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It’s a Family Affair ..

The death of the family meal is upon on us. Food company Good Taste Foods are bidding to reverse the trend and get families eating together again.

Reclaiming bonding time around the kitchen table away from the TV and microwave isn’t easy. The social and emotional benefits of family meals are thought to be far-reaching. Family members now seem to dine sporadically whenever they can fit a meal into their busy lifestyle. Grazing teenagers and parents are so busy trying to get ahead that they aren’t even aware sometimes of how much they were eating and lose out on vital discussion time.
 
Between childcare, homework and work schedules, time for family meals at many households tends to get squeezed out. Family mealtime has been pushed to the background. It's hard to imagine for many parents, wanting to come home from a long day at work and have to start cooking. It can be tiring to make a wonderful meal every night if both partners are working. Organising family dinners can feel like a chore rather than a pleasure. A personal chef would be the perfect answer but for most households that’s not a reality.
 
Martin Darnley of Good Taste Foods comments, "The cement of family life for some is crumbling and losing family mealtimes is a big part of that. Carving out family downtime ‘anchors’ a family. We will be running a national competition called Connect and Eat 2008. It’s an initiative that we will run from now until August 2008. This competition will position our convenient food ranges at a domestic market whilst hopefully nurturing the fabric of family communication."
 
The company will run the Connect and Eat competition through the media where families can submit their pictures, videos or stories of their family sitting down to a meal together in the home. Martin from Good Taste Foods says, "We’ll pick the best of the bunch and send £150 of Good Taste Foods vouchers to the winning family, and £5 off first orders for every family that takes part."
 
As part of Connect and Eat 2008, the Good Taste Foods team will also be creating fact sheets so schools can take part in the competition and discuss family mealtimes as part of their PSE and citizenship lessons.

Martin confesses, “We are often labelled as a gourmet range supplier but we want to engage with families who enjoy cooking and improve their domestic eating patterns.  Stocking up on main course premium quality meat, fish and poultry creations every ten weeks or so is where our key business growth lies. The now widely accepted and expensive weekly vegetable boxes have gone mainstream to a domestic market yet we offer all the core meal components that people don’t need to re-order that frequently) Households can have a non-perishable case delivered to their door frozen, then cook with minimal stress, time and fuss.”