations, Americans moved from cooking at home to eating out because they think they don’t have time to cook, says Sheryl Garrett, founder of the Garrett Planning Network. But that’s not a sound decision, she says.

“If you think about it, if you count packing the family into the car, driving to the Applebee’s, standing in line for 20 minutes, getting to your table, waiting for your food, checking out, paying the bill of 40 or 50 dollars, and then driving back home, have you saved any time at all? No, definitely not. And you’ve probably spent four times the money you would have at home.”

The variety and convenience of ‘fast food’ has certainly taken a bite out of family mealtimes. And with good reason. Food franchises have learned how to cater to our fast-paced lifestyles by delivering a wide range of food items ‘on the go’ at low cost. Today, with 19% of meals in the US being eaten in cars, we’ve come to depend on ready access to food. But while convenience foods have their place, especially for quick breakfasts and lunches for working people, they are no substitute for family dinners eaten together.

The benefits of eating family meals together

While our smart phones and devices have brought us closer to the rest of humanity, it is the family meal that brings us closer to our own clan. The fabric of family is woven by shared experiences and time spent together. Here are some things we gain when we share meals as a family:

Eating together is more efficient, less expensive and healthier

My mother planned well-balanced meals using few convenience foods because cooking from scratch was always more economical, healthful, and tasty. My dad had a garden and a few fruit trees which provided fresh produce. To supplement, in summer we would go to big farms to do the last picking of strawberries, peaches, plums, and corn. Then we would spend hours freezing or canning summer’s bounty to enjoy all winter.

In the fall my father would go deer hunting and we would have organic venison. Also there were local pasture-fed animals to source from farmers. We knew where our food came from, and it was almost always locally sourced.

When I became responsible for the care of my own children, I grew more interested in nutrition. Being a single adventurous woman in San Francisco I had explored spices, seasonings and ethnic foods, but returned to the idea that freshness was the key to flavor and nutrition. In Laurel’s Kitchen and Diet for a Small Planet , I learned why whole natural foods, minimally processed, improve our health.

Eating together teaches children food sustainability.

When our children were young, one of the common threads of table conversation was acknowledging where our food came from. Each item usually had a story, such as where bananas grew and what kind of trip they had coming to our home. By growing and raising much of our food, the children learned the basics of gardening and took more interest in meals. They might have picked the broccoli, helped make applesauce from apples they picked by climbing trees, or collected the eggs for the omelet.

Children need to learn how the cost of convenience foods goes beyond the purchase price. The environmental costs of individual portion packaging, for manufacturing and disposal, are significant. A major perpetrator of deforestation in the South is the fast food industry. With nearly 100 paper packaging mills in the US South and thousands of restaurants worldwide, major fast food retailers such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, KFC and Taco Bell are leaders in paper consumption and subsequent waste.

Eating together builds closer relationships within the family

It goes without saying that communication is the key to understanding. Although we live as a family, each member is on a different track through life. Spending time together over meals lets us keep in touch with each other on a regular basis. To quote Joseph Califano, Jr, of Columbia University, “One of the simplest and most effective ways for parents to be engaged in their teens’ lives is by having frequent family dinners.”

Nights at the round table

When my husband Greg was a child, his family ate at a round table. The table was inherited from grandparents, and placing it in the dining room suited the shape of the room. But there was another benefit to the round table which was less apparent: because there was no “head” to the table, everyone in the family had an equal place. The ambience was very democratic – the children shared ideas with their parents as equals, and this encouraged the spontaneous and relaxed sharing of ideas.

The neighbors across the street were a fun, vibrant Italian family. But dinnertime was a strict affair, with the father sitting at the head of the large rectangular table and the mother at the opposite end. The father held court during meals, and the kids were expected to “eat up and shut up.” Although Greg spent much of his time in their house, he never stayed for dinner. He seemed to think that the table seating arrangement, which mirrored the traditional family hierarchy, stifled open communication.

It may be a stretch to think that the shape of the table and the seating order can influence communication, but we also dine at a round table in our home, and it has been the center of countless happy times spent with family and friends.

How to change the family dynamic

What if you decide your goal is to gather everyone to the table and have quality meal time together? How do you change the dynamic in your home?

Try setting a modest goal of two times a week and build from there

Eating meals together as a family does not necessarily mean the experience will be wonderful. Even within families, it takes practice to get along. Researchers at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University found essentially that family dinner gets better with practice; the less often a family eats together, the worse the experience is likely to be, the less healthy the food and the more meager the talk.

Simplify the food preparation

Probably the main reason we favor convenience food is the perception that home-cooked meals take more time to put together. This can certainly be the case. But there are shortcuts we can use to make food preparation fast and easy. Soups and stews can be made in quantities large enough to last two or three dinners. And when cooking rice or potatoes, make enough for a few meals. Recipes can be kept simple if you cook using fresh ingredients, and meals will still taste delicious.

Turn off cell phones and texting devices

The interruption of a phone call or text message is a sure way to break the conversation and remind everyone of events beyond the dinner table. It’s bad enough that tele-marketers call during the dinner hour. At our home we unplug the phone during mealtime; it makes our time together more relaxing and conducive to conversation.

Get the family involved in shopping and food preparation

Learning to shop wisely and to prepare food are useful life skills which are becoming more important with rising food prices and economic uncertainty. Young children can be helpful in the kitchen given a little guidance. We taught our kids how to roll out their own tortillas, which was messy, but they were proud to contribute to the meal. And they would eat just about anything if it were wrapped in one of their tortillas. When shopping, we practiced thrift. I remember preparing to order in a breakfast restaurant, and one of our kids asked the waitress for “bacon on sale”, thinking that was what you call “bacon”.

It is hard to fathom that 1/3 of America’s children eat fast food every day, according to Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Good quality food, simply prepared, should take less than 45 minutes to put on the table. With good organization and family participation, food can be prepared in advance on the weekend, with some frozen for future meals. Any recipe can be adapted to be more healthful, even just by reducing the oil or butter and substituting whole wheat for white flour.

“If it were just about food, we would squirt it into their mouths with a tube,” says Robin Fox, an anthropologist who teaches at Rutgers University in New Jersey, about the intangible benefits that family dinner bestows on us. “A meal is about civilizing children. It’s about teaching them to be a member of their culture.”

Being together daily at the table is an important chance to celebrate being a family: by staying in touch, learning about family culture, food, and practicing the social skills of dining and conversation. Family meals are for nourishment, comfort and support. And, food is better eaten with the people we love!

About the Author

Lindsay Seaman Lindsay Seaman is an avid reader and researcher who grew up in rural communities in northern California. In 2010 she retired from her school district career and is now following her passion for organic gardening while helping manage the Eartheasy homestead. She works with Greg in the “research” gardens and orchard, where she enjoys experimenting with new ideas in organic food production.

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5 gingerbread-flavored delights for the holidays, where to donate 10 high-impact environmental charities with integrity, 10 fresh & simple summer recipes to enjoy, creating green holiday traditions, 10 family activities to make the season festive, 5 sustainable reads to comfort and inspire.

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Six brilliant student essays on the power of food to spark social change.

Read winning essays from our fall 2018 “Feeding Ourselves, Feeding Our Revolutions,” student writing contest.

For the Fall 2018 student writing competition, “Feeding Ourselves, Feeding Our Revolutions,” we invited students to read the YES! Magazine article, “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” by Korsha Wilson and respond to this writing prompt: If you were to host a potluck or dinner to discuss a challenge facing your community or country, what food would you cook? Whom would you invite? On what issue would you deliberate?

The Winners

From the hundreds of essays written, these six—on anti-Semitism, cultural identity, death row prisoners, coming out as transgender, climate change, and addiction—were chosen as essay winners. Be sure to read the literary gems and catchy titles that caught our eye.

Middle School Winner: India Brown High School Winner: Grace Williams University Winner: Lillia Borodkin Powerful Voice Winner: Paisley Regester Powerful Voice Winner: Emma Lingo Powerful Voice Winner: Hayden Wilson

Literary Gems Clever Titles

Middle School Winner: India Brown

A Feast for the Future

Close your eyes and imagine the not too distant future: The Statue of Liberty is up to her knees in water, the streets of lower Manhattan resemble the canals of Venice, and hurricanes arrive in the fall and stay until summer. Now, open your eyes and see the beautiful planet that we will destroy if we do not do something. Now is the time for change. Our future is in our control if we take actions, ranging from small steps, such as not using plastic straws, to large ones, such as reducing fossil fuel consumption and electing leaders who take the problem seriously.

Hosting a dinner party is an extraordinary way to publicize what is at stake. At my potluck, I would serve linguini with clams. The clams would be sautéed in white wine sauce. The pasta tossed with a light coat of butter and topped with freshly shredded parmesan. I choose this meal because it cannot be made if global warming’s patterns persist. Soon enough, the ocean will be too warm to cultivate clams, vineyards will be too sweltering to grow grapes, and wheat fields will dry out, leaving us without pasta.

I think that giving my guests a delicious meal and then breaking the news to them that its ingredients would be unattainable if Earth continues to get hotter is a creative strategy to initiate action. Plus, on the off chance the conversation gets drastically tense, pasta is a relatively difficult food to throw.

In YES! Magazine’s article, “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” Korsha Wilson says “…beyond the narrow definition of what cooking is, you can see that cooking is and has always been an act of resistance.” I hope that my dish inspires people to be aware of what’s at stake with increasing greenhouse gas emissions and work toward creating a clean energy future.

My guest list for the potluck would include two groups of people: local farmers, who are directly and personally affected by rising temperatures, increased carbon dioxide, drought, and flooding, and people who either do not believe in human-caused climate change or don’t think it affects anyone. I would invite the farmers or farm owners because their jobs and crops are dependent on the weather. I hope that after hearing a farmer’s perspective, climate-deniers would be awakened by the truth and more receptive to the effort to reverse these catastrophic trends.

Earth is a beautiful planet that provides everything we’ll ever need, but because of our pattern of living—wasteful consumption, fossil fuel burning, and greenhouse gas emissions— our habitat is rapidly deteriorating. Whether you are a farmer, a long-shower-taking teenager, a worker in a pollution-producing factory, or a climate-denier, the future of humankind is in our hands. The choices we make and the actions we take will forever affect planet Earth.

India Brown is an eighth grader who lives in New York City with her parents and older brother. She enjoys spending time with her friends, walking her dog, Morty, playing volleyball and lacrosse, and swimming.

High School Winner: Grace Williams

Apple Pie Embrace

It’s 1:47 a.m. Thanksgiving smells fill the kitchen. The sweet aroma of sugar-covered apples and buttery dough swirls into my nostrils. Fragrant orange and rosemary permeate the room and every corner smells like a stroll past the open door of a French bakery. My eleven-year-old eyes water, red with drowsiness, and refocus on the oven timer counting down. Behind me, my mom and aunt chat to no end, fueled by the seemingly self-replenishable coffee pot stashed in the corner. Their hands work fast, mashing potatoes, crumbling cornbread, and covering finished dishes in a thin layer of plastic wrap. The most my tired body can do is sit slouched on the backless wooden footstool. I bask in the heat escaping under the oven door.

As a child, I enjoyed Thanksgiving and the preparations that came with it, but it seemed like more of a bridge between my birthday and Christmas than an actual holiday. Now, it’s a time of year I look forward to, dedicated to family, memories, and, most importantly, food. What I realized as I grew older was that my homemade Thanksgiving apple pie was more than its flaky crust and soft-fruit center. This American food symbolized a rite of passage, my Iraqi family’s ticket to assimilation.

Some argue that by adopting American customs like the apple pie, we lose our culture. I would argue that while American culture influences what my family eats and celebrates, it doesn’t define our character. In my family, we eat Iraqi dishes like mesta and tahini, but we also eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch for breakfast. This doesn’t mean we favor one culture over the other; instead, we create a beautiful blend of the two, adapting traditions to make them our own.

That said, my family has always been more than the “mashed potatoes and turkey” type.

My mom’s family immigrated to the United States in 1976. Upon their arrival, they encountered a deeply divided America. Racism thrived, even after the significant freedoms gained from the Civil Rights Movement a few years before. Here, my family was thrust into a completely unknown world: they didn’t speak the language, they didn’t dress normally, and dinners like riza maraka seemed strange in comparison to the Pop Tarts and Oreos lining grocery store shelves.

If I were to host a dinner party, it would be like Thanksgiving with my Chaldean family. The guests, my extended family, are a diverse people, distinct ingredients in a sweet potato casserole, coming together to create a delicious dish.

In her article “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” Korsha Wilson writes, “each ingredient that we use, every technique, every spice tells a story about our access, our privilege, our heritage, and our culture.” Voices around the room will echo off the walls into the late hours of the night while the hot apple pie steams at the table’s center.

We will play concan on the blanketed floor and I’ll try to understand my Toto, who, after forty years, still speaks broken English. I’ll listen to my elders as they tell stories about growing up in Unionville, Michigan, a predominately white town where they always felt like outsiders, stories of racism that I have the privilege not to experience. While snacking on sunflower seeds and salted pistachios, we’ll talk about the news- how thousands of people across the country are protesting for justice among immigrants. No one protested to give my family a voice.

Our Thanksgiving food is more than just sustenance, it is a physical representation of my family ’s blended and ever-changing culture, even after 40 years in the United States. No matter how the food on our plates changes, it will always symbolize our sense of family—immediate and extended—and our unbreakable bond.

Grace Williams, a student at Kirkwood High School in Kirkwood, Missouri, enjoys playing tennis, baking, and spending time with her family. Grace also enjoys her time as a writing editor for her school’s yearbook, the Pioneer. In the future, Grace hopes to continue her travels abroad, as well as live near extended family along the sunny beaches of La Jolla, California.

University Winner: Lillia Borodkin

Nourishing Change After Tragedy Strikes

In the Jewish community, food is paramount. We often spend our holidays gathered around a table, sharing a meal and reveling in our people’s story. On other sacred days, we fast, focusing instead on reflection, atonement, and forgiveness.

As a child, I delighted in the comfort of matzo ball soup, the sweetness of hamantaschen, and the beauty of braided challah. But as I grew older and more knowledgeable about my faith, I learned that the origins of these foods are not rooted in joy, but in sacrifice.

The matzo of matzo balls was a necessity as the Jewish people did not have time for their bread to rise as they fled slavery in Egypt. The hamantaschen was an homage to the hat of Haman, the villain of the Purim story who plotted the Jewish people’s destruction. The unbaked portion of braided challah was tithed by commandment to the kohen or priests. Our food is an expression of our history, commemorating both our struggles and our triumphs.

As I write this, only days have passed since eleven Jews were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. These people, intending only to pray and celebrate the Sabbath with their community, were murdered simply for being Jewish. This brutal event, in a temple and city much like my own, is a reminder that anti-Semitism still exists in this country. A reminder that hatred of Jews, of me, my family, and my community, is alive and flourishing in America today. The thought that a difference in religion would make some believe that others do not have the right to exist is frightening and sickening.

This is why, if given the chance, I would sit down the entire Jewish American community at one giant Shabbat table. I’d serve matzo ball soup, pass around loaves of challah, and do my best to offer comfort. We would take time to remember the beautiful souls lost to anti-Semitism this October and the countless others who have been victims of such hatred in the past. I would then ask that we channel all we are feeling—all the fear, confusion, and anger —into the fight.

As suggested in Korsha Wilson’s “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” I would urge my guests to direct our passion for justice and the comfort and care provided by the food we are eating into resisting anti-Semitism and hatred of all kinds.

We must use the courage this sustenance provides to create change and honor our people’s suffering and strength. We must remind our neighbors, both Jewish and non-Jewish, that anti-Semitism is alive and well today. We must shout and scream and vote until our elected leaders take this threat to our community seriously. And, we must stand with, support, and listen to other communities that are subjected to vengeful hate today in the same way that many of these groups have supported us in the wake of this tragedy.

This terrible shooting is not the first of its kind, and if conflict and loathing are permitted to grow, I fear it will not be the last. While political change may help, the best way to target this hate is through smaller-scale actions in our own communities.

It is critical that we as a Jewish people take time to congregate and heal together, but it is equally necessary to include those outside the Jewish community to build a powerful crusade against hatred and bigotry. While convening with these individuals, we will work to end the dangerous “otherizing” that plagues our society and seek to understand that we share far more in common than we thought. As disagreements arise during our discussions, we will learn to respect and treat each other with the fairness we each desire. Together, we shall share the comfort, strength, and courage that traditional Jewish foods provide and use them to fuel our revolution.

We are not alone in the fight despite what extremists and anti-semites might like us to believe. So, like any Jew would do, I invite you to join me at the Shabbat table. First, we will eat. Then, we will get to work.

Lillia Borodkin is a senior at Kent State University majoring in Psychology with a concentration in Child Psychology. She plans to attend graduate school and become a school psychologist while continuing to pursue her passion for reading and writing. Outside of class, Lillia is involved in research in the psychology department and volunteers at the Women’s Center on campus.

Powerful Voice Winner: Paisley Regester

As a kid, I remember asking my friends jokingly, ”If you were stuck on a deserted island, what single item of food would you bring?” Some of my friends answered practically and said they’d bring water. Others answered comically and said they’d bring snacks like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos or a banana. However, most of my friends answered sentimentally and listed the foods that made them happy. This seems like fun and games, but what happens if the hypothetical changes? Imagine being asked, on the eve of your death, to choose the final meal you will ever eat. What food would you pick? Something practical? Comical? Sentimental?

This situation is the reality for the 2,747 American prisoners who are currently awaiting execution on death row. The grim ritual of “last meals,” when prisoners choose their final meal before execution, can reveal a lot about these individuals and what they valued throughout their lives.

It is difficult for us to imagine someone eating steak, lobster tail, apple pie, and vanilla ice cream one moment and being killed by state-approved lethal injection the next. The prisoner can only hope that the apple pie he requested tastes as good as his mom’s. Surprisingly, many people in prison decline the option to request a special last meal. We often think of food as something that keeps us alive, so is there really any point to eating if someone knows they are going to die?

“Controlling food is a means of controlling power,” said chef Sean Sherman in the YES! Magazine article “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” by Korsha Wilson. There are deeper stories that lie behind the final meals of individuals on death row.

I want to bring awareness to the complex and often controversial conditions of this country’s criminal justice system and change the common perception of prisoners as inhuman. To accomplish this, I would host a potluck where I would recreate the last meals of prisoners sentenced to death.

In front of each plate, there would be a place card with the prisoner’s full name, the date of execution, and the method of execution. These meals could range from a plate of fried chicken, peas with butter, apple pie, and a Dr. Pepper, reminiscent of a Sunday dinner at Grandma’s, to a single olive.

Seeing these meals up close, meals that many may eat at their own table or feed to their own kids, would force attendees to face the reality of the death penalty. It will urge my guests to look at these individuals not just as prisoners, assigned a number and a death date, but as people, capable of love and rehabilitation.

This potluck is not only about realizing a prisoner’s humanity, but it is also about recognizing a flawed criminal justice system. Over the years, I have become skeptical of the American judicial system, especially when only seven states have judges who ethnically represent the people they serve. I was shocked when I found out that the officers who killed Michael Brown and Anthony Lamar Smith were exonerated for their actions. How could that be possible when so many teens and adults of color have spent years in prison, some even executed, for crimes they never committed?

Lawmakers, police officers, city officials, and young constituents, along with former prisoners and their families, would be invited to my potluck to start an honest conversation about the role and application of inequality, dehumanization, and racism in the death penalty. Food served at the potluck would represent the humanity of prisoners and push people to acknowledge that many inmates are victims of a racist and corrupt judicial system.

Recognizing these injustices is only the first step towards a more equitable society. The second step would be acting on these injustices to ensure that every voice is heard, even ones separated from us by prison walls. Let’s leave that for the next potluck, where I plan to serve humble pie.

Paisley Regester is a high school senior and devotes her life to activism, the arts, and adventure. Inspired by her experiences traveling abroad to Nicaragua, Mexico, and Scotland, Paisley hopes to someday write about the diverse people and places she has encountered and share her stories with the rest of the world.

Powerful Voice Winner: Emma Lingo

The Empty Seat

“If you aren’t sober, then I don’t want to see you on Christmas.”

Harsh words for my father to hear from his daughter but words he needed to hear. Words I needed him to understand and words he seemed to consider as he fiddled with his wine glass at the head of the table. Our guests, my grandma, and her neighbors remained resolutely silent. They were not about to defend my drunken father–or Charles as I call him–from my anger or my ultimatum.

This was the first dinner we had had together in a year. The last meal we shared ended with Charles slopping his drink all over my birthday presents and my mother explaining heroin addiction to me. So, I wasn’t surprised when Charles threw down some liquid valor before dinner in anticipation of my anger. If he wanted to be welcomed on Christmas, he needed to be sober—or he needed to be gone.

Countless dinners, holidays, and birthdays taught me that my demands for sobriety would fall on deaf ears. But not this time. Charles gave me a gift—a one of a kind, limited edition, absolutely awkward treat. One that I didn’t know how to deal with at all. Charles went home that night, smacked a bright red bow on my father, and hand-delivered him to me on Christmas morning.

He arrived for breakfast freshly showered and looking flustered. He would remember this day for once only because his daughter had scolded him into sobriety. Dad teetered between happiness and shame. Grandma distracted us from Dad’s presence by bringing the piping hot bacon and biscuits from the kitchen to the table, theatrically announcing their arrival. Although these foods were the alleged focus of the meal, the real spotlight shined on the unopened liquor cabinet in my grandma’s kitchen—the cabinet I know Charles was begging Dad to open.

I’ve isolated myself from Charles. My family has too. It means we don’t see Dad, but it’s the best way to avoid confrontation and heartache. Sometimes I find myself wondering what it would be like if we talked with him more or if he still lived nearby. Would he be less inclined to use? If all families with an addict tried to hang on to a relationship with the user, would there be fewer addicts in the world? Christmas breakfast with Dad was followed by Charles whisking him away to Colorado where pot had just been legalized. I haven’t talked to Dad since that Christmas.

As Korsha Wilson stated in her YES! Magazine article, “Cooking Stirs the Pot for Social Change,” “Sometimes what we don’t cook says more than what we do cook.” When it comes to addiction, what isn’t served is more important than what is. In quiet moments, I like to imagine a meal with my family–including Dad. He’d have a spot at the table in my little fantasy. No alcohol would push him out of his chair, the cigarettes would remain seated in his back pocket, and the stench of weed wouldn’t invade the dining room. Fruit salad and gumbo would fill the table—foods that Dad likes. We’d talk about trivial matters in life, like how school is going and what we watched last night on TV.

Dad would feel loved. We would connect. He would feel less alone. At the end of the night, he’d walk me to the door and promise to see me again soon. And I would believe him.

Emma Lingo spends her time working as an editor for her school paper, reading, and being vocal about social justice issues. Emma is active with many clubs such as Youth and Government, KHS Cares, and Peer Helpers. She hopes to be a journalist one day and to be able to continue helping out people by volunteering at local nonprofits.

Powerful Voice Winner: Hayden Wilson

Bittersweet Reunion

I close my eyes and envision a dinner of my wildest dreams. I would invite all of my relatives. Not just my sister who doesn’t ask how I am anymore. Not just my nephews who I’m told are too young to understand me. No, I would gather all of my aunts, uncles, and cousins to introduce them to the me they haven’t met.

For almost two years, I’ve gone by a different name that most of my family refuses to acknowledge. My aunt, a nun of 40 years, told me at a recent birthday dinner that she’d heard of my “nickname.” I didn’t want to start a fight, so I decided not to correct her. Even the ones who’ve adjusted to my name have yet to recognize the bigger issue.

Last year on Facebook, I announced to my friends and family that I am transgender. No one in my family has talked to me about it, but they have plenty to say to my parents. I feel as if this is about my parents more than me—that they’ve made some big parenting mistake. Maybe if I invited everyone to dinner and opened up a discussion, they would voice their concerns to me instead of my parents.

I would serve two different meals of comfort food to remind my family of our good times. For my dad’s family, I would cook heavily salted breakfast food, the kind my grandpa used to enjoy. He took all of his kids to IHOP every Sunday and ordered the least healthy option he could find, usually some combination of an overcooked omelet and a loaded Classic Burger. For my mom’s family, I would buy shakes and burgers from Hardee’s. In my grandma’s final weeks, she let aluminum tins of sympathy meals pile up on her dining table while she made my uncle take her to Hardee’s every day.

In her article on cooking and activism, food writer Korsha Wilson writes, “Everyone puts down their guard over a good meal, and in that space, change is possible.” Hopefully the same will apply to my guests.

When I first thought of this idea, my mind rushed to the endless negative possibilities. My nun-aunt and my two non-nun aunts who live like nuns would whip out their Bibles before I even finished my first sentence. My very liberal, state representative cousin would say how proud she is of the guy I’m becoming, but this would trigger my aunts to accuse her of corrupting my mind. My sister, who has never spoken to me about my genderidentity, would cover her children’s ears and rush them out of the house. My Great-Depression-raised grandparents would roll over in their graves, mumbling about how kids have it easy nowadays.

After mentally mapping out every imaginable terrible outcome this dinner could have, I realized a conversation is unavoidable if I want my family to accept who I am. I long to restore the deep connection I used to have with them. Though I often think these former relationships are out of reach, I won’t know until I try to repair them. For a year and a half, I’ve relied on Facebook and my parents to relay messages about my identity, but I need to tell my own story.

At first, I thought Korsha Wilson’s idea of a cooked meal leading the way to social change was too optimistic, but now I understand that I need to think more like her. Maybe, just maybe, my family could all gather around a table, enjoy some overpriced shakes, and be as close as we were when I was a little girl.

Hayden Wilson is a 17-year-old high school junior from Missouri. He loves writing, making music, and painting. He’s a part of his school’s writing club, as well as the GSA and a few service clubs.

Literary Gems

We received many outstanding essays for the Fall 2018 Writing Competition. Though not every participant can win the contest, we’d like to share some excerpts that caught our eye.

Thinking of the main staple of the dish—potatoes, the starchy vegetable that provides sustenance for people around the globe. The onion, the layers of sorrow and joy—a base for this dish served during the holidays. The oil, symbolic of hope and perseverance. All of these elements come together to form this delicious oval pancake permeating with possibilities. I wonder about future possibilities as I flip the latkes.

—Nikki Markman, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California

The egg is a treasure. It is a fragile heart of gold that once broken, flows over the blemishless surface of the egg white in dandelion colored streams, like ribbon unraveling from its spool.

—Kaylin Ku, West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South, Princeton Junction, New Jersey

If I were to bring one food to a potluck to create social change by addressing anti-Semitism, I would bring gefilte fish because it is different from other fish, just like the Jews are different from other people. It looks more like a matzo ball than fish, smells extraordinarily fishy, and tastes like sweet brine with the consistency of a crab cake.

—Noah Glassman, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

I would not only be serving them something to digest, I would serve them a one-of-a-kind taste of the past, a taste of fear that is felt in the souls of those whose home and land were taken away, a taste of ancestral power that still lives upon us, and a taste of the voices that want to be heard and that want the suffering of the Natives to end.

—Citlalic Anima Guevara, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kansas

It’s the one thing that your parents make sure you have because they didn’t. Food is what your mother gives you as she lies, telling you she already ate. It’s something not everybody is fortunate to have and it’s also what we throw away without hesitation. Food is a blessing to me, but what is it to you?

—Mohamed Omar, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri

Filleted and fried humphead wrasse, mangrove crab with coconut milk, pounded taro, a whole roast pig, and caramelized nuts—cuisines that will not be simplified to just “food.” Because what we eat is the diligence and pride of our people—a culture that has survived and continues to thrive.

—Mayumi Remengesau, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Some people automatically think I’m kosher or ask me to say prayers in Hebrew. However, guess what? I don’t know many prayers and I eat bacon.

—Hannah Reing, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, The Bronx, New York

Everything was placed before me. Rolling up my sleeves I started cracking eggs, mixing flour, and sampling some chocolate chips, because you can never be too sure. Three separate bowls. All different sizes. Carefully, I tipped the smallest, and the medium-sized bowls into the biggest. Next, I plugged in my hand-held mixer and flicked on the switch. The beaters whirl to life. I lowered it into the bowl and witnessed the creation of something magnificent. Cookie dough.

—Cassandra Amaya, Owen Goodnight Middle School, San Marcos, Texas

Biscuits and bisexuality are both things that are in my life…My grandmother’s biscuits are the best: the good old classic Southern biscuits, crunchy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Except it is mostly Southern people who don’t accept me.

—Jaden Huckaby, Arbor Montessori, Decatur, Georgia

We zest the bright yellow lemons and the peels of flavor fall lightly into the batter. To make frosting, we keep adding more and more powdered sugar until it looks like fluffy clouds with raspberry seed rain.

—Jane Minus, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

Tamales for my grandma, I can still remember her skillfully spreading the perfect layer of masa on every corn husk, looking at me pitifully as my young hands fumbled with the corn wrapper, always too thick or too thin.

—Brenna Eliaz, San Marcos High School, San Marcos, Texas

Just like fry bread, MRE’s (Meals Ready to Eat) remind New Orleanians and others affected by disasters of the devastation throughout our city and the little amount of help we got afterward.

—Madeline Johnson, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

I would bring cream corn and buckeyes and have a big debate on whether marijuana should be illegal or not.

—Lillian Martinez, Miller Middle School, San Marcos, Texas

We would finish the meal off with a delicious apple strudel, topped with schlag, schlag, schlag, more schlag, and a cherry, and finally…more schlag (in case you were wondering, schlag is like whipped cream, but 10 times better because it is heavier and sweeter).

—Morgan Sheehan, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

Clever Titles

This year we decided to do something different. We were so impressed by the number of catchy titles that we decided to feature some of our favorites.

“Eat Like a Baby: Why Shame Has No Place at a Baby’s Dinner Plate”

—Tate Miller, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kansas

“The Cheese in Between”

—Jedd Horowitz, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

“Harvey, Michael, Florence or Katrina? Invite Them All Because Now We Are Prepared”

—Molly Mendoza, Spring Hill College, Mobile, Alabama

“Neglecting Our Children: From Broccoli to Bullets”

—Kylie Rollings, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri

“The Lasagna of Life”

—Max Williams, Wichita North High School, Wichita, Kansas

“Yum, Yum, Carbon Dioxide In Our Lungs”

—Melanie Eickmeyer, Kirkwood High School, Kirkwood, Missouri

“My Potluck, My Choice”

—Francesca Grossberg, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

“Trumping with Tacos”

—Maya Goncalves, Lincoln Middle School, Ypsilanti, Michigan

“Quiche and Climate Change”

—Bernie Waldman, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

“Biscuits and Bisexuality”

“W(health)”

—Miles Oshan, San Marcos High School, San Marcos, Texas

“Bubula, Come Eat!”

—Jordan Fienberg, Ethical Culture Fieldston School, Bronx, New York

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What is Family Dinner: A less-stress definition

By Author Jessica Braider

Posted on Last updated: August 11, 2020

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The Scramble’s answer to the question, “what is family dinner?” may surprise you and offer relief.

If you were to ask 100 people the question: what is family dinner. Everyone would have an answer and a clear vision of what a family meal looks like. Not only that, but everyone would have an opinion on whether that image is attainable, pleasant, and necessary. And all of the answers given by those 100 people would be different.

As with so many aspects of parenting and family life, we tend to think that there is a right way and a wrong way to do these things. What is more, we have been bombarded with messages that if we don’t do it “right,” we are failing our children and ourselves.

That ends now.

More than anything, I want to help you to have positive experiences sharing meals with your family, to build confidence around meal preparation, and to share tools that can help to make things easier for everyone involved.

Part of that process is answering the question “what is family dinner” in such a way that it is both doable and meaningful for busy families.

What Family Dinner is NOT

Before we get to a definition of what family dinner is and what it should look like, let’s define what family dinner does not have to be.

Why? Because as parents we are bombarded with images and messages about how things should be, which leave us feeling like we are doing things wrong. More than anything I want family meals to be less stressful and overwhelming for you.

So, in an effort to help you to let go of that guilt and self-criticism we came up with a list of what family dinner does NOT have to be:

Dinner. It can be any meal of the day and any day of the week when your family can gather.
Everyone in the family at the table. While this is the ideal, a meal with the members of the family who can make it still counts.
A perfectly prepared meal with multiple dish offerings. The purpose of family dinners is to spend time together and connect as a family more than it is about the food. In short, a meal of sandwiches and apple slices has just as much value and opportunity for connection as a three-course meal.
The perfectly balanced meal where everyone gets all of the nutrients they need. As a meal planning service that seeks to make it easier to serve your family balanced meals with plenty of fruits and vegetables, we acknowledge that a balanced meal is really nice, but it is NOT essential. Again, family meals are more about connecting than they are about eating.
A meal where everyone loves all of the food. This would be amazing, of course, but while we do think it is important that the family share the same options (making separate meals for each family member is exhausting, time consuming, and doesn’t help your kids to broaden their food horizons), we don’t believe that everyone needs to like or even eat every dish.
A time when everyone is in a good mood. We are human. We have good days and bad days.
A time when everyone agrees . While it would be lovely if everyone always got along and agreed, that is not always going to be the case. That’s ok. In all honesty, that is part of being in a family.
A time when everyone is perfectly behaved. Part of family meals is modeling table manners, listening skills, and other social graces that we want our kids to learn. This, of course, means that they are still learning those skills – they won’t do them perfectly and that’s ok. There may be squirmy bodies, interruptions, or chewing with mouths open. As parents it is our job to help them to develop their new skills, hopefully in a way that is supportive and conducive to a pleasant meal together.

What is Family Dinner?

So now that you have, hopefully, been able to let go of some of that guilt, here’s what family dinner can be: A meal that a family shares, while also having conversation and (hopefully) enjoying time together.

What does that look like?

It could be dinner on a Sunday night with a main dish, salad, and dessert that lasts for an hour.

Or breakfast on a Saturday morning of bagels and fruit.

Slow Cooker Sweet and Smoky Corn and Pinto Bean Stew

It could be a one-pot slow cooker meal on a Monday that lasts 20 minutes.

Or it could be a Thursday evening meal made up of eggs on toast and oranges.

In short, it doesn’t have to be complicated, hard, stressful, or tense.

If family meals like this sound good to you, sign up for our New Years challenge: Eat Better Together . Throughout the month of January, we’ll help you to start 2020 off on the right foot with resources and support designed to make family meals together a joy, rather than a burden.

Short Essay on My Family [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

Writing essays on Family has always been in trend in many English comprehension tests around the world. In this lesson today, you will learn how you can concisely write short essays on ‘my family’ within the recommended word limit.

Feature image of Short Essay on My Family

Short Essay on My Family in 100 Words

Family is an important part of everyone’s life. I live in a joint family with my grandparents, parents, uncle and aunt as well as my siblings and cousins. We also have a pet dog whom we consider a part of our family. All the members of my family love, respect and care for each other. No matter how busy everyone is, we make sure to sit down and have dinner together every night.

We share our happiness and discuss our problems with each other. The elders always give us good advice and guide us in our lives. We also love going out for family picnics and outings during holidays. I love my family.

Short Essay on My Family in 200 Words

A person’s family is an integral part of his or her life. Some people have a small family while others are blessed with a large family. I live in a joint family with my grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts as well as my siblings and cousins. All the members of my family love, respect and care for each other. My siblings, cousins and I go to the same school and are always there for each other.

My parents are teachers while my uncles are in the police force. Despite being busy with their jobs, all the elders share the responsibility of doing household chores and do not leave all the burden on the women of the house. My mother also helps us with our studies and homework.

We have a huge dining table and every night, all the family members sit together to dine. We share our happiness and troubles with each other. If a family member is in some kind of difficulty, other members do their best to help him or her.

The elders always share their wisdom with us and show us the right path. We also love going out together and we go for family outings every once in a while. I am thankful that I am blessed with such a wonderful family.

Short Essay on My Family in 400 Words

A family can mean different things to different people. In a traditional sense, it is a group of people related by blood, marriage or adoption living together. Some people have a small family while some others are blessed with a large family. I live in a joint family. My parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts all live together. I also have two siblings and three cousins. We go to the same school and get along very well.

My parents are teachers while my uncles work in the police force. One of my aunts is a nurse and the other is a housewife. My grandfather used to work in a steel factory and is now retired. All the members of my family love, respect and care for each other. No matter how busy everyone is, we make sure to spend quality time with each other.

All the members share the responsibility of the household chores and do not let the entire burden fall on the women of the house. Being teachers, my parents also tutor us children at home and help us with our homework.

We have a huge dining table in our living room and every night, all the family members sit together to dine. We share our happiness and discuss our problems with each other. The elders always share their wisdom and guide us in our lives. Whenever my parents or uncles are in some sort of difficulty, they consult my grandparents for their advice.

My grandfather loves to talk about politics and my father and uncles often join him. Oftentimes their opinions don’t match, yet they are very respectful of each other and the difference in their views. My family has taught me how to always be respectful and polite.

My family loves to go out together and we often go for family outings. Our favourite is a picnic spot near our house where we go almost every two weeks. We also have good relations with our other relatives and they visit us during the holidays. Having a large family is amazing. Even when our parents are busy or out of town, we are never left alone.

There is always someone to take care of us when we fall sick and there is always someone to rely on when we need help. It is said that a person’s family influences their nature, character and personality a lot. I am blessed to have such a wonderful family. It is because of their good influence that I have become a good person.

That was everything about writing short essays on ‘My Family.’ In these essays, I have adopted a very simplistic approach with easy words and sentences for easy understanding of all kinds of students. If you still have any doubts regarding this session, kindly mention that in the comment section below. To read more such essays on various important topics, keep browsing our website.

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I work at Aldi and cook for my family of 4. Here are 9 high-quality dinner items I can't believe I got at the budget grocer.

As an Aldi employee , the budget grocer is my go-to for high-quality dinner items for my family.

My kids love the Bremer Salisbury steaks and Kirkwood Buffalo-style chicken wings.

The Priano spinach-and-cheese manicotti makes a delicious, comforting dinner.

I've worked at Aldi for two years and am always searching for dinner items that feel high-end . Turns out I'm not alone, as more shoppers turn to Aldi to grab groceries and quick meals for their families.

To help you decide which dinner items to add to your cart, here are nine luxurious-feeling foods I've gotten at Aldi .

The Priano ravioli taste like they're from a restaurant.

The Priano ravioli are simply delicious. The mushroom version is stuffed with roasted portabellas, and the Italian-sausage one has a meat-and-cheese filling.

I boil the pasta, cover the ravioli with an Alfredo sauce , and serve with pan-seared green beans and garlic knots for a meal that's ready in under 30 minutes.

It may seem simple, but Mama Cozzi's Take-and-Bake five-cheese pizza tastes like it's from a pizzeria.

Mama Cozzi's Take-and-Bake five-cheese extra-large pies are ready in less than 25 minutes, making them perfect for a family pizza night.

We like the basic cheese pizza , but the brand sells other versions like supreme, sausage, and mega-meat. I serve the pizza with everyone's favorite beverages for a dinner that pleases my husband and kids.

My family loves the flavorful Park Street Deli fully cooked chicken dishes.

Thawing, seasoning, and cooking meat is a task, so when I don't feel like putting in the effort, I turn to the Park Street Deli entrées. They come in various flavors, but my family's favorites are the Korean-style barbecue and white-wine pepper-sauce chicken.

The Korean-style barbecue version comes with a sweet, tasty sauce, and the white-wine pepper-sauce chicken comes with mushrooms mixed in. Both meals are fully cooked, so all you need to do is pop them in the microwave for a few minutes.

I pair these chicken thighs with mashed potatoes and broccoli for a filling meal.

The Priano spinach-and-cheese manicotti is the perfect pasta dinner.

The Priano spinach-and-cheese manicotti is the perfect entrée to serve alongside a nice salad and French bread.

I simply bake the manicotti until the pasta is warm, which takes about 20 to 30 minutes.

The Bremer bistro lasagna with meat sauce tastes like a home-cooked meal without all the work.

I always love seeing family-size meals available at Aldi because I feel like I get more bang for my buck. The Bremer bistro lasagna with meat sauce takes all the prep work out of the usually labor-intensive dish.

One package comes with 4 ½ servings, which makes this meal perfect for my hungry family. I like to pair the lasagna with garlic bread and asparagus.

If I need a really easy dinner, I go for the Reggano cheesy skillet dinner kits.

The Reggano cheesy skillet dinner kits come together in less than 15 minutes. My location carries two flavors: creamy beef stroganoff and ultimate cheeseburger.

Each box comes with pasta, sauce, and seasoning, so I don't even have to make a side if I don't want to. However, a nice slice of bread is perfect for soaking up the sauce.

The Kirkwood Buffalo-style chicken wings are one of my kids' favorite dinners.

Kirkwood Buffalo-style chicken wings with french fries are an easy weeknight dinner that puts smiles on my kids' faces.

The wings are also available in sweet-barbecue and plain flavors, so there's an option for every palate.

I pair the Bremer Salisbury steaks with mashed potatoes and a salad.

The Bremer gravy and Salisbury steaks from the freezer section come with six servings, so it goes a long way in my house.

I cut them in half for my children, so there's enough for dinner and leftovers the following day. I pair the steaks with mashed potatoes and a salad.

Reggano pasta entrées are worth picking up from the store.

Reggano pasta entrées are popular among customers at my location, and for good reason. These delicious meals come in three different flavors: angel hair with herbs, shells and white cheddar, and Parmesan cheese.

I simply cook the pasta, add the sauce mix, and serve. Better yet, each pasta dish is ready in 15 minutes or less.

Click to keep reading Aldi diaries like this one .

Read the original article on Business Insider

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Breaking news, mom cooks ‘beautiful’ family dinner — but discovers major error with her olive oil that ruins meal: ‘she’s so angry’.

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Talk about some clean protein.

A delicious-looking meal a mother tirelessly crafted for her family was ruined after she mistakenly used one ingredient that spoiled the entire dish — shower gel.

“Okay, I feel so bad; look at what my poor mother did,” Kameron Jane said in the viral TikTok .

Kameron Jane shared that her mother worked all evening whipping up dinner for them.

“She just cooked this beautiful meal, this Tuscan chicken and this amazing sauce with a new olive oil that she ordered from online.”

Though the chicken dish sizzling on the stovetop in a creamy yellow sauce with cherry tomatoes appeared eatable at first glance — Jane grabbed a bottle of “Pure Greek Olive” that her mother used to whip up the homemade meal.

“Only after she finished, did we discover that it’s — shower gel,” Jane shared.

What her mother thought was normal olive oil turned out to be a $19 bottle of Korres Pure Greek Olive Oil scented shower gel .

“She just had to leave the room because she’s so angry,” Jane said while she held back nervous laughter from her mother’s mistake.

@kameron_jane Pure Greek “olive oil” count your days #cookingfails ♬ original sound – Kameron Jane

After tasting her mother’s “beautiful” meal for herself, Jane immediately spit it out.

“The chicken tastes like straight-up soap,” she said, covering her mouth, still trying not to laugh.

While Jane got a kick out of the major culinary mishap, her mother didn’t find it as comical.

“I want to physically hurt someone and hit something really hard,” her mother admitted while she stood over the stovetop looking down at the ruined dish.

After tasting her mother's "beautiful" meal for herself, Jane immediately spit it out.

The TikTok, which has been viewed over 8.3 million times and has garnered over 850k likes since being posted on Thursday, even got a reaction from the shampoo brand.

“Ok, but just wait until you find out that our foaming cleanser is made with real Greek yogurt…” Korres’s TikTok account commented on the video having a little fun with the situation.

Other users in the comment sections were bewildered by the mistake.

“Because reading is WHAT???… fundamental,” one user commented, to which Jane jokingly replied that her mother “wasn’t wearing her glasses.”

Jane grabbed a bottle of "Pure Greek Olive" that her mother used to whip up the homemade meal.

“I saw KORRES and I knew where we were heading,” another wrote.

“That does NOT look like olive oil have you people seen olive oil bottles,” commented another.

While some were shocked by the slippery slip-up, others had empathy for the mother who tried to make a delicious meal for her family.

“Poor Mama…that is so sad and disheartening…all that time and work. I hope you took her out for a nice meal after that trauma,” one TikTok user commented, with Jane replying that her family tried to order food, but her mother insisted on making them pasta afterward.

“The soap chicken looked so good too… I’m furious with her,” one wrote on the presentation of the mother’s meal.

“I would cry. I would literally cry. Poor mom,” wrote another.

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