We all know Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate family. Of course, it's also a time to realize a number of people can't have the holiday they really want. The last year has made that abundantly clear to all of us.
So, we went to a kitchen in Washington, DC. Brian MacNair of the DC Central Kitchen told us the need is great all the time.
"Hunger knows no holiday," MacNair said. "Everyone wants to volunteer around Thanksgiving, but we need help 365 days a year".
And his organization tries—through volunteers and those wanting to get their lives back on track, each day DC Central Kitchen make four thousand meals for the hungry, and will make thousands more this Thanksgiving for those who can't afford one.
In fact, the kitchen trains either the homeless or those re-starting lives to cook, clean, and get real jobs. It's a noble cause—each year they say they find jobs for dozens of people looking for work.
But everyone here, and all over the nation, knows the last year has been tough, and the need for food, donations, and farmers' help, especially during this holiday season, isn't going away.
On November 16th, the US Department of Agriculture said the need for food in the US was the highest in 2008 since the agency started measuring some 14 years ago. Over 49 million people can't get the food they need.
So, even for those able to afford a Thanksgiving dinner, saving money this year might be more important than ever. How do you spend your cash? Here's a couple of options:
Whole Foods champions itself as the place for everything healthy, everything natural, and by all means, your base for anything and everything organic:
Organic milk
Organic soymilk
Organic Waffles
Organic cookies
Organic Pasta Sauce
Organic Crackers
An organic application for the iPhone.
Heck, even the AIR is organic!
But organic, sadly, doesn't come cheap.
Let's say you want a Whole Foods organic turkey for the holiday. The store's special Thanksgiving bird will set you back three and a half bucks a pound. For a 16-pound turkey to feed the family that's a whopping fifty-six dollars and change.
Put that in perspective: Someone working at the minimum wage rate of $7.25 an hour would have to work a full eight-hour day just to afford the organic turkey. And that wouldn't even pay for all the side dishes.
In fact, for the full meal, you'll have to shell out a bunch more. Twelve rolls at over eight dollars. 30 ounces of pie mix at six dollars. Organic milk for six bucks a gallon. 14 ounces of bread stuffing at three fifty.
Total, when we take all the classic Thanksgiving items the American Farm Bureau says is needed to feed a family of ten, the Whole Foods' bill is $102.03, near sixty dollars more than what the Farm Bureau says is the national average.
You might feel like you're giving up this ...and a whole lot more.
That is the organic Thanksgiving. Now shoot down the road to another chain. If you shopped for your Turkey at Safeway, you won't get organic, but you will leave with more money.
A Butterball turkey here goes for $1.49 a pound, and for 16 pounds, that's $23.84.
Do the math—a turkey weighing exactly the same as the Whole Foods' turkey will save you over thirty-two dollars.
In fact, while many things at Safeway aren't organic, they are less expensive. Pick up the same items as you did at Whole Foods—the pie mix, the milk, the peas, everything on the Farm Bureau's list, and what you paid $102 dollars for at Whole Foods? The same thing costs you $50.50 at Safeway, right around the nation average.
Ironically in this time of economic hardship, there are a handful of elites trying to force more expensive, locally grown organics on everyone. Some in the farming business even fear that this pro-organic movement is picking up steam with the nation's legislators and could harm traditional agriculture in the near future and drive up prices at the grocery store.
But for now, we can all enjoy a Thanksgiving feast fit for kings—no matter the size of our bank accounts.
