One thing I love about Thanksgiving is the four day break from classes. I also like traveling places and seeing my family. Recently, though, I've come to see the holiday differently. In my opinion, it shows something that's wrong with American culture: we have no problem with overeating.
Let me describe the dinner I had Thursday night. My aunt, uncle and two cousins showed up, bringing the total number of guests to nine people. I was looking forward to a reasonably sized dinner given the small size of the gathering, but I was wrong. Both my family and my uncle's brought a turkey. Both of us brought potato dishes. Both of us brought vegetables, gravy and desserts. All of us filled up our plates multiple times, meaning we brought two or three times as much food as we needed.
In a more prosperous decade this might have been okay, but taking today's economic environment into consideration I feel selfish. There are people all over the world who never have enough to eat. There are even people in the US who got their Thanksgiving dinners from a food pantry, yet my family and I gorged ourselves until we couldn't eat another bite. I'm fairly sure this happens all over the country, but, for the sake of all the hungry children, it needs to stop.
This holiday season, I suggest we do our best to reduce portion sizes. It's not hard to spend less on food, and some of the money we save could be donated to respectable charities. That would make a huge difference to needy families. I know that's what I'll try to do, I just don't want to get that overly-full-but-disappointed feeling again.
If both families brought turkeys and side dishes, it means that there was no or poor planning. Perhaps next year, you can take over the role of Marney. (See http://awkwardfamilyphotos.com/2009/11/26/awkward-family-story-the-thanksgiving-letter for the letter she wrote.) Take the $30 or so that your extended family saves, and donate some honeybees via http://www.heifer.org/site/c.edJRKQNiFiG/b.2668675/?msource=QTAK1020017 .
ReplyDeleteAs far as reducing portion sizes, set an example. "All of us filled up our plates multiple times" means you participated in the overeating. Why did you do so? What changes will you make during the next 360 days to lead by example next year? Buying smaller plates will help, as http://weightloss.about.com/od/healthyeatingnews/a/icecreamstudy.htm explains.