Media Contact: Allison Goldstein
(212) 704-4511
allison.goldstein@edelman.com
LANDMARK BARILLA RESEARCH REVEALS UNIQUE BENEFITS
OF SHARED MEALS FOR FAMILIES
“Share the Table: The Barilla Family Dinner Project” Helps Families Build
Stronger Connections Around the Table, Supports Meals On Wheels Association of America
(Bannockburn, Ill.) September 8, 2009 — The majority of Americans believe sharing meals together is the single most important activity in helping them connect with their family, and adults who eat dinner with friends and family more frequently are more likely to be satisfied with every aspect of their lives, according to a new research study, “Share the Table: The State of Dinnertime in America,” released today by Barilla. The study, conducted by StrategyOne, is the first to examine the emotional and social benefits of shared dining for adults as well as children, and explores families’ attitudes about dining together and the barriers that keep them from getting the most out of their dinners together.
“This study deserves attention because it is larger and goes deeper than anything published to date,” said William J. Doherty, professor of Family Social Science and director of the Citizen Professional Center at the University of Minnesota and a contributor to the study. “The report shows that Americans value the long tradition of family dinners, but believe that it is threatened in today’s fragmented, hurried world. They are struggling to make family meals a priority in their own lives.”
The good news is that on average, people sit down at the table with others four nights each week. However, a quarter say that they eat alone three nights a week, and many people agree that sometimes it feels like their family is a disconnected group of individuals living under one roof. Eighty-three percent report that they spend less time at the table now than they did when they were growing up.
Just being physically together at the table doesn’t necessarily mean that the family dining experience offers a rewarding human connection. Seven in 10 people (69%) say that some other activity competes with the typical family dinner, with watching television topping the list, and six in 10 (58%) point to some type of technology or entertainment-related distraction.
Dining Together Matters
The Barilla study found a strong connection between sharing meals and positive life experiences. Those who eat dinner together more frequently (at least five times a week) are more likely than people who eat together less frequently (less than five times per week) to be satisfied with every aspect of their lives. People also report significantly higher levels of well-being when they enjoy more shared meals and share better quality meals.
Six out of 10 Americans said they do not have as many opportunities to connect with their family (59%) and friends (64%) as much as they would like. But they do understand that eating meals together can foster the family connections they crave. Nearly all (92%) agree that they feel more connected to what is going on in their family’s life when they share a meal together, and nearly all (93%) rank sharing meals as the most important way they can connect with their family regularly, above family vacations, playing together, and attending religious services.
Barilla Invites Families to “Share the Table,” Supports People in Need
To help people make the meaningful dinnertime connection, Barilla is launching “Share the Table: The Barilla Family Dinner Project” by inviting everyone to make a promise to share their dinnertime table more—and in more meaningful ways—with family and friends. At www.ShareTheTable.com, families can find more than 700 recipes and 100 tips to improve the dinnertime experience in five key areas, from decreasing distractions at the table, to increasing participation by family members, to varying the types of food at mealtime. The tips are provided by an expert panel of family experts, chefs, and celebrities including renowned chef Mario Batali, country singer Martina McBride, celebrity party planner David Tutera and pediatrician Dr. Jennifer Trachtenberg.
As part of the “Share the Table” project, Barilla has partnered with Meals On Wheels Association of America (MOWAA). For each person who promises to “Share the Table,” Barilla will donate $1 to MOWAA, up to $150,000, to support home delivered and congregate meal programs serving more than one million meals per day.
“Nurturing connections around the dinner table has long been at the heart of the Barilla brand,” said Kirk Trofholz, president of Barilla US. “This commitment has inspired this effort to better understand Americans’ beliefs about dinnertime. We want to help people create or strengthen the joyful, convivial experience that sharing the table can be.”
To find out more about the “Share the Table: The State of Dinnertime in America” study, visit www.ShareTheTable.com.
About the Study and StrategyOne
StrategyOne, a specialist applied research firm based in New York, conducted 25-minute interviews via telephone among a sample of 2,008 Americans aged 25-64 in November 2008 and January 2009. The national sample is census-representative on gender, age, region, income, education and ethnicity. The margin of sampling error at the 95% confidences level is ±1.7 for total respondents (2,008). In addition to the national sample, 300 telephone interviews were conducted in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Washington DC, Atlanta, and Houston.
Founded in 1999, StrategyOne is a full-service corporate positioning, market research and strategic communications agency with global research capabilities and offices in New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, Atlanta, London and Paris. StrategyOne utilizes a full suite of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to design custom primary research for clients in a wide range of industries to support their communications and marketing objectives.
About Meals On Wheels Association of America (MOWAA)
MOWAA is the oldest and largest organization in the United States representing those who provide meal services to people in need. MOWAA works toward the social, physical, nutritional, and economic betterment of vulnerable Americans. MOWAA provides the tools and information its programs need to make a difference in the lives of others.
MOWAA is a Member organization, and its Membership comprises of Senior Nutrition Programs in the United States. MOWAA Member programs throughout the country provide nutritious meals and other nutrition services to men and women who are elderly, homebound, disabled, frail, or at risk. These services significantly improve the quality of life and health of the individuals they serve and postpone early institutionalization.
As a national organization, MOWAA focuses on those issues that can best assist its Member programs in achieving their individual missions of providing quality meals and nutrition services to as many vulnerable people as possible in the most efficient and effective manner, all “so no senior goes hungry”®. To learn more visit: www.mowaa.org.About the Barilla Group
Barilla, originally established in 1877 as a bread and pasta shop in Parma, is today one of the top Italian food groups: a leader in the pasta business worldwide, in the pasta sauces business in continental Europe, in the bakery products business in Italy and in the crispbread business in Scandinavia.
Barilla owns 53 production facilities (13 in Italy and 40 outside Italy) and exports to more than 125 countries. Every year more than 2,700,000 tons of food products, with the brands Barilla, Mulino Bianco, Voiello, Pavesi, Wasa, Harry’s (France, Spain and Russia), Lieken Urkorn, Golden Toast and Kamps (Germany), Alixir, Academia Barilla, Misko (Greece), Filiz (Turkey), Yemina and Vesta (Mexico), are featured on dining tables the world over.
By respecting its own traditional principles and values, which still feel current today, by considering employees a fundamental asset and by developing leading-edge production systems, Barilla has become one of the world’s most esteemed food companies, and one that is recognized worldwide as a symbol of Italian know-how. For more information: www.barillagroup.com / www.barillaus.com.
