As Homer would say: Mmmmm ...donuts. The only real dad-related news to have crossed my desk lately is this piece from a Pennsylvania paper on the local elementary school's "Doughnuts for Dads" program. Now, this is clearly not new or unique ("Donuts for Dads" returns 472 Google hits. The more stylistically correct "Doughnuts for Dads" returns 222 hits), but it is an important trend.

I've long been frustrated by the difficulty of getting dads together for any reason. The social networks that mothers tend to form -- in my experience -- are far tighter than those that fathers form, and information about kids tends not to flow to dads very well. Doughnuts for dads offers a forum to bring the discussion right to them. That discussion is probably focused on the school -- what the kids are doing, ways to get involved -- but the potential is probably greater. If I were to form a fathering support group/bull session/poker game, I can think of few better places to get it off the ground. If I was pushing a dad-focused reading program, "Doughnuts for Dads would be a great place to buttonhole fathers. (California-based Project DADS, incidently, did use "Doughnuts for Dads" for that very purpose.)

I'd love to hear more about strategies -- food based or otherwise -- that are harnessing the power of involved fatherhood. Any stories out there?