PHOENIX — As is the case for many families, the Witkops of Cave Creek are busy. Still, they make time for dinner together, even if they have to eat at 4 p.m. between Sarah's play rehearsal and the boys' basketball practices.

It's important that the Witkops eat together. The future of civilization could depend on it.

An overstatement, perhaps. But more experts are lamenting the loss of the family meal, crediting that time spent together with keeping more kids away from drugs and alcohol, helping them do better in school, and keeping kids and parents close. Moms, dads and children increasingly are eating meals on their own schedules, often in front of the television or computer. They eat breakfast in the car on the way to school and dinner en route to soccer practice.

In these tight economic times, parents are staying later at work. The kids have piano, hockey and dance — sometimes all on the same day. Factor in time for homework, and there's barely enough time to eat, let alone do it together.

"We live in a time when we are witnessing the disappearance of the family meal," says the Rev. Steven Dart of Christ Anglican Church in Cave Creek. "This is a fundamental aspect of human civilization. When we stop eating together, we become less civilized."

He's an anthropologist trained at the University of California-Berkley who did his postgraduate work in theology. He and his wife, Chrissy, eat dinner regularly with their three children, ages 18, 15 and 13, and they're part of a quiet movement in Cave Creek to bring families back to the table.

Earlier this year, Debbi Burdick, superintendent of the Cave Creek Unified School District, invited Dart and representatives from other churches and synagogues to brainstorm ways they could address students' needs when it came to such issues as suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, and eating disorders.

There were few places where kids could get help in the bedroom community north of Phoenix.

"We thought if we put our resources together there might be a way to come up with some solutions," Burdick says.

Dart raised the idea of encouraging families to eat dinner together, citing the book "The Surprising Power of Family Meals: How Eating Together Makes Us Smarter, Stronger, Healthier and Happier," by Miriam Weinstein. Turns out other people in attendance had read it as well.

For generations, the family meal had been that honored time of the day when children were expected at the dinner table or else.

It's not just about eating together, author Weinstein says, but of reconnecting. Kids learn a lot at the table — manners, vocabulary and values. And eating together emphasizes the importance of family, reminding children they are an important part of the family.

And studies indicate dinner makes a difference.

More than a decade of research at the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University has consistently found that the more often children have dinner with their parents, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs.

In its most recent report, released in September, 59 percent of teens report having dinner with their families at least five times a week. Of the teens and parents who aren't having frequent family dinners, 69 percent say they are too busy with work and other activities to gather around the table. But two-thirds of teens and three-quarters of parents said they would be willing to give up a weeknight activity to have dinner with their family. (The survey is based on interviews with 1,000 teens, ages 12 to 17, and 452 of their parents.)

In letters to parents, Burdick encourages them to eat more often with their children. Paul Witkop, pastor at Light of the Desert Lutheran Church in Cave Creek, shares with members the importance of family meals.

He and his wife, Betsy, work full-time, but their schedules are flexible. So each week they look at everyone's activities and decide what time they'll have dinner.

"If you didn't work at it, it wouldn't happen," Betsy says. "So we work at it."

Sometimes, the best the Witkops can do is get three or four of them to the table.

Taking turns, each family member shares the high and low point of the day.

"It's just good to come home from a long day at school and know that your family is there to comfort you," 14-year-old David says.

Betsy hears her kids tell their friends, "I'll come over around 6" because they want to be at dinner.

She believes this good foundation will help them go on as a family after she and Paul are gone.

And in a time when the world seems particularly chaotic and crazy, she says, it's nice to know there is some peace to be found at the dinner table.