The J. M. Smucker Company is proud to sponsor Family Day 2011. Family Day began in 2001 as a day to remind parents that frequent family meals are a simple and effective tool to help prevent negative peer pressure. What began as a grass roots movement has since grown into a national celebration.

Get Started

Find great ways to get your Family Day celebration started.

Dinner Kit

Find resources to help plan for a fun and engaging family experience.

Recipes

Get great recipes that the whole family will enjoy.

Articles

Find interesting articles about the benefits of sharing family meals.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family. - George Bernard Shaw, Irish Playwright

Check out these useful tips to help you get started celebrating Family Day with your loved ones.

Seven Secrets to Successful Family Dinners

1

Start the pattern of family dinners when children are young

2

Encourage your children to create menu ideas and participate in meal preparation

3

Turn off the TV and let your answering machine answer calls during dinnertime

4

Talk about what happened in everyone's day: school, work, extracurricular activities or current events

5

Establish a routine to start and end each meal. Light candles or tell a story

6

After dinner play a board game or serve dessert to encourage the family to continue the conversation

7

Keep conversation positive and make sure everyone gets a chance to speak

Join parents across the country in making a special commitment to your children for Family Day. Learn more about the origins of Family Day and take the Family Day STAR pledge, visit CASAfamilyday.org

Find Family Day on Facebook

Dinner Kit

This fun kit full of great ideas and activities that will make your Family Day celebration a success.

For Conversation Starters from Miriam Weinstein