Giving #FoodThanks Has Become a Tradition For Me

The last couple of years, I’ve enjoyed being part of the AgChat Foundation’s efforts to draw more attention to giving thanks for something we have daily — food. As these efforts got underway, I took time to reflect on what I give thanks for when it comes to my plate. And I looked back at these blog posts this weekend to see whether they held true. I’m very pleased with these posts, and working my way through them, reminded me of the many reasons I have to give food thanks:

• A New Thanksgiving Tradition in the Making? #Thankafarmer — In November 2009, I looked toward Thanksgiving with a lot of excitement as my family had dozens of people coming together. Its an incredible Thanksgiving tradition we do every few years and it makes Thanksgiving last all weekend!  In this post, I talked about the different ways I had celebrated the holidays (places near & far) and some of the different ways my family looks at farming (me with my ag PR job, my brother with his CSA type of farm that’s after full-time job, and the majority of my family who haven’t engaged directly in agriculture. I love that the photo to accompany it is of my brother & mom headed out to check on his livestock.
• Staying Home for the Holidays — While enjoying a Memphis Christmas in 2009, I not only thought of how great it was to be be relaxing but how a lot of farmers don’t get that luxury. I had lots of farmer friends on Twitter like Mark McHargue and Mike Ver Steeg would be out in the blizzard. The photo from that post was of my nephew Jake showing how tough he was in his John Deere hoodie I’d bought him. Can;t help but smile thinking about how he got to drive his first big John Deere a few weeks ago.
• Thanksgiving — Family, Friends Fun & Giving #FoodThanks! — Last year for
• Thanksgiving, I took time to reflect on growing up city and thanking the hands that prepared the food, but not thinking about the countless others engaged in getting the food to the table. Usually thanks is offered as food has gone on plates and forks are poised ready to go. So with my growth, I highlighted some of the steps & people involved in getting that meal to my plate — lots of cooks & people helping in food prep, food stores or direct from a family farm, a distribution system that rocks, processing people, more distribution, farmers & ranchers!

This year, I thought I’d have other people talk about what they give Food Thanks for! I’ve asked several friends and family members to provide me some of their topics and will be putting them on here over the next couple of weeks. I’d love for some of my readers to join the effort and have two quick ways you can do that:

• If you have your own blog, please share your food thanks story and put the link on the AgChat Foundation’s Food Thanks linkup!
• If you do not have your own blog, take a little time and put some thoughts together (even better if your thoughts include images!) you can send me an email to jplovescotton at janiceperson dot com (trying to make it so not too many spammers pick it up if you know what I mean!)