It’s Thursday night at the home of Ed and Sharon Catron in St. Joseph, and they are about to sit down to eat dinner with their children. During the 1950s, that would have been the norm for most households across the country, but today, with both parents in the workforce and the never-ending sports events, practices and extracurricular activities competing for that time, fewer families are doing it.

According to a report this year by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), just over half of teens surveyed reported having dinner with their families on a regular basis.

Mayor Ken Shearin was struck by the prevalence of this trend when visiting a friend one evening.

“All the kids were just fending for themselves and getting their own dinner,” he says.

And this is a problem, he adds, because it is family dinner time that contributes to the bond parents and children need and deserve.

“In today’s hectic pace society, it is easy to allow priorities to be confused, and it is easier to order in fast food and leave a note than it is to prepare a sit down meal and arrange everyone’s schedule accordingly,” he says.

So he is proclaiming Thursday evenings as Family Dinner Together Time in St. Joseph.

“Parents or the responsible parent should not allow the necessary pulling jobs, the flurry of activities or less important distractions take away from the value of sitting down to dinner as a family,” Mr. Shearin says.

It’s an idea that has lots of support. In a report by Matthew W. Gillman published in Family Medicine, eating family dinner was associated with a healthier diet that included more fruits and vegetables and less fried food, soda and saturated and trans fats. Additional benefits have been proven in several national studies, including more than a decade of research by CASA. A report released last year, titled “The Importance of Family Dinners IV” states that frequent family dining (five or more family dinners per week) is associated with lower rates of teen smoking, drinking and prescription drug abuse.

“If I could wave a magic wand to make a dent in our nation’s substance abuse problem, I would make sure that every child in America had dinner with his or her parents at least five times a week,” says Joseph Califano Jr., CASA chairman and president.

But just like any new habit, it can be difficult to change the old ways.

CASA urges families to begin with one day: Family Day on Monday, Sept. 22. They are offering a free downloadable family dinner kit at www.casafamily day.org/familyday. It includes place mats, conversation starters, menus and recipes.

Or start tonight. Meals don’t have to be elaborate, Mr. Shearin says. It can be as simple as ordering pizza and making a salad or putting something in a Crock Pot. A favorite meal he likes to make in a Crock Pot can be prepared in large part the night before. (See recipe below.)

Sharon Catron has a recipe for roast beef in a Crock Pot that she says is simple enough her kids can make it. In fact, her children are the ones that have been cooking many of the family dinners this year after she began undergoing cancer treatments.

“My kids have jumped in there and made dinner and cleaned the kitchen without being asked,” she says. “They didn’t ask to go out, they opened the cookbooks and cooked good dinners. I am so proud of them.”

Easy recipes help, Mrs. Catron says, but the real secret to family dinners, she says, is simply to make time for them. Her children are involved in extracurricular activities, too, but they limit the number and always put dinner together on the schedule.

“There’s a limit to how much you can do,” she says. “Everything can take up your time, even church has something every night. They will say it’s important, but so is eating together.”

Secrets to successful family dinners

Start the pattern of family dinners when children are young. ■ Encourage your children to create menu ideas and participate in meal preparation. ■ Turn off the TV and let your answering machine answer calls during dinner. ■ Talk about what happened in everyone’s day: school, work, extracurricular activities or current events. ■ Establish a routine to start and end each meal. Light candles or tell a story. ■ After dinner, play a board game or serve dessert to encourage the family to continue the conversation. ■ Keep conversation positive and make sure everyone gets a chance to speak.

SOURCE: National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University

Do you have a favorite family dinner recipe? Send it to Sylvia Anderson at sylviaanderson@npgco.com or mail to her attention at the St. Joseph News-Press, 825 Edmond, St. Joseph, MO 64501.

Pizza chicken and sausage or hamburger dinner

6 tablespoons olive or canola oil for browning of vegetables and meats

1 pound boned chicken (thighs, legs or breast) cut into 2-inch pieces

1 pound ground Italian sausage or sausage of your choice or hamburger

2 8-ounce cans chopped tomatoes

4 tablespoons crushed garlic or granulated garlic

1 large onion, chopped or 1 package frozen onion

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tablespoons Italian seasoning

1 package frozen vegetables of your choice (Italian vegetables, corn or lima beans)

1 package of spaghetti sauce mix

The night before: Heat 3 tablespoons oil in skillet. Add sausage and chicken and saute until brown. De-glaze pan with a can of tomatoes and pour over meats in Crock Pot bowl.

The next morning: Combine all other ingredients into a bowl or pot and mix well before pouring into the Crock Pot. Cover and cook on medium for six to eight hours. With a slotted spoon, stir and mix all ingredients well one hour before serving. Cover and continue cooking on low heat level. Serve with garlic bread and a salad.

— Ken Shearin

Crock Pot roast beef

2- to 3- pound chuck roast

1 16-ounce jar of pepper rings or whole pepperoncini peppers

1 0.6 ounce package of dry Italian salad dressing mix

Put roast in Crock Pot and pour the entire jar of peppers over meat. Sprinkle salad dressing mix over meat and peppers. Turn Crock Pot on low and cook all day. This is delicious plain or on sandwiches.

— Sharon Catron

Beef stroganoff

hamburger dinner in a skillet

Half a pound lean ground beef

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil

1/4 cup chopped yellow onions

1 cup sliced white button mushrooms

1 teaspoon chopped garlic

1/4 pound small elbow macaroni or wide egg noodles, cooked

2 cups beef broth

1/4 cup sour cream

Season the beef with the salt and pepper. In a skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the seasoned beef and cook, stirring, until well browned. Drain off any excess oil in the skillet. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until soft, three to four minutes. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook, stirring until the mushrooms have released their juices, about two minutes. Add the macaroni (or egg noodles ), beef broth and sour cream. Cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens slightly, five to six minutes. Serve immediately.

— Sharon Catron

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson can be reached at sylviaanderson@npgco.com