Due to the busy lives being led by New Castle residents, family time is sometimes relegated to the back burner. The Chappaqua PTA is aware of this phenomenon and encourages harried parents to begin to rectify the situation by sitting down and sharing a meal with their family.
Maura Marcon, the Chappaqua PTA president supports this concept wholeheartedly. “Sit down, take a break, eat dinner with your family,” she advised. “It’s important that we do get together as families; eating and talking,” Marcon continued. The PTA always insures that the date for Eat Dinner With Your Family Night – the fourth Monday of September – is noted on the district calendar and that information regarding the program is disseminated to all residents.
Elyse Falk, a parent of 3 boys, aged eleven, nine and five, is also a strong proponent of the concept. She serves as co-chair of the nutrition committee for the district as well as co-chair of the nutrition committee at West Orchard. Falk always eats with her offspring and relishes the opportunity to converse while consuming a home-cooked meal. “I love promoting good nutrition,” she noted. On Monday, she served meatballs, pasta and kale, and yes, her kids do enjoy the latter. She often seasons the kale with kosher salt and olive oil and then roasts it until crispy. Her other method of preparation is to sauté the kale and add it to rice or pasta.
The concept for advocating that parents eat with their children was developed by Casa Columbia, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University whose website states “the more often kids eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs.” For further information visit: http://casafamilyday.org.
