There is a lot of advice out there about family dinner. Eat together. Put the phones away. Ask meaningful questions. Make it a priority. All lovely. But if you're the person responsible for actually making family dinner happen, you know quite a few steps are missing between "make it a priority" and everyone happily sitting around the table. Someone has to figure out what to make, shop for it, cook it, get everyone in roughly the same place at roughly the same time, and then clean everything up afterward. By the time you finally sit down, you may not be feeling particularly connected to anyone. Ha!
There really is something good about eating together
Researchers have been studying family meals for years, and the findings are encouraging. A recent review pulling together decades of existing research found that more frequent family meals are associated with a number of positive outcomes for children and adolescents, including better nutrition, well-being, and family relationships.* But there's another finding I find particularly interesting: families themselves consistently talk about connection and communication as benefits of eating together, while lack of time and busy schedules are among the things that make it difficult. Which sounds about right.
And can we please not turn this into one more thing to feel guilty about?
Some nights everyone is home. Some nights one kid has practice, another has work, someone is stuck at the office, and you briefly consider whether eating a granola bar in the car counts as dinner. It does not have to be perfect. Family dinner doesn't have to happen seven nights a week. It doesn't have to be beautifully set. And your children certainly don't have to spend 45 uninterrupted minutes sharing thoughtful reflections about their day. Sometimes the win is simply good food and your people in the same place for a little while.
The food matters, too
And I want to be really clear about this part because we are a food company after all. Dinner should be delicious. There is something wonderful about sitting down to food you genuinely want to eat. Crispy roasted potatoes. A really good piece of salmon. The sauce everyone keeps spooning over everything. The meal your teenager actually comes downstairs for. Good food is part of what draws people to the table. We don't think you should have to choose between food that's convenient and food that's really good. And we don't think the person who wants everyone to gather around the table should necessarily have to spend the two hours beforehand making that happen.
Maybe that's where a little help matters
The goal of Just Table It isn't to create some picture-perfect family dinner for you. We make the food. Really good food, built around how your family eats, cooked in your kitchen and waiting in your refrigerator. And because someone else planned it, shopped for it, cooked it, and cleaned up afterward, maybe you have a little more capacity left for the part that happens when everyone sits down. Good food. Your people. And a little less work standing between the two. That sounds like a pretty good 6 pm to us. Want more good dinners without making all of them yourself? Learn more about our Weekly Personal Chef Service, or schedule a consultation and let's talk about your family.
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*Source: Family Mealtimes: A Systematic Umbrella Review of Characteristics, Correlates, Outcomes and Interventions, published in Nutrients, 2023.
