tITAL BILL Excludes tax, tip and beverages. With this ad. Dine in or Carry out. Expires 10/15/1 I Brass Pointe gAod P9/ 91cig-6 Families who 24234 Orchard Lake Rd., N.E. corner of 10 Mile • 476-1377 Open 7 Days a week for lunch & dinner dine together 1697740 Eat, Love, Help Simply the UST... Challah from DAKOTA (Special orders token on 10 breeds or .TkO and/ or 5 pec;e1 items) A JFS event brings families together and helps those in need. Elizabeth Applebaum Special to the Jewish News A On the Boardwalk • 6879 Orchard Lake Rd. • West Bloomfield www.dakotabread.com Now Open for Breakfast 7 days a week from Sant-2pm starting Sept. 12th! www.omaras.com Quality Breads d- Bagels Four kinds of Eggs Benedict 0. E White Omelets Crepes Five kinds of Potatoes + Fresh Fruit 4 :. Yogurt 4 Irish Oatmeal Fresh Squeezed Orange and Grapefruit juice and much more! 4 -0 ,2,„gagi 2 4 til eye' RA& ::13,t,40,1,,,Le 5 zje)' Colonia .coloniaievenis.com Full-Service Event Design for Weddings & Special 411111 62 5 2 011 Events — benefit from the experience. miracle occurred each evening at the TV home of Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver. Dinner in hand, a tastefully dressed Mrs. Cleaver waltzed from the kitchen. Even if it was something creepy like liver topped with spinach, the kids ate without complaint. Conversation was fun and meaningful. Everyone cleared the dishes. In real life, family dinner looks more like this: strands of spaghetti on the floor, the dog underfoot, someone at the door (just please don't let it be a kid selling magazine subscriptions to help raise money for his school band because you really don't want one, but you know you won't say no), the blast- ing of your neighbor's lawn service, sauce bubbling and boiling over the pot and at least one sibling telling another: "You are so annoying!" Whether your dinner table looks like a Rembrandt or a Jackson Pollock, family mealtime is a work of art, with benefits including better student grades and decreased stress. To encourage more families to get together at mealtime, Jewish Family Service (JFS) of Metro Detroit is spon- soring Family Day on Sunday, Sept. 25 — with benefits of its own. Whenever a family brings a coupon and dines at selected restaurants any time on Sept. 25, a percentage of the bill will be donated to JFS. (For a complete list of participating restaurants and to download a coupon, visit jfsdetroit.org/ family-day.) "JFS is all about families, so it makes sense to support a program for families," said Julie Ohana, director of school-based services at JFS. In addition, JFS is sponsoring a photo contest in conjunction with Family Day, with prizes including gift cards to Hiller's Markets and Sweet Lorraine's Café and Bar. Participants simply post a picture of their family mealtime, along with a brief explanation of why get- ting together at dinner is important to them, to the Family Day page of the JFS website. Families do not need to eat out to submit photos to the contest, said JFS Chief Community Outreach Officer Ellen Yashinsky Chute. Photos from mealtime at home also are welcome. "So by all means bring your cell phone to the dinner table — but just to take pictures;' Yashinsky Chute said. Eating together, she said, is "some- thing so simple, yet it has significant value toward raising a healthy, happy family." According to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIV: Teens and Parents, con- ducted in 2009 by CASA, the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse, teens who do not participate in family dinner are twice as likely to use tobacco or marijuana and 1.5 times more likely to use alcohol. They also are much more likely to receive poor grades in school and access prescription drugs. Teens who do have regular dinner with family, on the other hand, are more confident, more independent, happier and less stressed, Ohana added. JFS Chief Development Officer Amy Haimann said she anticipates that the Family Day will become a regular event. All money raised from the event will be used to support families in crisis. Meanwhile, rest assured JFS staff practice what they preach. Haimann, Ohana and Yashinsky Chute say they grew up with family dinners and enjoy them to this day. And don't worry if your meal isn't gourmet. Dinner can be just a healthy helping of mac and cheese with green beans. It's not about the food; it's about the expe- rience. If you have no computer access for coupons, contact Yashinsky Chute at (248) 592-2666. 1 1 Elizabeth Applebaum is a marketing specialist for the Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit.