ABSTRACT
Eating together has been central to how we maintain emotional connections with each other. However, gathering around a table at home to share a meal is a custom becoming increasingly rare for many Canadians. With the proliferation of non-standard employment and the entrance into the labour market of all members of the family, it is becoming a rare occasion when all members of the household can sit down together to share a meal. The site of meal consumption is changing as well. Thus mom is no longer in the kitchen; she, along with her teenage children, are to be found at the local fast-food outlet as customers, and often as workers. As more and more jobs become part-time and contingent like fast-food, people do not have regular schedules. In an increasingly commodified world, even minimum wage employment is necessary to help the family make ends meet. One consequence is that a larger and larger percentage of the family food budget in Canada is spent on food consumed in restaurants away from home, a trend that continues to grow. According to the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association, by 1997, 39.8 cents of every food dollar was spent on food away from home (Cook, 1999:30). McDonald's alone reports that more than three million Canadians visit their restaurants daily, or 10 per cent of Canada's population (McDonald's, 1999).
