National Family Meals Month

The concept is beautifully modest. The FMI Foundation did not ask families to overhaul their lives or cook like television chefs. It asked for one more meal together each week at home, made with items from the grocery store. The idea was that family meals eaten at home strengthen the family’s social fabric and promote healthier eating, and that a small, achievable goal would beat a grand, abandoned one. It worked. National Family Meals Month became a first-of-its-kind collaboration among the FMI Foundation, grocers, and their customers to share, inspire, and help each other prepare more family meals at home.

The numbers back up the warm feelings. Nielsen data tracking the campaign found that nine out of ten consumers said they took action after seeing the National Family Meals Month campaign. The top behavior changes reported were cooking more meals at home (43 percent), making healthier food choices (37 percent), eating together as a family more often (33 percent), and buying more fruits and vegetables (32 percent). Research cited by the foundation goes further: children who share regular family meals typically display better grades, improved nutrition, stronger family relationships, and higher self-esteem, and they are less likely to use drugs and alcohol. Family meals, the evidence says, combat obesity and deter unhealthy behaviors such as substance abuse, contributing to a healthier community and nation.

The movement has never been a solo act. About 230 partners, food retailers, suppliers, collaborators, media, and luminaries, join the FMI Foundation each September to help consumers eat more family meals. Celebrity chef, cookbook author, and Food Network fixture Robert Irvine has served as an ambassador for the cause, sharing recipes and appearing in syndicated food features and social media videos. “We are quite proud to be adding Chef Irvine as an ambassador of the social, emotional, mental and nutritional value of the family meal,” said FMI President and CEO Leslie Sarasin, calling the cause an authentic extension of his work. Grocers get in on it too: ShopRite earned the FMI Foundation’s prestigious Gold Plate Award in 2018 for excellence in promoting its Family Meals Month campaign, and chains like Hy-Vee have marked September with sweepstakes, meal kit giveaways, and in-store events.

Getting the kids involved turns out to be half the magic. The campaign’s Mealtime Mentors advise families to take the movement’s quiz together and browse recipes that fit the family’s meal style, because getting kids involved in the meal process from start to finish elevates the mealtime experience and makes it more enjoyable for the entire family. Let a child pick the recipe, stir the pot, or set the table, and dinner stops being a chore parents perform and becomes a production the family stages. The research agrees: the togetherness is the point, and the kitchen is where it starts.

Participation could hardly be simpler, which is exactly why the movement spread. Companies and families alike can highlight family meal solutions during September, use the hashtag #FamilyMealsMonth across social media to strengthen the program’s reach, and find turnkey tools and ideas at the foundation’s family meals website. Some retailers retool existing plans to include family meal promotions during September; others scale the program to meet their customers’ needs. The customizable nature of the program is part of its appeal: there is no single right way to share one more meal, only the shared commitment to do it.

Since it began, Family Meals Month has evolved from a September campaign into what the FMI Foundation’s health and wellness leaders call an omnichannel effort, with retailers doing more in-store promotion of family meal solutions and expanding their activities while keeping up an online dialogue with shoppers. The redesigned campaign resources include toolkit elements for communications, merchandising, and marketing teams, plus case studies from previous years showing how food retailers and suppliers made family meals a September focus. Year after year, the message stays deliciously consistent: one more meal, one more week, one stronger family.

September is the perfect month for the pledge. Summer’s chaos settles into school-year routines, the harvest fills produce aisles, and the cooling evenings practically beg for something simmering on the stove. So pull up a chair, pass the serving spoon, and make the table the busiest room in the house. The dishes can wait. The people at the table cannot, and that is precisely the point.

The movement also keeps good company on the September calendar. Family Meals Month shares the month with back-to-school routines, harvest season, and a national turn toward cozier evenings, which makes the pledge feel less like a campaign and more like common sense. Grocers lean into it with weekly circular promotions, digital ads, recipe books, and even billboard ads, all carrying the same gentle nudge: tonight, eat together. It is marketing, yes, but marketing in service of something genuinely good for the people it reaches.

The beauty of the pledge is that it asks for presence, not perfection. A Tuesday taco night counts. A slow Sunday sauce counts. A breakfast-for-dinner scramble eaten standing around the kitchen island counts. What matters is the togetherness: phones down, plates full, and a few unhurried minutes with the people who share your roof and your name. National Family Meals Month simply gives that everyday magic a name, a month, and a national cheering section.

THE STORY BEHIND NATIONAL FAMILY MEALS MONTH

🏠 Born in 2015
The FMI (Food Marketing Institute) Foundation created National Family Meals Month in September 2015, launching a movement to help American families share one more meal each week at home with items from the grocery store.

📊 The Numbers Back It Up
Nielsen data found nine in ten consumers took action after the campaign: 43 percent cooked more meals at home, 37 percent made healthier food choices, 33 percent ate together more often, and 32 percent bought more fruits and vegetables.

👩‍🍳 A Celebrity Chef Joins
Chef Robert Irvine, the Food Network fixture and cookbook author, became an ambassador for the movement, sharing recipes and starring in syndicated features and social videos alongside about 230 retail and media partners.

🏆 Gold Plate Recognition
In 2018, the FMI Foundation awarded ShopRite its prestigious Gold Plate Award for excellence in promoting the Family Meals Month campaign to shoppers and associates through stores, TV, and billboards.

👪 Kids in the Kitchen
The campaign’s Mealtime Mentors urge families to get kids involved from shopping to stirring, because children who help make the meal enjoy it more, and the togetherness is the whole point.

WAYS TO CELEBRATE

🍴 Pledge One More Meal
Commit to sharing one more family meal at home each week through September. Pick a night, protect it on the calendar, and let everyone know dinner is a date.

👩‍🍳 Cook It Together
Let the kids choose a recipe, stir the pot, and set the table. A meal the family makes together tastes better and builds the togetherness the month is all about.

📱 Share Your Table
Post your family meal, your recipe wins, and your kitchen chaos with #FamilyMealsMonth. Your table might inspire another family to pull up chairs of their own.

Celebrate National Family Meals Month

This September, pull up a chair and pass the serving spoon. The best ingredient is already at the table: each other.