VIDEO: Getting Dinner on Table Is Family Affair
NATIONAL REPORT — In a new installment of his video series with Convenience Store News parent company, EnsembleIQ, Phil Lempert discusses The Food Marketing Institute’s National Family Meals Month campaign and a recent poll examining Americans’ habits when it comes to sitting down for family dinner.
The National Family Meals Month campaign was launched as a way to instill family values and increase sales of at-home food purchases by suggesting that families add one more meal at home per week to their schedules, according to Lempert, who cites a recent Harris Poll finding that among those who live with others, 87 percent of Americans sit down for a family dinner at least once a week.
Roughly a third do so four to six nights a week or every night, according to the survey of 2,236 U.S. adults conducted March 16-21 of this year. The study also found the most often-cited reason for not eating dinner together more frequently is difficulty coordinating schedules.
Interestingly, Lempert points out that eating dinner together for more than three-quarters of Americans involves cooking from scratch. Given that this is more time-consuming than picking up restaurant carryout or buying prepared foods from a grocery or convenience store on the way home, many families rely on teamwork to get dinner on the table. Specifically, the poll found 65 percent of Americans say getting dinner on the table is a family affair.
The survey also found that what people are eating for dinner is changing. Nearly 80 percent say what they prepare is now healthier. In addition, 86 percent say that the family eating together is more important than where the food comes from.
As CSNews Online previously reported, Lempert and EnsembleIQ forged an exclusive strategic alliance that allows Lempert to provide content and programming to multiple CPG retail media brands within the EnsembleIQ portfolio, including Convenience Store News and Progressive Grocer.
Lempert is founder of The Lempert Report, a food trends publication, and SupermarketGuru.com, a leading online resource for food safety, products, trends and shopping tips that attracts more than nine million visitors annually.
Click above to watch the video.