During the COVID pandemic lockdowns in 2020, The Family Dinner Project needed to find a way to continue our partner work in communities across the country without the ability to gather in person. In collaboration with our partners, we came up with the Dinner in a Box model for sharing food, fun, and conversation at a responsible distance. Fortunately, the program caught on, and even after in-person gatherings resumed, Dinner in a Box has continued to emerge as our fastest-growing collaboration model. In the spring of 2024, we were excited to expand our list of Dinner in a Box partnerships to include the MGH Revere Food Pantry in our home city of Boston.
The Program
The MGH Revere Food Pantry was founded in 2020, with a dual focus of addressing food insecurity and providing plant-based foods (fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains) to help manage certain chronic health conditions, like diabetes. The pantry gets the majority of its food supplies from the Greater Boston Food Bank.
We piloted a 6-week distribution program with the Revere Pantry, offering weekly Dinner in a Box packages to 50 families — 25 English-speaking and 25 Spanish-speaking. The boxes contained plant-based foods as well as signature resources from The Family Dinner Project, including budget-friendly recipes using the provided ingredients; cut-apart conversation starters for creating tabletop conversation jars; 100 alternatives to asking “How was your day?”; dinner games; themed conversations around different topics such as resilience and connection; and a wide variety of tip sheets to help families get the most out of their shared meals.
By the end of the 6-week program, 68% of participating families said that the resources provided through Dinner in a Box had helped them increase the number of meals they shared each week. One hundred percent of participants reported that the Dinner in a Box program helped them have more and better dinner conversations, and all stated that they would continue using the resources, especially the conversation starters and recipes.
Following on the success of the pilot Dinner in a Box program, The Family Dinner Project and MGH Revere embarked on another collaboration. The Revere Pantry’s Teaching Kitchen hosted a special community dinner for families in the Raising Healthy Hearts program, a pediatric program at the MGH Preventive Cardiology and Metabolic Clinic. Children in the program and their family members were invited to the Revere Teaching Kitchen to make healthy recipes together, share a meal, and enjoy connection-boosting conversation and dinner games modeled by The Family Dinner Project. Almost every child at the community dinner tried new foods, and our young guests gave the thumbs-up to chocolate hummus, quinoa, chickpeas, and grilled chicken. Families participating in the dinner event got to take home food, fun, and conversation resources to use at their family dinners.
The Takeaways and Next Steps
Our main goal in embarking on this partnership was to help families enjoy not only the health-promoting benefits of nutrition assistance, but also the mental health benefits of quality connection around the table. As the Medical Director of the Revere Pantry, Dr. Jacob Mirsky, noted: “(The Family Dinner Project’s) work so clearly demonstrates that food is more than just nutrients.” For families facing food insecurity or dealing with medically prescribed dietary changes, it can be difficult to access the joy of cooking and eating together; our work with the Revere Pantry and Revere Teaching Kitchen aims to make that joy easier to find.
As we look to build on our success with this partnership, we’re making plans to expand our Dinner in a Box and related community programming with the Revere Pantry and the Greater Boston Food Bank. Dr. Lauren Fiechtner serves as the Senior Health and Research Advisor for the Greater Boston Food Bank. When asked about her thoughts on the program, Dr. Fiechtner was able to share valuable perspectives not only as a representative of the Greater Boston Food Bank, but also as a pediatrician and parent.
“I have been using The Family Dinner Project materials at home for my two young kids (3 years and 6 years). Prior to making a real effort to use the talking points and games one of my kids would be walking around our kitchen or crying and refusing to join our family meal. As a mother and pediatrician who knew the value of this time together it felt overwhelming and disappointing that I couldn’t get my kids to sit and enjoy this time together. We used The Family Dinner Project consistently for 3- 4 months and now my kids come to the table and we are able to come up with new games and conversations on our own.”
Highlighting how The Family Dinner Project’s materials can cross over into clinical use, Dr. Fiechtner says, “I also use it clinically with my families with feeding and growth issues. Parents are so happy to hear they aren’t alone in getting their kids to the dinner table and have a resource to make dinner more fun for everyone. I was so excited to have The Family Dinner Project partner with MGH Revere and the Greater Boston Food Bank families. Both organizations believe in providing the most nutritious foods to those in need and the quality of food they distribute is now matched with highly engaging materials that can really support families achieve the best mental and physical health outcomes for their entire family. We are so thankful for your partnership!”
We appreciate the support of Dr. Fiechtner, Dr. Mirsky, Revere Pantry Program Manager Mike Lenson and his staff, Raising Healthy Hearts Director Dr. Lorraine Schratz, and all those who have worked to make this collaboration possible. We look forward to growing our partnership in the future.
Curious about Dinner in a Box? Watch our intro video about the program below.
