By: David Fikes, Executive Director, FMI Foundation
This September, the FMI Foundation celebrates our tenth National Family Meals Month. This anniversary year provides a great opportunity to celebrate how far we’ve come and realize future opportunities for promoting the benefits of family meals. Time and again, our consumer research confirms that shoppers agree with the 35+ years of research and thousands of studies that family meals - no matter how you define “family”- are advantageous for physical, emotional and mental health. But the fact that family meals are almost universally acclaimed is both a blessing and a curse. Because most everyone recognizes the benefits, consumers don’t need much convincing of how valuable family meals are. However, like many things everyone recognizes as being good for us - such as exercise and reading – the challenge lies in the discipline of executing family meals regularly.
Family Meals Month allows dietitians a non-threatening, accessible way to talk about dietary guidelines and weave in information about MyPlate while seeking to inspire consumers to have more meals together at home. In fact, we’ve got special co-branded USDA MyPlate infographics here that wed family meals messaging with nutritional guidance. According to FMI’s 2024 report Food Industry Contributions to Health & Well-being, 75% of food industry companies reported actively promoting “communal eating such as family meals” (p. 24). Of that 75%, “90% of companies include nutritional messaging as part of their communal eating program” (p. 24).
While September is a whole summer away, it’s never too early to start planning for National Family Meals Month – or better yet, the year-round Family Meals Movement. You can find free customizable resources, ideas, social media posts, infographics, logos and more on our toolkit page. If you are still looking for other ideas and potential partners, we’d love to hear from you to help you design the most inspirational activation possible. Reach out to the FMI Foundation at familymealsmonth@fmi.org for partnership opportunities.
Customers will appreciate the assistance if you make it easier for them to do what they know is good for them. Let us know how we can make our tenth anniversary shine as the best Family Meals Month yet.
