To the Editor:

Re “Don’t Save Me From Cooking” (Sunday Review, June 2):

David Tamarkin makes some important points about the disadvantages of subscribing to home delivery food services rather than preparing food at home. Notwithstanding the questionable time savings, high cost and negative environmental impact, missed is the opportunity to model life skills for children.

If used wisely, the time spent preparing food at home can provide an exclusive opportunity to interact with children and, when things don’t go exactly as planned, a real-time lesson in problem-solving.

Hunting and gathering food (a.k.a. shopping) with children offers the additional benefit of imparting survival skills before they are launched into self-sufficiency. And, as we age, we may reap the benefits of our efforts when the children start cooking for us.

Alice H. Lichtenstein
Boston
The writer is a professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University.

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