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Dining together, eating healthy

Wega-Fremont shools host Family Dine in Night

By Angie Landsverk


Families throughout the country are being challenged today to prepare a healthy meal and dine in together.

Thursday, Dec. 3, is National Family and Consumer Sciences Day.

“It is a night they set aside for families to have a dine in night, so they actually sit together and have a meal together and conversation,” said Renee Hunkins.

Hunkins is the Family and Consumer Sciences teacher at Weyauwega-Fremont High School and also its Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) adviser.

She is challenging her own students to eat with their families this evening.

Some of them had the opportunity to plan and prepare a meal for a different family.

Last week, her FCCLA students invited members of the W-F School Board and the district’s administrative team to a “Family Dine in Night.”

It took place on Monday, Nov. 23, prior to the school board’s regular monthly meeting.

“We thought we would serve dinner to our school family, and then all my students will be challenged to share a meal with their families,” Hunkins said.

After school on that day, the students prepared chili, baked potatoes, a veggie tray and desserts.

“It’s the first time we did it,” she said. “We thought we could put together multiple toppings for the chili and baked potatoes,” she said.

Hunkins got the idea to work with her students to prepare such a meal, “because they always ask us to come and share what we do,” she said of the school board.

In the classroom, Hunkins also talked to her students about preparing healthy meals as a family and then eating together.

“Many of them do not sit down and eat with their families,” she said. “They’re busy with their schedules, and their families are as well. I told them they can all sit together.”

Hunkins and her students received many appreciative comments from the members of the administrative team and school board members who ate the meal.

One school board member attended the Family Dine in Night with his family.

Tim Baehnman sat at a table with his wife, Laura, and their two sons, Austin and Collin.

Austin is a senior at W-F High School, and Collin is a freshman.

Both of them are involved in extracurricular activities, but that does not affect how often the family shares a meal together.
“We wait until everybody is home from school, work,” Laura said.

Some nights, their dinner together may be a bit later, but their priority of eating together as a family remains.

“It’s a nice time to sit and talk,” she said.

And, that includes having no electronics at the table.

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