The Power of Parents in "Changing the Way We Eat"

Last Saturday (01.21.12) was the 2nd TEDxManhattan conference: Changing the Way We Eat and I was honored to be in the audience. I learned so much, met many amazing people and, as cliche as it sounds, I was truly inspired. My goal in attending was to try to get a handle on how parents and family dinner can fit into the bigger conversation about changing the food system. It's not too far a stretch, really. Laurie David, noted environmental activist and author of The Family Dinner book was the host again this year. She argued eloquently at last year's event that family dinner can indeed be an important step in the right direction for systemic change. I feel like parents are an untapped resource in the battle for better eating, better nutrition and a better food system.

The TedxManhattan talks were live streamed that day and there were over 4,000 viewing parties all over the world. Twitter followers can find many great quotes from the day under the #TEDxMan hashtag (Here's one compilation from Buckybox on Storify.) The actual talks are set to be posted online within a month or so. In the meantime, over the next few posts, I'm going to share my thoughts and big "take-away" messages.

Big Take-away #1: The Consumer
Many speakers talked about how the consumer could or would lead the way in changing the food system. By demanding high quality food, by being more knowledgeable about where food comes from and by understanding the true costs of food, consumer demand could help "move the market" so that healthier foods would be more available. I totally agree. (Statistics on the growing market for organics alone are here.) Yet, no one came out and talked about who the most powerful consumers in this game are: the parents.

Let's make it clear about who our consumer audience is for the good food movement and reach out accordingly. Families, by and large, spend more money at the grocery store than any other segment and are a huge market. Parents (and kids) are the targets for multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns, mainly pushing overprocessed, unhealthy foods. There is a huge tidal-wave of misinformation that we have to combat. There are many factors in the childhood obesity epidemic, but the proliferation of fast-food, kid-food, and sugary soda and drinks aimed at kids and teens are a huge part of the problem. Parents must be engaged and enlightened on their role in demanding better food choices. Parents should not be the "elephant in the room," but instead empowered to be the first line of defense.

Two people at the conference did talk about parents directly, although one was just on video: Urvashi Rangan from the Consumer Union and Jamie Oliver in his Ted Big Wish Award talk (February 2011).

Urvashi Rangan, a parent herself, made a persuasive and impassioned case for how food labels need to be better regulated. Consumers do read labels and generally want to purchase healthier food, but they are often confused by labels, and rightly so (from Fooducate). As Rangan presented, the term "natural" means nothing, but some parents think it does and even report thinking "natural" is better than "organic." Organic is not a perfect label, she reasoned, but hundreds of pages of federal standards are behind it. We need more clarity.

Update: Urvashi's Rangan's TedxTalk added 2.13.12



So, parents do care, but are easily tricked. (Not to suggest that parents are stupid or uneducated, it's that millions of dollars goes into the "science" of misinformation.)  In my experience, even well-educated parents can fall for the "Pop-Tart" trap. Almost every parent knows that pop-tarts are a "treat" at best. But it's easy to think "Hey the label says 'Made with Real Fruit,' how bad can it be?" Or maybe a parent might think, "Oh, these have been improved and are healthier now." Labels should be helping consumers, not setting them up for a bad-food trap.

I fell in love with Jamie Oliver all over again seeing his talk on the big screen of the TEDx stage, even though I've seen it before. Singing to the choir with me obviously, but it is a pity and a shame that we can't get home-cooking more in favor. Family meals can be at the core of widespread change. "Mums and dads," as Jamies would say, have got to realize they they are part of this change movement. He actually has a movement afoot. If you haven't heard about it, sign up here.

I'll leave you with Jamie's impassioned speech. What do you think about the power of parents in the good food fight?

Friday Family Dinner Fan Club: Happy Anniversary, eatdinner.org!

I just realized that my blog's anniversary is coming up, so I'm giving myself "Friday Fan Club"! I have been writing about and promoting family dinner on eatdinner.org for three years this Thanksgiving (my first blog post here). Just like when your babies get older, it's hard to imagine where the time has gone. Looking back, there have been some bumps in the road, but I'm proud to say that my goals have pretty much stayed the same: to promote family dinner by posting practical ideas, research, and resources for parents.

In May 2010, I rededicated myself to the cause of family dinner and, in recent months, have happily found a community of like-minded bloggers and tweeple on twitter (@eatdinner). The family dinner meme finally seems to be catching a buzz, thanks most recently to Laurie David's new book The Family Dinner Cookbook. This year has also shown that some companies in the corporate food world can responsibly support family dinner. Some examples include Stouffer's Let's Fix Dinner campaign partnership with CASA (my post here) and the Smuckers' The Power of Family Meals website that features Miriam Weinstein, who wrote  the "bible" of family dinner, The Surprising Power of Family Meals (my Friday Fan post here). Barilla also has lots of family dinner resources under its Share the Table website. Offline, I recently meet with Time at the Table, a new organization that is promoting family dinner, and we hope to collaborate as our organizations move forward.

Part of my mission is to promote great ideas that can help families commit to family dinner. So if you write a blog or books, do research, or publicize in the media on the wide-range of issues that can relate to family health and family dinner, please contact me in the comments or grace [at] eatdinner [dot] org.

Let's think about how we can all work together to promote family dinner as good for each family and as a broad social good, too.

PS For my anniversary, please "like" this page or share the link with a friend! Many thanks!

Family Dinner Tips and Tricks: Crowdsourced from The Motherhood

Laurie David's new book: The Family Dinner Cookbook is winning raves and garnering a lot of media buzz; all this is terrific attention to the issue of family dinner. She and many mommy bloggers chatted on The Motherhood today and the love for family dinner was fast and furious! I'm posting a round-up of some collective wisdom, adding a few tips of my own.

"If you can muster the energy for only one tool to raising a healthy family, make it having family dinner."   Tom Hanks, actor/producer, promoting Laurie David's The Family Dinner Cookbook.

As a proponent of family dinner, I couldn't agree more. But so many parents ask, "How can I do it?!" I think the key ingredients to family dinner success are desire and commitment. First and foremost, you have to want to do this for yourself and your family and be committed to making it happen. All the rest is planning, organization, and not a small amount of grunt work. Cooking, serving, enjoying the meals with your family can be great fun, but the proof of family dinner is in the day-to-day routine even on not so special days. Blogs, cookbooks, cooking shows all offer inspiration and a little fun as you travel the sometimes bumpy road of family dinner. As today's online chat on The Motherhood demonstrates, it helps to feel the love and support of a community that believes in family dinner.

Some Family Dinner Tips (more from past posts here)

1. Everyone chips in. Family dinner does not have to be a "mom-led" thing. Adults can share cooking duties, even if one is a "better" cook, and kids can help too. Let go of expectations and just get everyone involved. Older kids can cook meals (it's a great life skill!),  and younger ones can "help" or at least set the table or clear plates.

2. Menu planning: saves time, money and stress: Since being "too busy" is the number one reason families struggle with making dinner routine, menu planning can really help make family dinner happen. When you know what you are making each night, the prep and cooking can go on auto-pilot. Plus, you can balance out meals (meat one night, meatless the next), effectively use left-overs or grocery specials, and be sure to include kid and parent favorites in the rotation.


3. Have go-to recipes and staples on hand to create them. Jennie at Dinner: A Love Story refers to these as "back-pocket" recipes: something you know so well you can whip it up with little thought or preparation. In our house, I can throw together a left-over pasta dish and my husband makes a mean fried rice out of fridge forage. Both are faster than take-out. It's an essential skill when something got to get on the table.

4. Be flexible with timing, but not about dinner. Everyone eats the same dinner and eats around the table with no phones and no TV. If my kids come home from sports practice hungry (and of course they do), I left them snack. But they still eat dinner at the table when dinner comes, even if it's just few bites. If one of us works late or has an evening meeting, there is still dinner time at the table. Dinner might be late or early that night, but whoever is home sits down and eats.

5. It's supposed to be fun and a time to talk, but not to nag or air grievances.  Family dinner is a block of time is to connect, to enjoy the food, and to hear stories of the day. Not the time to nag about HW or go over old arguments. The Family Dinner Cookbook has many fun suggestions to spark dinner conversations if you need inspiration.

6. Family dinner is about more than the food. Conversations, connections, family folklore, politics, table manners, values, appreciation of family life: all this is what family dinner is really all about.

My dear hope is for more families to realize that family dinner is an essential and important part of life. Family dinner helps you get the most out of your family life (right now!) as well as give a solid foundation to your children's futures.


The Motherhood Chat Thread on Family Dinner, 11/15/2010