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Melinda Messenger reveals more about her new campaign to promote family meals
TV presenter and former glamour girl Melinda Messenger is fronting a Barnardo's campaign to encourage families to spend more time together.
Melinda knows how difficult it is to juggle family life with a career. She has had to fight crippling depression that has brought her to the brink of suicide and has risked her marriage for the sake of her children.
Melinda has strong views about raising children, and believes the emphasis should be placed upon family activities. It is one of the reasons she is promoting a campaign for Barnardo's, sponsored by food manufacturer Uncle Ben's and online DVD rental firm LoveFilm.
Called Chilli Tuesday, it hopes to encourage people to spend at least one night a week together as a family, having a meal and watching a film. For each person who signs up to the campaign, a £10 donation will be made to Barnardo's.
Families eating together
The Future Foundation research found just six million people - 10 per cent of the population - eat Sunday lunch together. That is half the number from 1961.
The decline is blamed on more people going to work on Sundays, as well as more shops being open at the weekend.
But twice as many families find time to eat and chat together on Friday evenings than was the case in the Sixties, according to the findings.
The survey of 20,000 adults - carried out using data from the Institute for Social and Economic Research - also showed a clear North/South divide, with nearly three times as many families in the South still eating together on a Sunday.
