OTHER THAN FOOD FOR FAMILIES ENCOUNTERS: BEYOND THE MEALS AS UNIQUE SOURCE FOR FAMILY MEMBERS’ MEETING

• WHY

  • Relevancy: this is a relevant topic in today’s world as for many people family gatherings are happening mainly at the table, too often accompanied by over-eating and over-drinking
  • Health concerns: habits of focusing on the food could have a serious impact on health
  • When a family lunch or dinner lasts for 2 to 3 hours, we take too much food and drink, which damages the health.

• WHO

• The topic is related to family encounters, meeting and gatherings and that is why the training activities will be done by the families
• Every family member will take part in the process
• The adult members will be role models for the younger generations, giving them good examples of alternative healthy ways to spend quality family time
• The children will be receiving and applying the good example of the adult family members

• WHICH

  The aim of the training on this topic will be to show that there are plenty of options and alternatives, other than eating and drinking at the table, for the families to spend quality time together in a healthy and enjoyable environment.
  Enrich family gathering’s experience: discover other enjoyable ways of spending time with the family
  We can point out two approaches to this "topic":

  1. First, instead of a long Sunday lunch or dinner, the family can visit a sports event, horse riding, farm or farmer’s market, concert in the park, local festival etc.  The event has to be interesting for all family members!
  2. And secondly, when it is a family gathering "on the table" – lunch or dinner, there should be additional activities, so less time is spent on the meal itself, and more of a variety of interesting entertaining activities, games, quizzes, storytelling etc.

EXERCISE 1	EXERCISE 2	GAME 1	GAME 2	STUDY CASE 1	STUDY CASE 1
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Results

• Game, exercise and case studies for activities to be done together with family members other than food were applied to approximately 82 people in 6 different countries and the following results were obtained.
• 68% of the individuals who applied exercise 1 decided that choosing the ingredients wisely is an important element for a healthy lifestyle in the exercise to show them how to separate healthy and unhealthy ingredients from each other so that they can make better choices.
• 74% of individuals who applied exercise 2 came to the conclusion that providing healthier and more valuable alternatives for spending time with family and friends reduces the stress levels by spending time in nature and strengthens the family and friend bonds, reviving the mind and spirit. 
• 90% of individuals playing games 1 and 2 decided to offer a good alternative for family reunions, so that the attention was not focused on meals, but instead it would be an excellent alternative to a family meal with a meal, which focused on spending quality time in a good and meaningful experience.