Chicago ? For working parents and heavily scheduled school kids, family mealtime is as out of fashion as the scene in Norman Rockwell’s iconic Thanksgiving supper painting. Supermarkets are trying to lure families back to the dinner table.

There is a cost to spending meals apart: Research shows that teenagers who don’t eat with their parents face a greater risk of drug and alcohol problems.

“The more often kids have dinner with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink and use drugs,” said Joseph Califano Jr., a former U.S. health secretary and current head of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, which did the research.

Stores are picking up on the idea and will start telling shoppers about the findings and encouraging them to share meals together at home, instead of separately or at restaurants.

The Food Marketing Institute, the supermarket industry group whose annual show began Sunday in Chicago, will give $25,000 to the center and help stores promote the center’s Family Day in September.

The effort is a logical step for supermarkets that already offer fully or partially prepared meals to serve with little or no effort. Many stores have grab-and-go dinners and recipe cards. Some have kiosks where people can taste a main dish, then pick out side dishes.

Los Angeles-based Contessa Premium Foods makes frozen gourmet meals, such as sesame chicken stir fry and burgundy beef stew, that a family can heat in 10 minutes to 12 minutes. That’s nearly as fast as a TV dinner, said president and chief executive John Z. Blazevich, but is healthier and makes people feel like they actually cooked.

Drinking and drug abuse are not the only problems facing kids. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the rate of obesity and overweight in kids has climbed to 18 percent of boys and 16 percent of girls.

Eating at home helps keep meals healthy and teaches kids how to eat right, many experts say.

So where does this leave restaurants? According to industry estimates, the average person eats in restaurants four times to five times a week.

A spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Assn. said there is plenty of room for everyone to help parents and kids connect.

“People look forward to having a night out; being able to share that with your family is a positive experience that restaurants are always looking to provide,” Katharine Kim said. “I think people can do both.”