The Wall Alliance for the Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Abuse this week is issuing a challenge to township families: Can you sit down and have dinner with your whole family five times this week?

The Wall Family Dinner Week effort, part of a national movement aimed at increasing the number of times families sit down at a meal, runs through Sept. 29.

"Studies show that frequent family dinners are an effective tool to help keep kids substance free,'' according to a flyer put out by the alliance. "Simply put,
research shows that the more often kids eat dinner with their
families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs."

Teens who have fewer than three family dinners a week are almost four times more likely to use tobacco, twice as likely to use alcohol and more likely to use marijuana or say they expect to try drugs in the future, the alliance says.