During the week of Dec. 3, the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences is asking families to make and eat a healthy dinner together.
The AAFCS, formerly the American Home Economics Association, has chosen Dining In for Healthy Families as its theme because:
- There’s a nationwide obesity epidemic, especially in children and teens, and a lot of that has to do with unhealthy eating and lack of food preparation knowledge.
- Research has shown that the whole family benefits from family mealtime by having better nutrition, improving family communication, fostering family traditions, and teaching life skills, such as meal planning, budgeting, and food preparation.
- It supports what family and consumer sciences works for: creating healthy and sustainable families.
The date was chosen to recognize Ellen Swallow Richards, the founder of AAFCS and the first woman graduate of MIT, whose birthday was Dec. 3.
Family and consumer sciences is the field of study focused on the science and the art of living and working well in a complex world. The primary areas of focus are:
- Culinary arts, hospitality, and tourism.
- Education and training.
- Food science and nutrition.
- Health management and wellness.
- Housing and interior design.
- Human/child development and family relations.
- Personal and family finance.
- Textiles, apparel, and retailing.
