“Prior to working at the Foodbank, I worked in Community Soup Kitchens for 6 years and my view of the holidays and my approach to it has never been the same. We recognize that Thanksgiving is usually a day to get together, share with one another and make sure everyone has enough to eat. But we should not stop on this day. We should be figuring out how to make this possible the other 364 days of the year. We want to encourage the idea of Thanksgiving traditions, people getting together and cooking together as a family as a model for all the other days. We often don’t think we have the time to cook together, but we actually do if we count it as the time we spend together and relate with each other as a family. It should be continued regularly as something healthy to do together.”
“I was brought up in England where they didn’t have Thanksgiving, but because my father was in the US Navy and we were Americans we would have Thanksgiving even though other people didn’t. We would have a pretty standard Thanksgiving meal, we liked to make different types of stuffing, like a pretzel stuffing or a buckwheat stuffing…”
“Yes I do, but actually this year is the first year that my family will be going to my oldest son’s house in Oakland and he’s going to cook the meal for us, rather than have the meal cooked for him. So were looking forward to that…It’s a whole new chapter…”
“The most important thing we can do is to not focus on Thanksgiving as a special day. Yes we want to make sure that everyone has a turkey and enough to eat on Thanksgiving, but the main thing that we need to take from this is, what happens let’s say in February? People are still going to be hungry in February. What’s going to happen in the summer when the sun’s beating down in Santa Barbara and we think everything is wonderful? Families are still very food insecure then, so security is about being fed throughout the year, not having a feast and famine situation which only plays into ill health that is related to nutrition.”
“I like stuffing, good stuffing, stuffing with buckwheat or with large Dutch pretzels…I’m definitely a stuffing guy!”
“I’m thankful that we have such a great group of employees, volunteers, and supporters at the Foodbank who really do bring the Thanksgiving spirit the whole year round rather than the energy only being around the one time of year. I’m very thankful for that.”
“We want to encourage people to eat responsibly and to remember that once the New Year comes, people are still hungry and food insecure then, so it’s all about spreading the love throughout the year. We’d also love people to inspire those in their family to be more involved with cooking and more involved with food as a way of strengthening the family and strengthening everyone’s health.”
Interview By Erin Hansen, RDN
