Thanksgiving: A time to think about giving back

November marks the month of gratitude.
Yet as Thanksgiving approaches, singles and families alike are often so fraught with relationship tension that even sitcoms mimic the so-called joys of togetherness and Martha Stewart turkey moments.
And for many people, the connection between food and relationships is not just a holiday affair.
At the Rhode Island Food Bank’s Community Kitchen culinary training program, for example, relationships are created among trainees and the children they serve at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Providence and East Providence.
“The adults in the [Community Kitchen] program have often been through great struggles because of the economy,” says CEO Andrew Schiff. “While they are here in the program, they receive a daily reward knowing that the meals they are preparing are going to kids who really need them.
“As part of the program, our students go to the sites and meet the kids — it’s that connection which makes this work so meaningful. It really adds a whole different dimension to working in the kitchen,” Schiff says.
Working to cook and serve the meals to children is what Schiff calls “a giving back” opportunity.
In thinking about the concept of giving back, perhaps there is some significance in knowing that this year Thanksgiving is also the first day of Hanukkah, a celebration of the Festival of Lights. Such a convergence is so rare it will be thousands of years before it occurs again.
Perhaps there is a message here, a message of giving and gratitude to inspire new relationships of sharing with others — that which we have received in abundance.
As Schiff notes, “We oftentimes give out of gratitude.”
‍Rita ‍Watson is an All About You relationship columnist.
Copyright 2013/ Rita Watson/ All Rights Reserved
All About You H5 November 3, 2013