Pelham Restaurants Featured on PACT Web Site for Family Time

Hungry, but too tired to rush home and cook something?

Then head on over to the Pelham PACT Coalition's Web site. Starting today, PACT is hosting a list of takeout menus for local restaurants as part of its Family Time initiative. The menus can be found here.

Family Time is a program that encourages Pelham families to sit down and enjoy dinner together once a month during the school year. This is the third year that the Pelham PACT has organized the program.

“We wanted to remind families of some of the local restaurants that are here and also remind them to spend time together,” said Heidi Carey, a member of the Pelham PACT Coalition. “The important thing is for families to find time to spend with each other.”

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, which hosts a national family dinner initiative once a year, reports that teens who average three or less family dinners per week are two times more likely to use alcohol than kids who average five to seven family dinners a week.

The teens who average less family dinners are also four times more likely to use tobacco, two-and-a-half times more likely to use marijuana and four times more likely to try other drugs in the future, according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.

Establishments featured on the PACT Web site include , , , the and bakery.

In addition to the takeout menus, Pelham’s four elementary schools have agreed not to schedule homework on days when Family Time is scheduled.

“It’s just one less thing that parents have to worry about,” Carey said.

More information on “Family Time” is available here.