We know that both healthy and unhealthy nutrition and lifestyle behaviors are learned and reinforced in family as well as community contexts. Family members influence each other’s decisions about shopping, preparing, and eating food, as well as exercise and health care. With growing numbers of single-parent families, families with working mothers (64%, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics in 2000), and more families with grandparents and other relatives raising children, it is likely that grandparents are playing an increasingly important role in family decision making about food selection and in preparing snacks and meals for their grandchildren.

For more information, visit Making Healthy Eating a Family Affair.