Chicago, IL – May 8, 2006 – The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) Foundation today committed $25,000 to support The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. FMI’s supermarket retailer and wholesaler members nationwide – operating 26,000 stores – will launch initiatives to reach Americans about the importance of Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children.

This event, on September 25, 2006, emphasizes the importance of family dinners in decreasing the likelihood of cigarette, alcohol and drug use in children and improving academic performance by youth.

“FMI is thrilled to support this important initiative through the nationwide support of our supermarket retailer and wholesaler members. We expect to see extensive promotions – from brochures and posters in stores to advertising and media outreach – to share with America’s families the importance of spending this quality time with their children,” said Tim Hammonds, president and CEO, FMI.

“We value the support of the supermarket industry in highlighting Family Day and this important focus on the welfare of our nation’s kids,” said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. “Getting families to dine together routinely – and the parental engagement and conversations that goes hand-in-hand with dinner – is a simple, powerful and effective tool to help children and teens remain substance free.”

Conceived by CASA in 2001, Family Day, celebrated each year on the fourth Monday in September, is a national effort to encourage parental engagement and increase parent-child communication through regular family dinners. CASA’s research shows that the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink, get drunk or use illegal drugs.

According to CASA’s annual teen survey, teens who eat dinner with their families on a regular basis are at almost half the risk of substance abuse as teens who eat dinner with their families only twice a week or less.

There are many other benefits to frequent family dinners. Research shows that teens who eat dinner with their families often are likelier to do well in school and less likely than other teens to have sex at young ages, get into fights or be suspended from school. Frequent family dining is also correlated with developing healthy eating habits. This pattern holds true regardless of a teen’s sex, family structure or family socioeconomic level.

For additional information, visit the Family Day Web site at www.CASAFamilyDay.org or www.fmi.org.