Thanksgiving Celebrations Scaled Down Because of Persisting Foreclosures and Unemployment

This is the fourth year without hope. Once more Thanksgiving celebrations are being scaled down because of persisting foreclosures and unemployment. The gloom of the economy is pervading inside the family homes.

Carole Goldsmith a resident of Fresno can afford a Thanksgiving party but she has cancelled her usual plans and will donate turkeys to two shelters for the homeless. She will have a small celebration with soup and bread laced with “lots of gratitude”. She commented, “I think everybody is okay with it. They understand. Everybody is in a different lace than they were a year ago”.

In the suburbs of Chicago, the Oak Park River Forest Pantry does not have the turkey at all. In 2010 the pantry held a lottery for distribution of 600 turkeys among 1,500 families.

This year the management has planned to give all the families on its list to choose between various types of meat – sliced chicken, fish sticks, ground turkey and hamburger patties plus other trappings for a Thanksgiving feast. This plan will result in the saving of $16,000 that will enable them to feed the hungry throughout the year.

Kathy Russell questioned, “Do we give turkeys and hams to half of the people or do we give them to none of them and put that money back in the general food budget?”

Many of the basic items are being paid for by The Greater Chicago Food Depository. Kate Maehr, its executive director increased the price of peanut butter at a time when increasing number of families are turning to food pantries to survive.

Mailroom worker Andrew Thomas of a legal firm inWashingtonD.C.had planned to take his two kids to North Carolina to meet their grandmother. But he changed plans thinking about saving for Christmas. He said, “We’re just going to eat real good and stay home for this year”.

But an engaged couple, George Gorham and Patricia Horner was not to be deterred. They took a flight to be with Gorham’s son in Fort Braggin North Carolina. En route they visited tourist spots taking advantage of frequent-flier miles. Without this benefit it would have been painful for them to make this trip.

In Alaska at Juneau the Reverend George Silides and his spouse will take a turkey to the potluck of the church but nothing else; like all others they were feeling the economic pinch.