In November, we celebrate the occasion our co-founder, Dr. Anne Fishel, jokingly refers to as “the mother of all family dinners.” No doubt Thanksgiving is a major upcoming event on your family dinner calendar, but it’s not the only opportunity for meaningful mealtime connections that can be made over the course of the next month.

Because holiday dinners aren’t the only ones that matter, we’re introducing a new resource: Dinner Tonight. Every week, we’ll post five dinners — one each weeknight — to help take the stress and guesswork out of creating an evening of food, fun and conversation. Each Dinner Tonight experience includes a recipe, game and conversation, plus a downloadable ingredient list to make that last-minute dash to the store easier to manage. With one click, you’ll find everything you need for a meaningful meal, minus the stress.

This time of year tends to bring up discussions of gratitude and ideas about ways to give charitably to make the world a better place. These are great topics for the family dinner table on any night!

As we’ve done in the past, The Family Dinner Project is building on the complementary ideas of thanks and giving by participating in #GivingTuesday, an annual event that celebrates generosity as a counter-message to the “shopping holidays” of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This year, we invite you to help us spread the giving spirit by participating in a unique #familydinnerforward initiative.

On December 1st, we’ll introduce a special Dinner Tonight experience just for #GivingTuesday. Between December 1st and December 15th, as you download and share that particular Dinner Tonight with your family and friends, the generous people at Boston Market will donate to military families through our fabulous partners at Blue Star Families.

Learn more about our work with Blue Star Families

We’re pleased to have the chance to help families across the country get more out of their holiday mealtimes through our work with Boston Market’s“Holiday Experts” campaign. The Family Dinner Project will be offering tips and advice about making meaningful connections around the Thanksgiving table, with conversation starters, activity ideas and lots of downloadable content to add fun and valuable interactions to your holiday meal.

The Family Dinner Project is proud to partner with the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) for their annual Family & Consumer Sciences Day, on December 3, 2015. On this day, AAFCS asks families to commit to “dining in” and sharing a meal at home. Last year, over 100,000 families took the pledge to “dine in.” We’re working with AAFCS towards their goal of doubling that participation this year; keep an eye out for special resources from FDP in celebration of this partnership. You can learn more about Family & Consumer Sciences Day, and take the pledge to “dine in” on December 3, on the AAFCS website.

We’re always looking for new families to feature on our website. If you have a story to share about how The Family Dinner Project has helped you change your dinners for the better, we want to hear it! Contact us and tell us about your experiences. We’re looking forward to connecting with you.