A Masterclass in Multitasking – the Family Meal

Family meals offer a unique opportunity to nourish the body, mind, heart, and spirit simultaneously while fostering meaningful connections and conversations.

By: David Fikes, Executive Director, FMI Foundation 

My father loved his Swiss army knife. It was a treasured possession, and he relished opportunities to demonstrate its multi-faceted resourcefulness, whipping it from his pocket with a flair that would have challenged any rapier-bearing swashbuckler. In fact, Dad once quipped that if they would only add pliers to the knife, scissors, toothpick, tweezers and nail file line-up, he could overhaul a semi with just his Swiss army knife.  I should add, my dad loved hyperbole almost as much as he loved his knife.   

I share this to explain that I come by my love of things that efficiently and admirably serve multiple purposes quite honestly. My appreciation of anything that amplifies productivity by serving multiple purposes with proficiency and aptitude is one of the many reasons I love family meals. A lot takes place on multiple levels when we take the time to eat together. I challenge you to find another hour in your day wherein your body can be fueled, your mind engaged, your heart nourished and your spirit restored as efficiently as when you sit down at the dinner table to eat with people you love.   

Family meals is masterclass in multitasking where life events can be shared, social connections restored, problems solved, frustrations lessened, and your thinking expanded all in between bites of meal that research shows to usually be healthier than the typical fare.  

To pile on the efficiency theme of the family meal, the FMI Foundation has developed a multi-functional placemat for you to use when you dine with family or friends.  While most placemats just protect your table from spills and overflows, our dual sided placemats also have conversation prompts printed around the borders to help encourage your table talk, promote meaningful conversation and assist relational connections.   

The conversation starter placemats are available to download here or via the main page of the Family Meals Month website. Please feel free to share your experience with our placemats by tagging us on our social channels (Instagram: @fmi_org, LinkedIn: @FMI- The Food Industry Association or X: @FMI_org) or using the hashtag #NFMM2025Civility.  Your social media support will help us spread the word about the vibrancy and efficiency of family meals.  

Plan to come back to this site, because throughout the year, the Foundation will be adding new theme-focused placemats to help keep your table talk fresh, timely and fun as you support the family meals movement.  And if you have good conversational prompts you want to share, please let me know at dfikes@fmi.org.  

Download the Placemats