How can I promote sharing meals with friends, family, even strangers?

September may be Family Meals Month, but the value of sharing meals with others deserves our attention 365 days a year.

If you agree with me, let’s look at how we can promote sharing meals with others – whether they are friends, family, or even strangers!

Think about it… Who do you share meals with? When? Where? How often?

Are you intentional about sharing meals with others?

Do you create opportunities to eat with others?

When do you prefer to eat solo, and when do you prefer to eat with others?

Think about your history of eating meals from childhood to adulthood. When and where did you eat with others?

These are great questions, not only for self-reflection, but to discuss with others at a meal.

Create and promote opportunities throughout life to share meals with others.

Throughout childhood, children need their caretakers to not only provide the food, but to eat with them. Children can learn so much at meals, and they learn more when eating with others. Caring adults can serve as role models, companions, and conversation makers.

As children progress through school, peers can provide companionship at meals and may also serve as role models when more adventurous eaters display positive eating habits. Children and adults alike can encourage uplifting conversation and discourage negative food or body talk.

Families provide a significant opportunity to share meals with other family members. Whenever multiple family members are present at mealtime, encourage coming together to eat, even if not eating the same menu. Plan regular times throughout the week to come together for meals, whether at home or away.

Gatherings with friends frequently include food. Create an environment where the sharing of food promotes conversation and fellowship. Be spontaneous as well as plan ahead. For example, schedule “dates” for breakfast, lunch, or dinner with one or more friends at a restaurant. Coordinate informal potlucks, festive progressive meals, or create a monthly or quarterly dinner club. Friends take turns hosting.

Meetings with colleagues are also an opportunity to share a meal. They provide a proven opportunity to get better acquainted, enhance the strength of a work team, and tackle challenges from brainstorming ideas to solving problems. Eating together inspires cooperation.

Sharing meals with strangers can even be a positive experience. Cruise ships allow guests to be seated at meals with people they’ve never met before. The relaxed atmosphere is ideal for getting to know your dinner companions, sharing experiences, and getting ideas to maximize your cruise experience.

Consider other places where a stranger could become a dining companion… such as in a crowded food court where sharing a table is a necessity. Once given permission to join someone, determine whether they would like to engage in conversation. Be sensitive to a potential desire for silence.

From the family table of our childhood to… the school cafeteria… business lunch meetings… neighborhood carry-ins… extended family gatherings… and finally the dining room in assisted living, to share a meal is more than sharing food; it is sharing life.

Learn more about the benefits of shared meals:

• Promoting Family Meals page  

• What difference do family meals make? What does the research say?

• Do you want more frequent family meals? You can overcome the barriers.

• Mealtime conversations show you care and make your family stronger.

• How do cultures around the world celebrate food and family at meals?

• What do people value most about eating meals with others?

• What's the big deal with family meals?

• Food Connects Us

• Don't complicate family meals.

• Can family meals lead to longer and healthier lives?

• What I learned at the table

• Are you connected?

• Eating together is easy

• Could eating together help us live longer?

• Can everyone benefit from eating with others as much as families do?

• Why should I do a digital detox at meals? To make meaningful connections.

“We should look for someone to eat and drink with before looking for something to eat and drink.” ~ Epicurus

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